Business
‘Discarded like a used tissue’: Readers on ageism forcing over-50s out
Age discrimination is rife in the workplace, Independent readers say, after new ONS figures showed unemployment rising and vacancies falling.
Readers said the lack of jobs was hitting older people hard with those in their 50s and 60s finding themselves “discarded like a used tissue” after decades of loyal service.
Some described spiralling into depression and experiencing financial strain after redundancy, while others said they had been forced to take low-paid or part-time work stacking shelves despite years of professional experience.
Several blamed cost-cutting managers who see older employees as “expensive” and “outdated,” arguing this short-sighted approach sacrifices skills, mentorship and productivity.
Others said companies’ obsession with cheap labour and short-term profits has left them struggling to rebuild teams.
A number of readers have turned to early retirement or self-employment out of necessity, only to find both solutions exhausting and precarious.
While a few spoke of eventually finding rewarding work, most painted a bleak picture of insecurity, lost confidence and wasted experience – a generation of “old horses” who feel written off before their time.
Here’s what you had to say:
Discarded after 30 years
My wife worked for the same company for 30 years. She was then discarded like a used tissue purely because she earned too much.
This led to four years of agony for us as she spiralled into depression and heavy drinking, which almost led to the break-up of our relationship. I was angry because she had given most of her life to the company. Her experience and skills were completely disregarded. After a year of job hunting, she ended up in a local supermarket, which she hated.
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Luckily, she had a private pension, which meant she could retire. I had, and still have, a relatively well-paid job which keeps us comfortable. I have every sympathy with those who are finding the adjustment difficult. Never give up, though. Something will turn up.
Belittling
At 62, I have never qualified for unemployment benefit when I was made redundant three times and always had private unemployment insurance. I was last let go three years ago. I had a stint as self-employed, where the exploitation was simply unbelievable.
I attended job interviews where I was told I was too senior/over-qualified for the roles. I had quite a few offers of paid work two days a week, but in reality had to be on-call throughout the week for no extra compensation. Could have worked for free, sorry, “volunteered,” doing exactly the same job as before, so I politely declined. Eventually, I made the decision to start drawing my very modest deferred council pension and to enjoy life with considerably fewer material things. It’s tough, but I am getting used to it.
The exploitation and belittling of my generation when applying for roles can destroy one’s self-confidence and mental health, which I experienced firsthand. I refuse to transfer my hard-earned skills to stack shelves at supermarkets.
Our kids will see no inheritance
I went through my first redundancy at 45 and found my next job after eight months. The second redundancy was at 55, and it took 18 months to find a job. The third redundancy was at 63, and after seven months I found a contract job that ended two months after my 65th birthday. Now unemployed, on the dole, I am waiting for November when my state pension kicks in, carefully using some of the funds in my private pension.
Our kids will likely see little to no inheritance, which is probably okay given it would have been taxed to worthlessness. When we have to move to a managed care facility and sell the house, that’ll finish off any money we have.
This country MUST pass an age discrimination law banning employers from only hiring younger workers OR face the oblivion of costs!
Older workers are more expensive
It has always been more difficult for older workers. If they aspire to stay within their field of work, an older worker is more experienced and therefore more expensive, and if they move to pastures new, they are regarded (usually wrongly) as more of a risk, less adaptable, and harder to train.
By the same token, many of the complaints from younger workers about finding it hard to get that all-important first job are horribly familiar from when I was job hunting for the first time 40 years ago. There’s a lot of panic about jobs, but despite the disruptive impact of AI, I’m not convinced there’s anything much new here.
Listen to us old horses
I’m 57 and used to work in accounting, doing audits for chartered accountants. I’ve been pushing trolleys at Tesco and filling shelves and working the tills at Co-op for six years now.
Here’s some business advice from me: Cutting costs (i.e., wages) instead of increasing turnover with increased productivity leads to a decrease in value and quality of the product/service. It is false economy. The business folds. They sucked it dry – I saw so many young hotshot CEOs do this in my 30 years. Greed has, and always will, be around.
But they don’t take advice from us old ones anymore – we’re old horses that are outdated, expensive to feed, and a couple of steps away from being glue. I could be training a whole new bunch of finance staff, which could keep businesses going for the long haul, but instead I’m packing those shelves with your bread.
It’s scary out there
I’m 60 now. Just before Covid, my job was relocated to someone cheaper and younger in the EU. Then Covid hit and there weren’t interviews happening anywhere. Covid ate all my savings and settlement, and I finally found a job in a new industry on half the salary, although just for two years. Luckily, it gave me the experience to bounce into a better permanent role afterwards. I do not make anything like my old salary, but I have a great job that I enjoy… for now. It is scary out there. I’ve never been out of work before and I’m not sure if I could find a new role now.
Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.
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Scottish Greens will “call out the lies of big polluters”, co-leader Gillian Mackay said as she branded plans to develop the Rosebank oil field as “pure climate vandalism”.
Ms Mackay spoke out as demonstrators opposed to drilling the site gathered in London on Saturday.
Plans to develop the North Sea field – which is estimated to contain up to 300 million barrels of oil – have been submitted again by owners Equinor.
However, Ms Mackay told the Scottish Green Party conference in Edinburgh: “We have to be the party that calls out the lies of big polluters.”
Ms Mackay, who was elected co-leader with fellow MSP Ross Greer in August, told her fellow Scottish Greens: “Drilling for new oil and gas in fields like Rosebank will do nothing to lower energy bills or protect our planet.
“It is pure climate vandalism and we have to stop Rosebank.”
Development of the oil field, which lies 80 miles west of Shetland, had been approved by the Conservative government in 2023 but that decision was challenged in the courts in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling which said the emissions created from burning fossil fuels should be considered when granting permission for new drilling sites.
Her comments came as Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, insisted the UK is “one of the most nature depleted countries in the world”.
Addressing protesters in London, Mr Polanski said: “The very least this Government need to do is to stop making things worse.”
Ms Mackay also used her conference speech to hit out at the UK Government over the closure of Scotland’s only oil refinery in Grangemouth.
Hundreds of jobs were lost after owners Petroineos closed the refinery earlier this year, with Ms Mackay, who grew up in the area saying: “I’m sick of governments and corporations using tags like ‘just transition’ as a cheap slogan.
“What happened in Grangemouth is not a just transition.
“Our communities don’t need empty words, words don’t pay the bills, or put food on the table.
“They need real plans to provide real jobs and real opportunities.”
Ms Mackay insisted: “That site could have been saved. Labour promised to save it – they promised £200 million – and the message from the workers is clear: show us the money.”
She said that the Grangemouth plant “could have been nationalised”, adding: “We cannot leave the future of our communities in the hands of billionaires who are all too happy to abandon us when the money dries up.”
With the Scottish Greens having set the target of overtaking Labour in May’s Holyrood ballot, Ms Mackay said her party was “on the verge of a historic election” with the “chance to elect more green voices than ever before”.
She also told how the birth of her first child, Callan, in June meant she had “never felt more committed to building a greener Scotland”.
She joked that she was speaking at Saturday’s conference “in relatively one piece, without too much baby dribble on me” as she said the Green model, with two co-leaders at the helm, had allowed her to take on the challenge.
“In other parties there would have been a whole load of barriers to a new mum being elected to a leadership role,” Ms Mackay said.
“It is only because of our co-leadership model and the support of ordinary members, I have been afforded this opportunity.”
She continued: “The support I have had says something about our party and the values we stand for.
“When I think about the country I want us to be, it is one where we support each other, one where we lift each other up and one where we do things differently.”
New Delhi: Zoho’s Chief Scientist and Co-founder Sridhar Vembu on Saturday agreed with former IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath, regarding the huge economic bubble in the US stock market.
Vembu said that a systemic event like the global financial crisis of 2008-9 cannot be ruled out.
Zoho’s founder responded on social media platform X to Gopinath’s warning saying, “I agree with Dr Gita Gopinath. The US stock market is in a clear and massive bubble. The degree of leverage in the system means that we cannot rule out a systemic event like the global financial crisis of 2008.”
Vembu also warned that the gold price trend is indicative of a systemic financial risk.
“Gold is also flashing a big warning signal. I don’t think of gold as an investment, I think of it as insurance against systemic financial risk. Ultimately finance is all about trust and when debt levels reach this high, trust breaks down. I am sure AI will work hard to repay all the debt in the system,” his X post read.
His post tagged Gopinath’s warning which said that global exposure “to US equities is at record levels.”
“A stock market correction would have more severe and global consequences as compared to what followed the dot-com crash. The tariff wars and lack of fiscal space compounds the problem,” Gopinath said.
She urged for higher growth and returns across more countries and regions instead of a focus on the US, adding that the underlying problem is not “unbalanced trade” but “unbalanced growth”.
Earlier in the month, Gopinath said that US President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals acted as a tax on US consumers, raised inflation, and had no benefit to the American economy.
Last Updated:
SIP (Systematic Investment Plan), TIP (Term Insurance Plan), and HIP (Health Insurance Plan) together create a balanced mix of growth, protection, and security.
Experts suggest maintaining an emergency fund covering 3-6 months of expenses.
In today’s fast-paced and stressful world, achieving financial stability early in life is crucial. Experts say that by the age of 30, everyone should aim to have a strong foundation in three key areas – SIP (Systematic Investment Plan), TIP (Term Insurance Plan), and HIP (Health Insurance Plan). Together, these create a balanced mix of growth, protection, and security.
Rakesh Bhandari, director at Nirmal Bang, said, “This should be done carefully and very smartly so that your retirement life is spent in the right way.”
In Your 30s? Build Your ‘SIP-TIP-HIP’ Foundation
Your 30s are the decade when most major financial goals, such as buying a home, planning for children’s education, and preparing for retirement, begin to take shape. Setting up this three-pillar framework early helps you grow wealth, safeguard income, and protect against rising health costs without unnecessary complexity.
1. SIP: Systematic Investment Plan for Long-Term Growth
A SIP helps you invest regularly in equity mutual funds, enabling rupee-cost averaging and the power of compounding over time.
Why it matters: Long-term investments in Indian large-cap equities (like the Nifty 50 TRI) have historically delivered double-digit annualised returns. Multiple rolling-return studies (1992-2024) show that the longer you stay invested, the lower your chances of negative returns. While past performance is not a guarantee, time in the market, not timing the market, has consistently worked in investors’ favour.
Smart move: “Start small but stay consistent. Increase your SIP amount by 5-10% every year in line with salary hikes. This ‘step-up SIP’ strategy can significantly boost your corpus compared to a flat SIP,” said Bhandari.
Action cue: Pick an amount you can sustain even during market downturns and automate the investment for discipline.
2. TIP: Term Insurance Plan for Income Protection
A Term Insurance Plan (TIP) ensures your family’s financial stability if something unexpected happens to you.
Why start in your 30s: Premiums are lowest when you’re young and healthy. You can also lock in a long coverage period that spans your peak earning years.
How much cover: A general rule is to have coverage worth 10-15 times your annual income, adjusted for loans and future goals. Online insurance calculators can help fine-tune the number.
What it does: Provides a safety net so your family’s lifestyle, education, and long-term financial goals stay intact even in your absence.
Action cue: “Opt for a pure term plan, avoid investment-linked policies. Choose adequate coverage and a tenure that extends beyond your working life and your children’s education years,” Bhandari added.
3. HIP: Health Insurance Plan for Rising Medical Costs
Health insurance is your shield against medical inflation, which continues to rise sharply in India.
The reality: Government data shows health inflation averaging around 4-5% annually, while industry studies suggest actual medical cost inflation is often in the low to mid-teens. With nearly 46-47% of health expenses still paid out-of-pocket, a single hospitalisation can derail your savings.
What to buy: A family floater plan with adequate sum insured, restoration benefits, day-care coverage, and a no-claim bonus. As your income grows, enhance protection with a super top-up plan.
Action cue: “Buy early. You’ll pay lower premiums, complete waiting periods sooner, and stay protected as lifestyle-related health risks rise,” Bhandari said.
How the Trio Works Together
- SIP builds wealth for long-term goals.
- TIP safeguards those goals if your income stops unexpectedly.
- HIP prevents medical emergencies from eating into your investments.
Together, they create a balanced and resilient personal finance system.
Simple Hygiene Rules
Maintain an emergency fund covering 3-6 months of expenses.
Review your cover amounts annually, especially after salary hikes, new loans, or life changes.
Automate SIPs and insurance premiums so your protection never lapses.
Disclaimer:Disclaimer: The views and investment tips shared in this article are for general information purposes only. Readers are advised to consult a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h…Read More
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h… Read More
October 18, 2025, 16:14 IST
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