November 16, 2021, by Lindsay Wincherauk
DISCLAIMER
This is a work of Fiction
Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the
products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A weeklong deluge. An arc is needed. Communities are underwater. Bridges washed
away. Store shelves barren. An atmospheric apocalypse slams into British Columbia,
tragically washing away lives in massive unavoidable slides.
How are we going to survive?
This came after unscrupulous companies used the shade of a once-in-a-century
pandemic to toss senior employees into the trash bin as if their contributions for
decades were nothing more than an exploitable service. The unscrupulous owners of
many of these companies have left precious people, who are later in their career lives,
teetering on a precipice of disaster. They don’t care. Why would they? The only thing
mattering to them is ego and greed.
The number of people over the age of 55 participating in the
workforce is down by 2 million, compared to pre-pandemic
levels. The Great Recession of 2008 didn't even result in this
massive loss of senior, experienced workers.
What's worse is “many older workers that lost jobs during
the pandemic won't be back.” During the dark, early months
of the outbreak, over 20 million Americans lost their jobs in a
few months. As the economy tortuously tried to claw back
jobs over the last 10 months, the United States has added “2.7
million jobs for workers under the age of 55” since August
and a meagre 28,000 people over 55 years of age and older.
(This quotation has been edited to remove egregious grammatical
errors. Translation, I'm a better writer than the Forbes writer).
FORBES |OLDER WORKERS ARE BEING PUSHED OUT OF THE
JOB MARKET|
For many of these workers, especially those who’ve faced years of exploitation from
greed-addled owners, being kicked to the curb late in career life is a death sentence. If
an older worker does not come from entitlement, many find their options for a future
drying up, leaving them fearing for their lives as they find their meagre savings running
dry. For a worker who needed a few more years to get his financial house in order to
survive later in life—losing their career at 50... 55... or even 60... is like hammering
nails into that person's coffin; filling their lives with stress and hopelessness.
ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE |OLDER WORKERS, WERE DEVASTATED BY THE PANDEMIC DOWNTURN AND CONTINUE TO FACE ADVERSE EMPLOYMENT OUTCOMES|
This is not hyperbole; this is a harsh reality many valuable individuals are facing. In a
perfect world, the companies that cast these individuals to the side would have
implemented measures to ensure people don’t fall through society’s cracks as they find
their lives unravelling, with depression knocking on the door, homelessness following
closely behind, and with homelessness comes desperation and death.
This is not drama. This is a reality for many.
You’d think the companies, well, they really don’t care, the once-in-a-century pandemic
allowed them to fatten their wallets, with little regard for the human cost.
And, as a result, a lost demographic of hopelessness has been created. One person (who
prefers to remain anonymous) told me he’s hanging on, just barely. He’s terrified if a
lottery win doesn’t come in or some other miracle, he’ll be reduced to eating Instant
Noodles. Next, he’s afraid he’ll be lining up for food stamps, + fighting for dry spaces
outside to live out the winter—he says if it comes to that, the company may as well just
put a bullet in his head.
Another individual, named Jim, said he lost his work due to COVID. Jim is 66. He had
worked his whole life. Jim desperately tried to see the silver lining and refused to be
deterred. Jim sent out countless resumes, even landing a few interviews. Jim had no
call-backs. Finally, at one of the interviews, the twenty-three-year-old interviewer asked
him, “What are you doing here? Nobody wants new hires your age.”
Jim said he walked out of the interview, collapsed to the ground, and started weeping.
The humiliation was crushing him.
Jim managed to land a job working with seventeen-year-olds at a diner. He says the
depression this has created, is devastating, and he hopes the good lord comes for him
soon.
Jim used to work for a company that is now expanding and profiting immensely from
cutting senior employees and their hefty paycheques. Covid allowed his former boss to
cut Jim without paying him out a single dime.
Jim says it’s not the humiliation of working for peanuts that lay him in depression the
most. Jim says what’s killing him is he cannot see how he’ll ever afford a vacation, ride
in a car, or new clothes, ever again.
Word on the street is his old boss started another company.
Is Jim bitter?
Sure, who wouldn’t be, but more so, Jim is just sad.
A SOCIETY IN SHAMBLES
With Covid still raging, hopefully soon to be under control. And with a tsunami of
water, mud, trees, destroying homes + fracturing lives + even ending the lives of many
British Columbians—some are profiting greatly, while many are attempting to pick up
the pieces of their lives.
I was shamefully oblivious to last week’s devastation. I went for walks on Saturday +
Sunday in downtown Vancouver. Sure, I got wet, but nothing more. On Tuesday, I
headed out to do research and read. I'm one of the older workers who found themselves
on the outside looking in. I'm scared like many others. But I have this burning desire to
make a difference, and fortunately for me, I write. I create. And I have a desire to be the
one sixty-plus-year-old who defies the odds and is discovered at this stage of life.
Is this a pipe dream?
I don't have a pipe.
Anyway, back to Tuesday, when I left my home, the rain warning lifted, and the sky
cleared. I barely got wet. After doing two hours of research, I ventured out again only to be greeted by a blast of wind. A friend texted me.
You should get down to Sunset Beach, a barge has washed ashore.
Another crisp blast slammed into me; I met a friend for a pop. We discussed the rain +
wind. When I returned home, my building’s door, message board, elevator, elevator
entrance had all been plastered with photos of a middle-aged (55ish) woman who
somehow got into the building and was found sleeping in a stairwell. The posters were
littered with ALLCAPS highlighting the responsibility of every resident to be diligent
and to stop the festering rot of desperation from leaking into our building. How could
we allow such a disgusting person into our building? - may not have been written, but
it was implied.
The following day, a notice expressing the same need for vigilantism was thrust under
every door. Of course, mainly in ALLCAPS.
Although, I agree it is important to keep buildings secure and safe. And we can’t just let
people roam in off the street. At the same time, I looked at the photo of the lady; she’s
no threat to anyone. Perhaps, she’s a Covid job loss casualty. What I saw in the picture is a
broken individual, suffering, barely holding on. You can’t walk a block without seeing
it, addiction, mental health issues, hopelessness. I feel when buildings or companies
dehumanize individuals, they play a substantial role in destroying the fabrics of society.
Everyone is not lucky enough to come from privilege and entitlement. If you are, be
grateful. But, as you are trying desperately to convince yourself, you worked hard for
everything you have, disregarding your advantage with delusion; wouldn’t it be
prudent to accept your role in creating the suffering and find a way to trip out of your
ego and make a difference instead of just finding ways to pick the pockets of those in
despair, stealing their last shreds of hope?
Maybe the entitlement for some is so great, they never have to worry about falling
through the cracks. They’re lucky. But for many, this once-in-a-century pandemic isn’t
going to kill them by contracting the virus. What’s going to kill many is the disgusting
diseases of greed and ego.
I looked at the picture of the terrified lady again. I felt a rush of compassion. It was
quickly swallowed by depression once I realized if I do not find a way to crack open the
right door of discovery, one day, in the not-too-distant future, I'll be eating Instant
Noodles (dry) and looking for an open the door to find a dry place to sleep.
If that day arrives, RIP.
Oh yeah, back to being oblivious about the storm’s destruction. While I wondrously
looked at the barge washed ashore at Sunset beach, I gasped. It was only when I turned
on the news that I realized how lucky I am to have a warm place to live (for now), and
that Vancouver’s only real upset was a barge washed ashore on Sunset Beach.
The coming soon stories humanize individuals who some companies saw only as
dollars, not human beings. They show these lost souls in all of their damaged glory.
They highlight that these people deserve to be treated with respect instead of being
treated like expendable garbage.
A rich man came and raped the land
Nobody caught him
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes
And Jesus, people bought them.
THE EAGLES |THE LAST RESORT|