英国《金融时报》特约专栏作者杨蓓蓓：很多较年长的美国人以前认为60岁是新的40岁。但疫情期间的现实告诉我们：60岁更像是新的80岁，尤其是在职场。



The pandemic has changed how many of us think about age. 6park.com
疫情改变了我们中的许多人对年龄的看法。 6park.com
In the “BC” era — before coronavirus — plenty of us were kidding ourselves that 60 is the new 40. I certainly was: I planned to work forever, and indulge my taste for camel trekking in the Gobi desert well into my dotage. 6park.com
在疫情之前的时代，很多人自欺欺人地认为60岁是新的40岁。我本人当时肯定是这么想的：我计划一直工作下去，同时继续沉迷于在戈壁滩骑着骆驼跋涉的体验——直到自己进入垂暮之年。 6park.com
But within weeks of the emergence of Covid-19 in the west a year ago, it was pretty clear that, at least from a pandemic point of view, 60 was more like the new 80. Sixty-odd-year-olds like me, however fit we thought we were, found ourselves on the bulging right-hand side of Covid-19 death graphs by age, where the risk of dying was highest.  6park.com
但是，在一年前西方出现新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）病例后的几周内，现实就很明显：至少从疫情的视角看，60岁更像是新的80岁。像我这样年届六旬的人士——不论我们认为自己有多健康——发现自己处于按年龄划分的COVID-19死亡分布柱形图右端的凸起部分，属于死亡风险最高的年龄段。



I saw the American national conversation subtly shift toward portraying anyone over 60 as having one foot out of the door. Employment-discrimination lawyers, academics who study ageing and advocates for American seniors say this began to affect seniors in the workplace. Some employers began using Covid-19 as an excuse to get rid of older workers, bringing back younger workers from furlough faster than older ones. 6park.com
我看到美国的全国对话微妙地转向把60岁以上人士说成是有一只脚已经在门外。就业歧视律师、研究老龄化的学者以及为美国老年人代言的人士表示，这开始影响职场的较年长人士。一些雇主开始以COVID-19为借口甩掉较年长的员工，包括让较年轻的员工更快结束强制休假，返回工作岗位。 6park.com
According to a report from The New School’s Schwartz Centre for Economic Policy Analysis, unemployment rates for workers 55 and over exceeded those for mid-career workers during the pandemic, the first time such a gap persisted for six months or longer in nearly 50 years. Some 3m older American jobs were lost by this January due to the pandemic recession, the centre found. 6park.com
根据纽约新学院大学(The New School) 施瓦茨经济政策分析中心(Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis)的一份报告，疫情期间55岁及以上工作者的失业率超过处于职业生涯中段的工作者的失业率，而且这种差距近50年来首次持续六个月或更长时间。该中心发现，截至今年1月，大约300万较年长的美国人因疫情引发的经济衰退而失去工作。 6park.com
“If you were over the age of 60, they pretty much put a toe tag on you,” says Kevin Baldwin of the Kansas City, Missouri employment discrimination law firm Baldwin & Vernon. “Companies started to categorise older employees as high-risk . . . and even companies that got help under the Paycheck Protection Program, which required them to keep employee numbers at the same level, realised that they did not have to keep the same employees,” so they could terminate older workers and replace them with younger ones. “They’re using Covid as cover.”  6park.com
“如果你超过60岁，他们的态度简直像是要在你的脚趾上挂一个尸体身份标签，”专长于就业歧视案子的密苏里州堪萨斯城律所Baldwin & Vernon的凯文•鲍德温(Kevin Baldwin)表示。“企业开始把较年长的员工归为高风险类别……即使那些在‘薪资保护计划’(Paycheck Protection Program)下获得帮助的企业——该计划要求他们将员工人数保持不变——也意识到，他们不必保留相同的员工，”因此他们可以解雇较年长的员工，用较年轻的员工取而代之。“他们把疫情当作借口。”



His client JL Gibbs, 56, lost her job that way during Covid-19, after 28 years with the same company. Despite having stage four pancreatic cancer, Gibbs was laid off when the pandemic began, only to see her job advertised on indeed.com afterward. She asked whether she could have the job back but was told she would have to reapply and start at a newcomer salary if hired. The company settled with her for an undisclosed sum after Baldwin filed an age and disability discrimination lawsuit on her behalf. 6park.com
他的客户、56岁的JL•吉布斯(JL Gibbs)就是这样在疫情期间失去工作的，此前她为同一公司工作了28年。患有第四期胰腺癌的吉布斯在疫情开始时被解雇，后来却看到她的工作岗位出现在indeed.com上的招聘广告上。她问公司，她是否可以返回岗位，却被告知她不得不重新申请，而且如果被雇用，也要从新人的工资起步。在鲍德温代表她提起年龄和残疾歧视诉讼后，公司与她达成和解（金额保密）。 6park.com
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which oversees age discrimination in the US, says it can’t quantify the number of employers using the pandemic as an excuse to lay off older workers. But Lisa Marsh Ryerson, president of the AARP Foundation, the charitable arm of AARP, which advocates for Americans over 50, says there are parallels with the last recession after the 2008 global financial crisis. “We have an experience that is playing out again now. For older workers it takes twice as long to get back into the workforce, and there is a high percentage of adults 50 and older who become long-term unemployed.” 6park.com
负责监督美国年龄歧视问题的平等就业机会委员会(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)表示，它无法量化借口疫情解雇较年长员工的雇主数量。但是，为50岁以上美国人代言的美国退休人员协会(AARP)的慈善分支——AARP基金会(AARP Foundation)——的主席丽莎•马什•赖尔森(Lisa Marsh Ryerson)表示，情况与2008年全球金融危机过后的上一次衰退有相似之处。“我们经历过的事情现在再一次重演。较年长的工作者重返工作岗位的时间是其他人的两倍，而且50岁及以上成年人长期失业的百分比相当高。” 6park.com
Kate Edwards, who campaigns against ageism in the gaming industry and technology sector, says the pandemic has “doubled down on the subtle perception that [older workers] are different. Now you are not just an intellectual liability but you are a physical liability to the company, you’re old, you’re vulnerable to Covid-19, you could be dead next week.” 6park.com
发起活动反对游戏和科技行业年龄歧视的凯特•爱德华兹(Kate Edwards)表示，这场疫情“加强了人们对于（较年长的员工）有所不同的微妙认知。现在，你对公司而言不仅在智力上是负担，在身体上也是负担：你年纪大了，你很容易感染COVID-19，你可能在下周就死亡。”



But she points out that the pandemic has prompted some older Americans to step away from the labour market voluntarily. “We have all stared mortality in the face for the past year. There’s a massive carpe diem sensibility going on, maybe I should drop everything and do something different,” she says. “If people are walking away with the idea that this is a chance to rethink, then that’s a positive thing.” 6park.com
但是她指出，疫情促使一些较年长的美国人自愿退出劳动力市场。“过去一年里，我们所有人都面对死亡。很多人产生一种‘活在当下’的心情，认为自己应该放弃一切，去做一些不同的事情，”她表示。“如果人们抱着‘这是一个重新思考的机会’的想法离开职场，那是一件积极的事情。” 6park.com
So, maybe the pendulum will swing back to where it probably ought to have been all along: that 65 is still 65, and life at 65 can be fun too — not to mention guaranteeing a coronavirus shot in some states where younger workers still can’t get them. Sometimes age has its perks. 6park.com
因此，也许钟摆会回到它很可能本来就应该保持的位置：65岁仍然是65岁，而且65岁的生活也可以是充满乐趣的——且不提在某些州这个年龄的人士能够保证接种新冠疫苗，而较年轻的工作人士还轮不上。有时年龄会带来好处。