The Girl in HR

They rarely play a straight bat but they are ubiquitous so you have to take notice when the TV news tell you that the job market is getting tough.  It’s getting harder for people who already have jobs, more difficult for those looking for jobs, and damn near impossible for older people in the workforce to stay there.  Nobody needs TV to tell us what's going on, but there is an uncomfortable comfort in media confirmation of our less favourable fears.

They say, that if you have a job, you’ll be working longer hours.  They say that if you don’t have a job, you’ll be spending longer trying to get one.  If you’re around the age of 40 and looking for a change of direction . . . good luck with that.  If you’re over fifty looking for something new, forget about it.  No matter how much of a "silver fox" you think you are, you’ll be pushing it all sideways and upwards to get your CV past the girls in HR.  If you're not sexy, get on welfare.

Employment is yet another one of those vital social organs, those sphinx-like edifices, being rapidly dissolved by the desert storm of adolescent vanity.  At least so it would seem from the perspective of job seekers.   It must be galling for an experienced senior professional to have their CV vetted, their credentials picked over, their remaining career years held dangling in the magnificently sculpted fingernails of the girl in HR.