“Boomers Won’t Retire” — Frustrated Employee Says Elderly Co-Worker’s Ruining Promotion Chances

A Reddit user is blaming their inability to get promoted at a company on an elderly employee who refuses to retire. In a post uploaded to the site's r/antiwork sub, the user, who goes by @unique_glove1105 says that the 71-year-old "boomer" employee in question has been in the same role for 19 years.

Conversely, they're 36 years old and have been "waiting for any upward movement for almost 5 years." According to them, the boomer co-worker has been saying that they'll retire "next year" each and every year that they work. The trouble is that they've been making this promise since before OP even joined the company.

Furthermore, the Redditor mentioned that they understand why their co-worker may want to keep working. They shared how the man's wife ended up getting cancer in 2019, and that he had to spend a lot of his savings on her healthcare costs.

OP also added that from other anecdotes they've heard and seen, "there's a massive bottleneck happening" in higher positions at companies, which prevents younger workers from getting promoted to better-paying roles with more responsibilities.

"What am I supposed to do? Just wait until I'm 40 for my first promotion?" they asked. Additionally, they maligned those who didn't save enough money for retirement and believe that younger workers such as themselves are suffering as a result.

The Reddit user went on to highlight that more and more elderly people are working in order to make ends meet. This analysis has been echoed by various outlets, such as Time, Fortune, and Gusto. In three separate pieces by the aforementioned outlets, statistics indicate that older people are staying in the workforce.

Time references the fact that, since birth rates are declining and people are living longer than they historically have, folks are staying in their positions for longer. The other elephant in the room is that inflation in the United States has long outpaced overall salary increases, which cuts into the value of people's paychecks over time.

And it's a rapid change, too. Gusto penned that since 2019, the number of employees who are above the age of 65 across various industries has jumped by 50 percent.

The dire economic straits people are finding themselves in have, according to the Redditor, forced people with a ton of experience to take on entry-level positions. "My cousin just graduated with an engineering degree ... took her 8 months to find something and it pays 58k in a city where rent is like 2k minimum," they penned.

Compounding their cousin's difficulty in finding a job, they say, is that folks "with 30 years experience who got laid off are now applying to 'entry level' roles just to have something."

The entire situation has filled OP with a sense of dread about the future. "The thing that really kills me is we're told to save for retirement constantly. Put money in your 401k! Max your Roth! Compound interest!" they penned.

However, they said that because they can't seem to get a promotion at their job, they aren't going to be able to save a considerable amount of money. Which, in turn, means that they're going to have to work past retirement eligibility, subsequently becoming the very employee that they currently have a grievance with.

"It's just a cycle and it sucks and I don't know what the solution is honestly," they wrote on the sub. And they aren't the only person to talk about being stuck in a job that won't issue promotions. CNBC published a piece that speaks to the "job hopping" phenomenon.

In August of 2022, they highlighted how one employee managed to increase their annual salary by $50,000 after switching "three jobs in three years." The idea is simple: Companies may append a wage ceiling to existing employees. And it's up to workers to recognize when that ceiling's been hit and that they should move on to another business to maximize their earning potential.

The idea is that already employed people are more desirable candidates and can leverage their existing salaries for a more attractive offer at another corporation. The Muse also uploaded a piece about job hopping, and folks on this Glassdoor forum also discussed the potential benefits of moving to different businesses.

So maybe the Redditor, while they still have a job, can try refreshing their resume and look for greener employment pastures.