U—The Daily Collegian Friday, March 9, 1979
/Hike to be busy I'm busy all the time.'
Citizens unwilling to be relegated to stereotypes
By LINDA HOELZE
Daily Collegian Staff Writer
There are nearly 43 million disabled
Americans. ,These people are not
disabled in the conventional sense of
physical limitations but they have a
handicap that can be as much a hin
drance in trying to find a job they are
55 years old or older.
Many of these people are . not content to
play bingo, rock in a rocking chair or sit
'on a park bench and feed the pigeons for
the rest of their lives. Nor can most of
them financially afford these leisures.
At a time in their lives when most people
expect them to slowly fade out of the
work force many are instead looking for
jobs or never leaving them in the first
place.
Lois Sanderson of Philipsburg is a
typical example of a senior citizen in
Centre County who wants both to work
and is forced to work for financial
reasons. Sanderson, a widow who
recently celebrated her 60th birthday,
has worked now for seven months as an
aide at the Philipsburg Senior Citizens
Center. Before that, her only job had
been working as a secretary for three
years at a local television cable station.
Sanderson found her job through the
Senior Community Service Employment
Program, a county-wide program which
is administered through the Area
.Agency on Aging. The program is funded
by the government through Title IX of
the Older Americans Act and is designed
to help low-income persons 55 years old
or older find employment.
According to the program's director,
Val Brake, Sanderson is having
problems meeting her living expenses.
"The reason I'm working is I'm too
young for a pension," Sanderson said.
"I've exhausted my savings."
When Sanderson's husband died, their
home was paid for, but she faced
financial difficulties because 'she is too
young to draw Social Security and does
not receive any widow's pension.
Sanderson, however, only works 20
hours a week at the center at minimum
wage. This amounts to bringing home
little more than $5O a week. She again
has her application in at the Area
Agency on Aging hoping to find
something with a little higher pay.
The Senior Community Service
Employment Program, located in the
Willowbank Unit of the Centre Com
munity Hospital, is directed by Brake,
himself reaching the graying stage
evident in his salt and pepper beard.
Brake said the Centre County program
*C7. 4(-4v46:74410(240c;
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See our complete
line of school
supplies. Large
variety of items
to choose from.
PENN
ON CAMPUS Owned and operated by the Pennsylvania State University.
has been only moderately successful. He
has found jobs for 14 of the 44 elderly
involved in the program. Eight of these
14 positions are totally subsidized by
funds from the federal government.
Brake calls the program a "new
child," brought into the Area Agency on
Aging in April with a total budget of
$23,796. Ninety percent of this amount is
provided by the federal government
while the remaining 10 percent comes
from volunteer efforts supported by the
local government. The money is used for
subsidized jobs and salaries for the
people involved in the program.
"A man's years should not be counted until he has
nothing else to count."
Wfien Brake became director he
visited various employers in Centre
County to conduct a job survey of large
companies such as HRB Singer, Corning
Glass Works and the University and
small businesses with few employees,
such as the Pennsylvania Military
Museum and Cinemette Theaters.
Although he was able to get senior
citizens jobs in only two of the smallest
organizations, Brake said Centre County
employers do not discriminate against
older workers.
"Yeah, they're interested but the jobs
just are not there," Brake said.
He said the lack of jobs is because the
University dominates the community
and has said it is not hiring now.
He also said jobs are scarce because
area industries are branch plants that
hire at their headquarters and then
promote and transfer from within the
company.
"Most of the people I have are skilled
but the only work available is un
skilled," Brake said.
The real question in most employer's
minds, however, has been why they
should hire an older worker.
Brake said it was a myth that as
people get older they tend to go downhill
In performance. The best advantage to
hiring an older worker, he said, is that he
tends to be more reliable and has good
judgment and common sense.
"The older person has a lot of ad
vantages over the younger one in dealing
with adversity," he said. "You don't,
when you're young,'find out what it's like
to overcome all the obstacles in life."
Helen Harpster, manager of the
G fi R
player's paradise
i•
Friday, March 16 7pm is
PENN STATE
BOOKSTORE
SPECIAL BEGINNING OF TERM HOURS
Both McAllister and Ground Floor HUB locations
are open the following hours to serve you.
TODAY 8:30 AM - 8:00 PM
Saturday, March 10th
Monday, March 12th
Tuesday, March 13th
Beginning Wednesday, March 1 4th, regular store hours in
effect, 8:OOAM-5:OOPM.
Only the Ground Floor HUB Supply Store is open Saturday 9Am-IPM
STATE BOOKSTORE
GFIS 1110
IBBE fill
poker
HUB Ballroom
Nittany Manor Motel, has hired five
people from the program, the most of
any employer in the area, to fill positions
of day and desk clerks and security
guard.
"I consider them an asset," Harpster
said and added wth a grin, "Perhaps
that's because I'm a senior citizen."
Harpster agreed with Brake that older
workers are more experienced, more
tempered to working and more con
scientious.
"Also, I found they want to work or
they would not apply," she said.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
She is critical of senior citizens in one
way. She said they are "reluctant to take
instructions and follow them."
"They think they know as much as I
do," she said. "They think who's she to
tell me?"
This criticism caused Harpster to fire
one of her desk clerks who found the job
through the Area Agency on Aging.
Harpster said this clerk "had his own
set way of doing things." The "final
blow" came when he told a guest to park
his 18-wheeler tractor-trailer in a back
driveway instead of the regular truck
parking lot, which caused the truck to
get hung up in the driveway. When asked
about the incident, the clerk said that
was where he has wanted the truck.
Robert Kidder, manager of the
University's employment division in the
at the University.
Kidder said employees are hired on
competency and not on age.
"I really don't care what the age is,"
he said. "I'm going to evaluate what
needs done on the job."'
The only job he questions as far as age
is concerned is security positions.
Because the job is geared toward ap
prehending and involves running, he
said, some elderly workers might not be
able to do the job.
Kidder stressed, however, the ad
vantage in experience the older worker
has over the younger worker.
"The older worker is probably going to
be more successful in finding em
ployment at Penn State because the
younger worker does not have the ex
perience to satisfy our requirements,"
he said.
9:OOAM-S:OOPM
B:3OAM-8:00PM
B:3OAM-8:00PM
Most of the people he knows at the
upper levels of University ad
ministration, he said, are older people
who got their jobs through their
maturity.
The U.S. Department of Labor's
Employment Standards Administration
has issued a booklet making a case for
the older worker. According to the
booklet, studies on older workers show:
their attendance is likely to be
better than that of a younger person;
they change jobs less frequently;
on production jobs the output of an
older worker up to age 65 favorably
compares with that of a younger worker
and , in professional jobs there is little
difference in output; and
learning ability does not decline
with age.
Even armed with these facts, many
older workers have to combat their own
stereotyped image.
"I think there's no question there's a
general trend on the part of society that
you cannot teach an old dog new tricks,"
said Joseph H. Britton, chairman of the
Gerontology Center at the University
and also chairman of the Senior Citizens
Advisory Commission in State College.
Britton said, however, that he personally
does not believe this is true.
He concurs with government studies
that say older workers are generally
more experienced; absent less and more
dependable.
Britton also cited the detrimental
effects on an older person who wants a
job but is forced to sit at home.
"Morale is another global concept to
the extent that work is a meaningful part
of one's own concept of self," Britton
said.
Brake estimates two-thirds of the
older people he sees have some form of
income but are not content to just sit at
home.
Harpster said one time she owed one of
her older workers an hour and a half in
pay but he said it did not matter since he
was happy to get out and be active.
"I found this is what they want to do
keep active," she said. "They want to
work."
•
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Iti
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4
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MARCH 17, 1979
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814-237-5351
With the "Luck of the Irish", you too can rent at last year's rates!
John Hall, a 71-year-old Bellefonte
resident, retired nine years ago from the
Sutton Engineering Co. in Bellefonte
after working 25 years in the cost
department.
"I like to be busy," Hall said. "I'm
busy all the time."
"I think there's no question there's a general trend
on the part of society that you cannot teach an old
dog new tricks.."
Hall is bick at the Sutton Engineering Even the government, as noted in its
Co. helping with inventory work. booklet put out by the Employment
Through the Area Agency on Aging he Standards Administration, is seeking to
has been offered three other jobs in the eliminate age discrimination in ery ,
last month. . ployment. ~.,
"I think if you have anything to offer,
people have work for you," he said.
ted," the booklet quotes Ralph Waldo
According to statistics from Sales and Emerson, "until he has nothing else to
Marketing Management, Centre County count." ". -
"=1
has reached a time when people over 50
make up a larger percentage of the
population than any other age group
except those from 11 to 24. Employers-in
this Community may have to look
towards the older worker to fill t
vacancies. ' : -.
"A man's years should not be coun-
Illustration by by Della Hoke -=e—
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