My guest on the podcast this week is Elizabeth White -- author of a remarkable recent book on the traumatic experience of job loss at midlife - 55, Underemployed, and Faking Normal.
We hear so often about out-of-work baby boomers and the problem of age discrimination. But Elizabeth has written an intimate account of what happened in her own life when the bottom fell out in 2008 and 2009. She wrote the book after speaking out about her experiences in a 2016 Facebook post that went viral, called You Know Her:
You know her.
She is in your friendship circle, hidden in plain sight.
She is 55, broke and tired of trying to keep up appearances. Faking normal is wearing her out.
To look at her, you wouldn’t know that her electricity was cut off last week for non-payment or that she meets the eligibility requirements for food stamps. Her clothes are still impeccable, bought in the good times when she was still making money.
But if you paid attention, you would see the sadness in her eyes, hear that grace note of panic in her otherwise commanding voice.
The overwhelming reader response to that essay allowed Elizabeth to include in her book the voices of many other older Americans struggling with the uncertainty and loss of income that comes with being cast out of the job market earlier than they expected or wanted.
For this week’s podcast, Elizabeth and I talked about her career story, how things went south and how she has found equilibrium - also, her tips on how people can "small up."
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Elizabeth White on the trauma of midlife career loss