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These companies are just trying to distribute their world-wide competition pressure out of their cold heart. They shouldn’t have kill loyal high-performer off, but from time to time, they did! And most old-time employees don’t see this coming until it’s too late.

So for everyone who still has it, they should start to save big, be frugal in live, do some serious investing or do whatever to keep your feet standing when the pilars of monthly paychecks are crumbling down.

J.C. Carvill
Email: support@cosmosing.com
URL: http://www.cosmosing.com/jeanclaudecarvill/index.php

I agree with you, MBH. Whilst it is sad, it is true. It is solely our responsibility to make sure we do not get trod upon like this.

Taco could have done better, but they are in business for making money, period.

I have made it my passion that my children develop their plans B, C, D and E, so that they shall never get themselves in this unfortunate lady’s position.

John: The post applies to people of any age really, but especially to younger employees who are in a better position to do something about it. Everyone can do something, but if you have more time (as in you’re younger) you have more options.

grapeshot: I wasn’t intending to be mean. Ms. Shilson’s work ethic is clearly not in question, and it is a shame that the company fired her unceremoniously as it did. But she’s hardly a victim. She was on notice for over a year with her performance reviews, according to the article. Hindsight is 20-20 but there was writing on the wall, and it came into focus not suddenly, but gradually. On another point, I do agree and understand that it is a lot easier for some people to find the time to invest in themselves than for others. But in the end, this doesn’t matter. You’ve either invested in yourself or you haven’t. It’s more inexcusable to have 3 to 4 hours a night and fill it with TV than it is to have only an hour a night, but you still have that hour. Or that 30 minutes. Or whatever. This may be harsh, but I don’t think it’s mean. It’s accurate.

Norma: I agree that it’s not Ms. Shilson’s fault that times have changed. But the times did change. How people weather the changes they are subject to — in the service sector, in retail, in tech, in finance, wherever — depends on how they react to them, how well they’ve prepared, and how clearly they see the changes coming. If a change flattens someone like a steamroller, might part of it be that they heard the steamroller coming but chose to ignore it?

Also, it’s not a matter of what’s en vogue with career management as much as it is realizing that everyone absolutely has to do this for themselves. Letting the company you work for manage your career — as it looks like Ms. Shilson did — is simply not enough. It’s more like asking a wolf to shepherd your sheep, actually.

Winnie will probably be replaced by a much younger employee in better health at a starting wage much less than Winnie’s $45K p/year.

A reminder – no employee is “given” medical insurance or benefits. Once your employment ends, however, an employee does have the opportunity to remain on the company’s medical insurance policy via COBRA – where the employee pays for the medical insurance out-of-pocket at the same rate as the employer.

The good news, however, is that there are not enough younger workers to replace the baby boomers who will be retiring over the next 20 years – so it is possible that those baby boomers who don’t wish to retire won’t need to do so. That said, the older workers will still face market place competition from younger workers who are in better health who don’t have the same higher salary demands/needs as the older workers.

According to the economists, it is the genXers who were born in 1964 and beyond who won’t be getting social security or medicare insurance. So, what does that mean for someone like me who was born in November 1963? Will I need to work until the day I die because there is no other option? Will there even be a job for me? What will happen if social security is bankrupt, my savings are exhausted, and no jobs available for a 75 year old woman?

When Winnie Shilson was hired at the restaurant Zantigo in 1977, it was during a time where not only were you expected to work at a single company for decades, but women in the workplace was nowhere near as common or acceptable. Doubly so for working mothers.

Back then, employees and employers were expected to forge a nearly lifelong relationship – an employee started at the bottom and worked their way up. An employer was expected to provide job security, and they expected their employees to provide long-term loyalty. Winnie Shilson did it like it was done then.

It’s only recently in this age of information technology that it is even acceptable to job hop as much and as frequently as we do. Job security is a laugh, and neither employee nor employer can expect any kind of long term loyalty.

It’s not Winnie Shilson’s fault that times have changed, and it’s a little absurd to expect that she would have kept abreast of (or cared about) the current en vogue in career management. She believed she was only six or seven years from retirement. After 30 years at a single company, that’s the home stretch. Who in her position would expect this?

Don’t use Winnie Shilson as an example for your lesson on how we should expect employers to treat their employees like shit. It’s not difficult to find examples of technology companies who are wringing what they can out of people for the lowest wage possible, making millions of dollars from their creativity and skills, then laying them off when the going gets remotely tough.