a longevity project virtual panel discussion
May 27, 2020
OLDER WORKERS AND THE LESSONS OF THE PANDEMIC
Age discrimination, inadequate training opportunities, working while managing health conditions and disabilities, and balancing caregiving responsibilities with work are among the main challenges facing older workers. It takes longer for displaced workers over 50 to find new jobs, and when they do, they often have to accept substantially reduced pay. All these challenges existed before coronavirus, but with 36.5 million newly unemployed workers, the challenges facing older workers are now particularly acute. Journalist Ray Suarez recently wrote in the Washington Post of the challenges he is having finding work and paying bills in this economy, and accurately predicted that he would “soon have plenty of company.”
On May 27, 2020, the Longevity Project, in collaboration with the Stanford Center on Longevity, held a virtual panel discussion on Older Workers and the Lessons of the Pandemic to discuss challenges faced by older workers in the current environment, and what society and leading companies can do to address the problem. The panelists included journalist Ray Suarez; Scott Frisch, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AARP; and Johnna Torsone, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Pitney Bowes.
Perspective | I clung to the middle class as I aged. The pandemic pulled me under.
We were on a busy D.C. street, waiting for the light to change, when my teenage daughter asked, out of nowhere, "Dad, what are you afraid of?" That might have been a cue for a heartwarming father-daughter conversation about overcoming life's challenges. Nope.