Ageism.

Seeing as 80% of deaths due to Covid 19 are in the over 65 age group I guess we can expect some kind of discrimination.
But it was a bit of a surprise this morning to hear that commercial TV channels at least (no word from the BBC as yet), are not going to be selecting any member of the public over 65 for inclusion in any of their reality/competition shows such as Bakeoff etc. The reason given is that it's for their own protection due to the extended close proximity to dozens of young production staff who could be carrying the virus. That and expensive insurance considerations and postponing costs if any contestant has to be isolated..

I think this may be the thin end of the wedge for us oldies...
Al.

rogerblack wrote:Interesting!
I wonder if that means they'll also ditch older presenters, such as Prue Leith (who's 80)?

Apparently (well according to the Mail) they can't get insurance for Prue so the whole production team are isolating together for 6 weeks.

I went for a job interview at BACS when I was 31 yrs old. I was well qualified for it with loads of experience
Interviewer: " I see from your CV that you are 31. Don't you think that is a bit old for this job?"
Me: "Goodbye."

You wonder if interviewers ever read your CV before they invite you for an interview. I had been working in a very specific area in R&D in Telecomms for 11 years. I filled in the application form for British Aerospace in Portsmouth. I included all of my qualifications. I got an interview for precisely the work I had been doing for the last 11 years. At the interview the chap said "you haven't put any details of your degree here" I said "that is because I haven't got a degree. BT who I was working for regard Final City and Guilds as equivalent to a degree."
"Well you can't do this job if you haven't got a degree"
I said " You might not be able to, but I can, and have, for the last 11 years. Ask me some technical questions that are degree level"
He said "You need a degree to do this job. We don't employ people without a degree"
I got rather upset and said "Well your advertisement writers, your job description writers and your candidate selectors all need to go away and get a job that they are competent to do. Nowhere in the job advertisement did it say a degree is required, the job description writer didn't mention a degree and the candidate selector saw that I haven't got a degree. Where do I collect my travelling expenses?"
"We don't pay travelling expenses". I was unemployed at the time and had to travel 300 miles at my own expense to attend their incompetent company.

Must ask. Who/what is BACS? It’s not the payment process I assume.

I applied for a job driving for a couple of motor factor companies. I though after meany years in the motor trade they would welcome some one that had an idea of what they were delivering.
To my shock I was told twice that at sixty I was too old for the job. I could have gone back to agency work in the new car compounds at basic pay as and when I was needed. 
I could have fought back but didnt have the heart to bother. Having a couple of pensions to fall back on and limited outgoings I gave up and retired or as my daughter said I just stopped working.

I once applied for a trainee building Survayors job and after going through all the relevant questions, qualifications etc, I was finally asked how old I was. When I said I had just turned 18, I was told, sorry, you are too old. That apparently was the law with local authorities at that time.

My husband was one of the first to go from Marconi and then became redundant twice more, the last time at 55yrs.  He then worked as a physics technician in the local Grammar school where he felt valued by staff and pupils alike and, although not so remunerative, he thoroughly enjoyed his time there.

I took voluntary redundancy at 48 as the politics in my unit suddenly went sour. I applied for hundreds of jobs; had interviews from Newcastle to Brighton and many points in between but no offers. After 3 years out of work I took a temp job running the wholesale sales operation for a local Christmas tree grower. That job ended at New Year and I went as a temp customer service adviser at a contract hire vehicle management company, part of Lloyds TSB. Within a week they offered me a permanent role.
After a couple of years they announced the closure of our site and desparate to avoid redundancy again I took up the offer to become a redeployment consultant with LTSB HR. This is soul destroying work, for all sorts of reasons but the job kept on being upgraded so I climbed the slippery pole once again. I lasted 5 years, but in the end asked if I could leave and retired at 58.
I can't say those 10 years were happy times and I still consider that the job I left originally was the best, most influential and satisfying I've ever done and can never forgive those who conspired to get me to leave.

Bobskate wrote:Must ask. Who/what is BACS? It’s not the payment process I assume.

Bankers Automated Clearing Services, sorry I should have said. As soon as I saw the building I knew I didn't want the job anyway. It was in Edgeware. Now how on earth can one take a job in Edgeware if you don't already live there? You can't afford anything, and if you try and commute from somewhere you can afford you have to go into a mainline station and then an hour clattering up the Northern Line to get there. The building had no car park and there were double yellow lines everywhere.
The security was impressive though, you entered the computer room via a double trap door affair that weighed you. Noted the weight so you should weigh the same when you left - or it would assume you had secreted something about your person. Easily overcome - just take in a heavy but dissolvable lump of dough in your pocket, flush it away in the loo, pocket a secret hard disk that weighs the same and walk out.