Top 3 Reasons Women Over 50 Are Tired of Their Jobs

Why are women over 50 coming home to work?

This article is part one of a series of three aimed at discovering why working women over 50 are transitioning from traditional jobs to working from home.

Women made up more than 49% of the work force during a poll reported in 2008. Yet, today more than ever many women state that they are tired of their current job. If you are a working woman over the age of 50 how do you feel about the job you currently hold?

We discovered by interviewing many women that the top reasons women over the age of 50 are tired of their jobs boils down to just three; boring jobs, negative co-workers and lack of personal time. The statistics were very different for younger women who reported low wages, difficult supervisors and missing family events as the main reasons for hating their jobs.

Top 3 reasons for being tired of job

For women over 50 the top 3 reasons they are tired of their jobs boiled down to their priorities in their unique circumstances and life. With no small children at home a woman over 50 is looking to maintain her lifestyle, seriously get ready for those golden years of retirement and fulfill her life’s purpose. Let’s take a look into those top three reasons in detail.

1 Boring job: after being the CEO of her home for years, multi-tasking took on a whole new meaning. With baby on her hip, a mop in one hand and the phone on the other shoulder talking with a friend was a daily occurrence. However, answering phones and taking messages hardly makes for a fulfilling day compared to her role at home, right? If you were to look at a corporate secretary job description would she feel fulfilled taking messages answering the phone all day long? I sincerely doubt it. If comparing a supervisor’s role at the same company, could you compare the management of a home to babysitting snooty-nosed, lazy adults who could care less if they were there or not? All they care about is collecting their check and punching the clock. Their concern is not to give it their all for serving others, oh no…that is someone elses job. Is this all there is to life?

2 – Negative co-workers: I remember this one all too well. My co-workers didn’t want to help customers, took more breaks than they were supposed to and were paid the same salary as I was while my production out performed theirs by 3:1. Regardless of job performance and attitude their paycheck remained constant with mine.

When on coffee breaks the stress intensified due to gossip around the water-cooler instead of being a time of relaxation and refreshment. Why on Earth do we put up with such conditions? Oh yes, that’s right we need to earn a living to feed those kids we have in daycare or pay the mortgage for the home we are living in. Isn’t there a better solution?

3 – Lack of personal time: Vacation time around the bank was a premium piece of real estate. Each January we anxiously awaited our turn, allotted by seniority to choose our two weeks paid vacation days. I don’t know about you but I struggled to figure out how my whole year would look in January just to be able to “lock in” my valued time off.

That was just the beginning. What about when my kids were sick, my supervisor could have cared less. She had a department to run and if I weren’t present who would do my duties, serve my customers or complete the daily reports. I remember one specific time during my last days at the bank; this one incident was my wake up call.

My little one year old was running a very high fever. Because I felt guilty and was railroaded into coming into work the sitter had to call me to report her condition was worsening. I called our doctor and he asked me to immediately bring her in. When I requested time off to take my very ill daughter in for her appointment I was denied. My supervisor told me to have her daycare provider take her in. I’ll leave the story at…I, her mother took her to the appointment and within one week handed in my resignation.

As working women over 50 we no longer have to worry about our children in daycare…unless, we are raising our grandchildren, and then it resurfaces and once again becomes an issue. For the majority of us though it is more an issue of being able to spend quality time with our grandchildren when we want to not when some big corporation tells us we can.

After all haven’t we earned the right to our time? Aren’t we at the age when we are supposed to begin enjoying life to the full? Is this the way it is suppose to be?

After recognizing the top three reasons why women over 50 are tired of their jobs it’s time to do something more about it, don’t you think?

Join us next week as we look into possible solutions to being tired of our jobs. It’s time working women over 50 step up to the plate and put to use those life experiences, embrace our uniqueness and help others to do the same.

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Carla J Gardiner, The Fiery Grandma

 

 

Carla Gardiner is known as “THE Fiery Grandma” because she found new energy, endurance and youth. Her passion and purpose lies with baby boomer trends, the people she works with daily; aging men, women, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas who want to feel better, have more energy and have fun like they did when they were twenty-something. Join her for more energy, fun and profits.