Hiring seniors
APROPOSAL to require businesses to hire senior citizens is being drafted by our city council. The time for public discourse is now. I am all for supporting the well-being of the elderly but I am completely against compelling the business sector (under pain of penalty like revocation of business license) to fill in a certain percentage of their work force with senior citizens.
This goes against the spirit of free enterprise. Legislation should not cripple businesses from making sound business decisions. And one of the most important decisions businesses have to make is hiring the right people.
To mandate that 10 percent of one’s work force be filled with senior citizens is a form of affirmative action that has no place in Filipino society.
Affirmative action is action taken to favor members of a particular group perceived to suffer from discrimination in a particular culture.
The elderly do not suffer from discrimination in our society. They are, in fact, culturally and socially revered as shown by the Filipino tradition of inter-generational cohabitation. In addition, in almost all offices, private or public, senior citizens are given priority in transacting business.
The point of affirmative action is to compensate for past discrimination, persecution and exploitation of a particular group by a ruling class in a culture. Do we have a history of elderly persecution? I don’t believe so.
The goal of affirmative action is to promote nondiscrimination. When the government mandates that 10 percent of every organization’s work force be filled by senior citizens, then the rest of the citizens are actually discriminated against.
A 25-year old, for instance, would not get a job she or he is qualified for if the company has to fill their 10 percent quota of senior citizens. Why would our government want to promote this type of discriminatory practice not only in the private but in the public sector as well?
If government wishes to encourage businesses to hire the elderly, it should give businesses incentive to do so but it should NOT penalize businesses for NOT doing so. This is a simple management concept. Positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement.
Government should realize that it is neither practical nor possible to hire senior citizens across all types of businesses and industries.
I’m going to become a senior citizen one day too. And it would be foolish of me to think that for as long as I can do my job, I should never be replaced or retired. The more relevant question really is, can I still do the job efficiently and effectively? Or, can someone else do it better than me? I accept the mental as well as physical limits of aging. And I promise to go gracefully.
But who says I can no longer be productive when I no longer receive a paycheck? For as long as I can, I intend to continue working—with or without a paycheck. There are so many avenues for productivity in society at any age. So perish the thought that the well-being of the elderly cannot be promoted when they retire from the formal work force of society.
If you wish to be productive, you can be. And I promise to be just that till the day I drop dead.