Never give up, long post but finally employed again after 14 mos at the age of 61
​
Long post here, but I just wanted to share here in case there is anyone else who is in a situation who feels hopeless and you're getting discouraged.
I am 61 years old now so close to retirement but not quite there. I need health insurance for another 4 years and a salary to get to FRA which is 67 and hopefully a little longer to max out SS payments. I cannot retire yet. What I I do now will significantly affect the next 20 years of my life if I live that long. These were my highest income years and that was taken away from me in the most vicious way. I'm a healthcare clinician who did hands on for 16 years , but my last role was a combo clinical/admin job. I was at the same large local non profit for 21 years. I trained all new employees in my dept, lead pilots, was given numerous awards, appeared in media etc I never had a bad performance appraisal the entire time. My company started seriously struggling when I was 58 but things had stabilized. Suddenly when I was 59 after having a new manager, who I previously trained before she was promoted to manager, at the age of 60 I was given a horrible appraisal and put on a pip along with 10 other employees who also never had any issues. During this time there were daily announcements of sudden c suite departures. Layoffs were common too.
I had to consult an employment attorney who educated me that it was being done to force me out because the company was struggling and my salary was maxed out after all those years. What followed was pure torture. I won't go into deets, but I experienced total betrayal and intense harassment like you cannot imagine. I was physically ill and emotionally wrecked for months. I couldn't eat, sleep, concentrate. I cried a lot and felt so low I can't even describe it. I refused to quit because I wasn't voluntarily forfeiting anything after 21 years. This hell went on for 7 months. The way they tried to drive me and many others out was absolutely diabolical. In the end they suddenly eliminated my entire dept and I ended up with severance and then unemployment which ended two months ago and I was grateful for that because if they had their way I would have been kicked to the curb with nothing.
I spent this past year healing. There were days I couldn't get out of bed. I sent out hundreds of applications and never got a single bite. I constantly wondered if anyone would ever want to hire me again or if I should just accept being put out to pasture and get a job in an unrelated field for 1/3 of my salary and no benefits. Occasionally I'd get a rejection but nothing more. I am older now with arthritic joints so I cannot do the level of physical work I used to which limited the types of roles I could perform. It's extremely hard to find non physical roles in my profession.
A few weeks ago a former coworker I hadn't spoken to in two years randomly called me. She had no idea what happened. Turns out she's working for another place part time and she told me they have lots of work. I went to their website and found a job that sounded like it was written with me in mind. I never would have seen this job had she not been thinking of me and reached out. I applied. A few days later HR reached out and scheduled an HR screen. It was very a natural and easy, maybe because I had accepted I might never work in my field ever again. A day after that I moved forward to an interview with the VP and director. I got this extremely strong feeling that something was finally about to happen but I was afraid to be hopeful. Out of all the places I applied to this was the only one that replied to me. I know the company and have had friends who worked for them and they are well regarded.
I stayed up half the night "studying" and preparing. After all the trauma I've experienced I went into it thinking it would be awful and further destroy my confidence even more. The interview was the best interview I have ever had. I felt like I knew these people and the feeling was mutual. It flowed so easily and every "negative" thing about me was seen as a positive by them. They loved my extensive experience. They loved that I stayed at the same place for 21 years and found it impressive. They loved my honesty. I felt very comfortable just being myself.
At the end of the interview the VP said to me that they had interviewed quite a few candidates and had a few more to go but they really loved me and I was now the frontrunner. They were hiring an entire team so it would take some time, but the next step would be meeting the existing team that is currently there to learn more about what the role entails from clinicians who are doing it and to see if I'd be a good fit. The VP and director said that they felt I'm a perfect fit though and they felt fortunate that I saw the posting. They said no one else they'd interviewed had the type of well rounded experience as I did and that's what they needed. I went from feeling worn out and useless to feeling like I might have another chapter in my life coming up.
A week later I met two team members and it went pretty well. One of them was great and the other was a bit tougher but even with that I never felt nervous or unable to answer questions I always had a response that they seemed to agree with.
7 days later I was contacted by HR again and told they received very positive fb about me and I should expect a decision and then outreach again within a week's time. I truly appreciated the respect shown to me by not leaving me hanging at any point. This company also states in their job postings that they do not use AI to review resumes and that every application is reviewed by a recruiter and no application is automatically rejected before being read by a human. I am guessing that probably helped me break though all the barriers we have now when applying to jobs.
The job is fully remote which is rare now and I didn't even want a remote job. I've worked remotely and I don't like it but I'm not going to focus on that I know it's a gift for most people and I'm grateful. The VP actually said he wanted to have an in office day occasionally but staff is all over geographically and he didn't want to do that to people as it would be a huge burden to people with families and obligations. My last employer forced people to come in as a means of a soft layoff.
Now 14 months after the worst hell I've ever experienced in a work environment and an absolute "dark night of the soul" I am now employed again. This has restored a part of me that grieved being forced out of my profession before I was ready. I never thought I'd feel that I have value as a clinician again. I can now truly put this nightmare behind me and move on. My H said to me "you experienced total betrayal and bs and now look what's come your way!" The salary is even the same as what I was making and the benefits are the same as well.
To finish here, I just want to say that my confidence in my abilities was shot and I felt like a worthless old loser after the insane gaslighting and abuse my last employer subjected me to. This past year forced me to step away at a certain point so things could resolve in their own time. Just before this happened I stopped trying so hard and stopped trying to make things happen. I realized that sometimes when you force things too hard it just doesn't work out for you and just when you feel like it's all pointless and why even try anymore life can surprise you. Never give up. If an old girl like me can get back in the game I know you can too!