Steve Gaunt Pontificates

Jobs for the over 40's

A couple of years back, when I was no'but a lad, a 48-year-old nipper, I spotted an advert in the recruitment section of our local evening newspaperr.
It read
"Local Company (mentioning no names) requires Delphi Programmers, some artistic licence given, age 25-40".
Right up my street I thought, so I applied.
There can't be that many experienced Delphi Programmers around these parts, surely they won't begrudge me eight years when they see my impressive CV.

My application in the post, the next day I sat down to read the local rag. On the front page no less, was an interview with the Managing Director of said company, expressing his disgust with the local council, in that they had not allowed him to advertise the full range of perks that he had wanted to offer, in order to attract more candidates.
He also said that he would have to consider recruiting from the Far East due to the attitude of the council, Kirklees M.C.

It appears that the council, in it's infinite wisdom, does not want to give the impression that there are any well paid employment opportunities available in this area for fear of upsetting the hordes of minimum wage earners living and working within it's boundaries.
Sounds about right. (Please refer to 'Old Mill Buildings' again and consider if the ideology of the old mill owners of Huddersfield has been completely vanquished, even in these modern and enlightened times)

Despite his laudable attempts to inject some semblance of realism into Kirklees' policy, I never heard a peep from the company concerned.
The same thing occurred twelve months later, when the same positions were advertised again.

Could it be that when they said 'age limit 40', that's exactly what they meant.
Never mind the qualifications and experience of the candidate, to hell with the government's attempts to encourage companies to take more mature employees, all that matters is that the status quo be maintained at all costs.

There's no wonder that the country is going to the dogs.

Your views on Steve pontificates.
I would be a hypocrite if I didn't allow any replies to my pontifications so if you want to contribute send your piece to steve_gaunt@huddersfield1.co.uk

Introduction	Local Transport
Old Mill Buildings	Old Mill Buildings 2
Jobs For Over 40's	The University Page
Kirklees Roads - Part 2	The Euro Debate
The UK Drugs Debate	Music Snobs
Aunty Beeb	Desert Island Disks
Fashion	The Internet
Response From Steve