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For more than two years, my school employer in Thailand had been trying to terminate me with forced retirement. In a January 2013 meeting with my supervisor, I was politely informed that my teaching contract for the new school year beginning in May of 2013 was not being renewed. The sole reason for this was my age. Although I was 68, my health was still good, and I hadn't missed one day of teaching during the past year. Furthermore, my mind was still very sharp, and teachers and students alike regarded me as one of the better teachers at school. Upon appealing this unfair action to the school's principal, I was given a contract for the upcoming school year but with a frozen salary, and the stipulation that both the school and I mutually agreed on my retirement in April of 2014. After an appeal and assistance from a third party, I was finally given a lawful due pay increase for my final year at the school.

Why, then, was my school so intent on forcing me into retirement? The answer lies in age discrimination or ageism which I will examine in this hub. After defining age discrimination and forced retirement, I will present the pros and cons of age discrimination and forced retirement in the workplace.

What is Age Discrimination?

Age discrimination or ageism may be defined as treating a person less favorably because of age. This is often reflected in the hiring, promotion, and forced retirement policies of businesses and governments. Whenever they can get away with it through loopholes in the law, businesses and the government will hire younger people in preference to senior citizens. A lot more younger than older persons will be promoted as seen during my career with the government.

Age Discrimination at Work

What Is Forced Retirement?

Forced retirement is the involuntary ending of a person's career usually through age discrimination. This can happen to an individual who is still in his or her 50s when a company is downsizing. Under the guise of early retirement with a few benefits, an employee who is still productive is coerced into a forced retirement. Forced retirement can also happen to an older employee in his or her 60s. This is done by making the workplace job so unpleasant that the employee eventually gives up and accepts a forced retirement.

Forced Into Retirement - What You Should Do

Arguments for Age Discrimination and Forced Retirement

What, then, are the arguments for and justifying age discrimination and forced retirement in the workplace?

1. The Employer Saves Money

It is a fact that older employees receive a much higher salary than younger employees. In the case of my employment at a school, wouldn't it make good business sense to replace my salary with that of a younger teacher who will earn half as much as me?

If a person is working for a business or government in the United States, the employer will contribute much less to retirement benefits for a younger employee than for an older one.

2. The Older Employee Is Less Productive

Some people have made the case that a worker's productivity declines rapidly after the age of 65. This is many times reflected in the increased number of sick days taken, and the slower reaction time both mentally and physically of older workers. Older workers are often challenged by new technology and find it very difficult to learn new office computer applications such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Office. In competitive professional sports such as baseball, basketball, and football, the older athlete most times in his mid or late 30s is not as good as the younger athlete.

3. More Opportunities For Younger People

If a company or the government has too many older employees, it will not be able to hire new blood in the form of younger employees. It is a fact that younger employees are more energetic and generally more able to adapt to change than the older. By examining what is reflected in today's media, it is, in fact, a young person's world. Trends and changes in business and society are initiated by younger people. In professional sports, most people recognize that it is a young person's sport. Consequently, teams are built around the younger athletes rather than the older.

Arguments Against Age Discrimination and Forced Retirement

Now for the arguments against age discrimination and forced retirement which are as follow.

1. It's Unfair and Against Most Laws

In many western countries, age discrimination and forced retirement are against most laws. In Thailand, forced retirement is allowed; however, according to labor laws, the employee forced to retire from his job is entitled to severance pay. I personally feel that if an older employee is in good health, and has a good flexible mind to his or her job, it is unfair to force retirement.

2. The Older Employee Has a Wealth of Experience

Older employees have a wealth of experience to contribute to businesses and the government. The United States persuades some of its older employees to accept an early retirement by promising them part-time contractor jobs after they retire. As a part-time contract worker, the retirement annuitant gets to mentor junior employees, and the government saves money by not keeping the older employees on as full-time workers. Unless businesses agree to keep their experienced older employees on as part-time workers and mentors, they would be foolish to let this wealth of knowledge and experience go.

3. Older Employees Have Better Work Habits and Loyalty than Junior Employees

Many older employees have much better work habits than younger workers. A senior dedicated employee will not miss much work time and will always be on time. Because the senior is not interested in upper mobility and only looking out for himself or herself, he will be more dedicated to his job with the government or a business.

It is completely understandable why my school forced me to retire with age discrimination. The school could save money, and maybe the school and students' parents prefer seeing a younger and more handsome face in the classroom. Just the same, I challenge the school to hire a younger teacher who is more dedicated, more experienced, and a better teacher than me.

E2-8 (Static) Recording Investing and Financing Activities LO2-4

Kelsey Baker founded GolfDeals.com at the beginning of February. GolfDeals.com sells new and used golf equipment online. The following events occurred in February.

1. Borrowed $30,000 cash from a bank, signing a note due in three years.
2. Received investment of cash by organizers and distributed to them 500 shares of $0.10 par value common stock with a market price of $30 per share.
3. Purchased a warehouse for $115,000, paying $23,000 in cash and signing a note payable for the balance on a 10-year mortgage.
4. Purchased computer and office equipment for $20,000, paying $4,000 in cash and owing the rest on accounts payable to the manufacturers.
5. Loaned $1,000 to an employee who signed a note due in three months.
6. Paid $2,000 to the manufacturers in (d) above.
7. Purchased short-term investments for $10,000 cash.

repare journal entries for the above transactions. (If no entry is required for a transaction/event, select "No journal entry required" in the first account field.)

Imagine that you have just become the principal of an American secondary school. What could you do to assess the school climate in your school? How would you go about improving it if it were less than satisfactory?
THIS IS PSYCHOLOGY

Paul is an inner-city community health nurse. The community in which he practices has a higher than average rate of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Paul has decided to focus on improving the nutritional status of the community. One issue is the lack of access the residents have to fresh fruits and vegetables. After meeting with a group of residents and getting approval from city leaders, a partnership was formed, and Paul and the residents were able to plant a garden on a donated empty lot. The partnership has remained active within the community, organizing health fairs, gardening demonstrations, education to local children about gardening, and giving away excess produce to the homeless shelter.

Paul and the community partnership demonstrate a macroscopic approach to the issue of poor nutritional status. Examples of a macroscopic approach to the issue of lead exposure in children include all of the following EXCEPT

a.     identification of children exposed to lead in the home.

b.     examining trends in the prevalence of lead poisoning over time.

c.     estimating the percentage of older homes in a neighborhood that may contain lead pipes or lead-based paint surfaces.

d.     locating industrial sources of lead emissions.

Community Health nurses like Paul have to think "upstream" in order to change the health of an entire population. An example of upstream thinking includes

a.     identification of children at risk for obesity.

b.     giving away excess produce to homeless shelters.

c.     teaching inner-city school children how to garden.

d.     educating parents about how to cook healthy meals.

Which nursing theory demonstrates examination of nursing problems from a macroscopic, upstream thinking perspective?

a.     The Health Belief Model (HBM)

b.     Milio's Framework for Prevention

c.     Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing

d.     Virginia Henderson's Need Theory

Linda is a fair-complexioned, 62-year-old woman, who is preparing for retirement. She doesn't smoke and rarely drinks alcohol. She mostly eats fruits, vegetables, and white meat; however, she avoids dairy products because they upset her stomach. Her doctor recently started her on cholesterol medication due to hyperlipidemia and instructed her to wear sunscreen every day to prevent skin cancer. Linda has quit taking her cholesterol medication because she says it makes her jittery. She walks her dog a couple miles every day and plays 18 holes of golf at least twice a week. Linda's goals are to retire within the next 3 months and travel with her husband.

Based on Pender's Health Promotion Model, the variables that could influence Linda to pursue health promotion include all of the following EXCEPT

a.     Linda's father died of heart disease at age 55.

b.     Linda feels good after walking her dog.

c.     Linda wants to enjoy many years of retirement with her husband.

d.     Linda's doctor told her to wear sunscreen to prevent skin cancer.

Linda's employer offers a wellness program. Linda meets with the wellness program nurse to discuss health promotion opportunities. The nurse plans to do a risk assessment with Linda to determine where Linda has opportunity for health improvement. The steps of a risk assessment include all of the following EXCEPT

a.     hazard mitigation.

b.     risk description.

c.     exposure assessment.

d.     risk estimation.

The nurse reviews with Linda her modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. The nurse tells Linda her non-modifiable risk factors include

a.     risk of osteopenia due to poor calcium intake.

b.     risk of cardiovascular disease due to familial history.

c.     risk of skin cancer due to sun exposure.

d.     risk of stroke due to poor medication compliance.

Jackie is a community health nurse in a small rural town. The town is located on a stretch of interstate highway near a toxic waste dump. The community has a population of 1,500 people, mostly farmworkers, half of whom live below the poverty level. The town averages about 50 births per year. In the last two years there have been 11 babies born with serious birth defects. Prior to that, there was only one baby in 20 years born with a serious birth defect.

Using the epidemiological triangle, Jackie would analyze all of the following elements EXCEPT

a.     what is causing the birth defects.

b.     who is having babies with birth defects.

c.     what type of birth defects are occurring.

d.     what are the surroundings of the women who are having babies with birth defects.

Of the 50 babies born in the community last year, 5 were born with birth defects. Jackie calculates the number of birth defects per 1000 live births in the community as

a.     100.

b.     1000.

c.     10.

d.     1.

It has been determined that exposure to a certain pesticide is the likely cause of the birth defects in the community. Jackie calculates the rate where the denominator is the number of pregnant women exposed to the pesticide and the numerator is the number of those women who had babies with serious birth defects. This rate is known as the

a.     prevalence rate.

b.     mortality rate.

c.     morbidity rate.

d.     attack rate.

Katelyn is a nurse who has just been offered a job at an elementary school. The school is located in a poor urban neighborhood. The majority of the children are minorities, and some do not speak English. Nutritional status of the children is a big concern voiced by many of the teachers at the school. They told Katelyn many of the children come to school hungry because they cannot afford breakfast.

Katelyn drives through the neighborhood around the school and makes observations about the layout of the community, type and location of businesses, and the people milling about. This type of assessment is called a

a.     census survey.

b.     windshield survey.

c.     needs survey.

d.     community survey.

Katelyn wishes to learn about the community's population size and the distribution of age, sex, race, and ethnicity. The most appropriate source of data for this information is

a.     morbidity and mortality rates.

b.     vital statistics.

c.     National Health Survey data.

d.     U.S. Census data.

Katelyn does a needs assessment to determine the community's perspective on the health status of the children. The first step of the needs assessment is

a.     train data collectors.

b.     identify required information.

c.     identify aggregate for assessment.

d.     develop an action plan.

I did a survey on how times a week people take a shower, this is a random sample

The confidence level is 90%

I asked 10 girls from my family in group one. 6,5,4,5,3,6,8,7,5,9.

I asked 10 guys from my family in group two. 7,4,8,5,7,5,6,5,5,4

Group 1

Mean:

Sample Size: 10

Standard Deviation:

Group 2

Mean:

Sample Size: 10

Standard Deviation:

(___________ , _____________)

DF:

Here are summary statistics for randomly selected weights of newborn​ girls:

nequals=154​,

x overbarxequals=30.5

​hg,

sequals=7.1

hg. Construct a confidence interval estimate of the mean. Use a

95​%

confidence level. Are these results very different from the confidence interval

29.1

hgless than<muμless than<32.1

hg with only

16

sample​ values,

x overbarxequals=30.6

​hg, and

sequals=2.9

​hg?

Here are summary statistics for randomly selected weights of newborn​ girls: n=164​, x=28.7 ​hg, s=6.3 hg. Construct a confidence interval estimate of the mean. Use a 95​% confidence level. Are these results very different from the confidence interval 28.0< μ <29.8 hg with only 19 sample​ values, x=28.9 ​hg, and s=1.8 ​hg?

What is the confidence interval for the population mean?

A researcher wished to compare the average amount of time spent in extracurricular activities by high school students in a suburban school district with that in a school district of a large city. The researcher obtained a simple random sample of 60 high school students in a large suburban school district and found the mean time spent in extracurricular activities per week to be six hours with a standard deviation of three hours. The researcher also obtained an independent simple random sample of 40 high school students in a large city school district and found the mean time spent in extracurricular activities per week to be four hours with a standard deviation of two hours. Let μ1 and μ2 represent the mean amount of time spent in extracurricular activities per week by the populations of all high school students in the suburban and city school districts, respectively. Assume two-sample t procedures are safe to use.

A. What is a 95% confidence interval for μ1 – μ2? (Use the conservative value for the degrees of freedom.)

a.2 ± 1.01 hours

b.2 ± 0.5 hours

c.2 ± 0.84 hours

d.2 ± 1.34 hours

B. What can we say about the value of the P-value? (Assume population variances are equal.)

a. P-value > 0.10

b. 0.05 < P-value < 0.10

c. 0.01 < P-value < 0.05

d. P-value < 0.01

1. A university planner is interested in determining the percentage of spring semester students who will attend summer school. She takes a pilot sample of 160 spring semester students discovering that 56 will return to summer school.
   
   1. Construct a 90% confidence interval estimate for the percentage of spring semester students who will return to summer school.
   2. Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for the percentage of spring semester students who will return to summer school.