Yes, I'm Still Working

Digital art collage by Stella Kalaw

I ran into my friend Pierre the other day. It’d been a while. He’s a cameraman with the CBC and he’s often on assignment.

“Are you still working?” he asked after we’d dispensed with the pleasantries. It’s the equivalent of the question “What do you do?” that you get when you’re younger.

I am not younger but my image of myself is not old, despite older ladies offering me their seats on the bus irritatingly frequently. They must have cataracts, I tell myself.

I have always said I would never retire. My father and grandfather worked well into their eighties, and they ascribed continuing to work as the key to their longevity. I like working and always have. As a boy, I couldn’t wait to grow up and get a job.

I shovelled snow in the neighbourhood. I mowed lawns. I cleaned swimming pools. I taught skiing. I became a junior entrepreneur because I was too young to hire. When I was old enough, I started a real job as soon as I could. Jobs at the university pub. Jobs in retail. Jobs delivering pizza and then delivering bread. I liked the money and the responsibility and feeling I was a grown-up. 

Now life is intent on retiring me despite my wish to work. I will not go there without a fight, raging against the dying of the light that still shines brightly inside me.

I did two stints teaching marketing at the local university, the last one just last year. It was perfect for someone near the end of his career with all the experience necessary to pass on his acquired wisdom.

I was working and contributing meaningfully to society. That gig ended when I turned 71. You could no longer be full-time at 71. You could be part-time and teach the same number of courses for approximately the same amount of money. But I had no seniority in the part-time union so, ironically, I was simultaneously too old to be full-time and too young to be part-time.

Undeterred, I began looking for work for which I was qualified, actually in many cases very much over-qualified. I figured a job that was not too taxing was appropriate for a young old man like me. While I did my best to divert attention from my age, it was clear, nevertheless, especially in online applications that required you to specify the dates of your degrees and your experience. I was long in the tooth; there was no denying it.

Next, I was determined to drum up business from some of my old or dormant clients. Those who weren’t dead were retired themselves. They seemed to be travelling incessantly by the looks of their Facebook and Instagram pages.

I am a communications guy, and so I was meticulous in looking for jobs in that sector where my experience and wisdom would, I thought, be worthy of a premium in compensation. Where the job required two years of experience, I had 40. But wisdom be damned, employers weren’t employing simple copywriters or project manager, they required skills in SEO, coding, AI and other areas where I could not claim competence. In many cases I didn’t even know what the initials stood for. I was yesterday’s man, in Staples, looking for typewriter ribbons.

I actually understand the reticence of my potential employers. How does a team of forty-year-olds successfully integrate a seventy-year-old into the team? Oh, I forgot: not integrating but onboarding to use the parlance of the day. How do you manage someone 30 years older than you with 30 years more experience than you have?

They say if you can’t beat them join them, so I went to Chat GPT and asked: “I am an older professional looking for work. How should I go about it?

ChatGPT, in a surprisingly empathetic manner, replied: “Searching for work as an older professional comes with its own set of challenges, but with the right approach, you can increase your chances of success. Remember that finding the right opportunity might take time, so be patient and persistent. Use your experience as a valuable asset and showcase how it can benefit prospective employers.”

This last piece of advice struck me as equivalent to the answer to mastering the art of ventriloquism, which is to talk without moving your lips.

Nevertheless, the encouraging statement was followed by a 12-item checklist. Update your skills, network, stay positive, and so on.  

So that’s what I’m working on now, going through the list, and when I get asked if I’m still working, I say, “Yes, working to stay working and going through that 12-item list I got from ChatGPT.”

“What are you up to?”