Age discrimination, Thai women in their 40s

[Berkshire]

Funny, but I just stumbled on this video which discusses age discrimination in the USA.  It's mostly about women over 50, but seems relevant to this thread.  So this whole notion that it's a Thai thing is just nonsense.  It happens all over.

 

 

[oruaM]

21 hours ago, myjawe said:

So where older Thai can work ?

Their job consist in finding a foreigner fool enough and with so many limited options that will gladly accept to subsidize her and her family and consider that a god's gift. (or finding someone even more fool and richer to replace the one they already have)

[faraday]

2 minutes ago, oruaM said:

Their job consist in finding a foreigner fool enough and with so many limited options that will gladly accept to subsidize her and her family and consider that a god's gift. (or finding someone even more fool and richer to replace the one they already have)

No flies on you, is there now.

 

[Anastasios]

My girlfriend told me about this a while ago with many examples from her workplace. The older women often henpeck the younger ones and are bossy and demanding, despite being so far behind in ability and expertise that they still can't use a computer. Even a janitor lady would come up to her and make demands or say something negative about her work.

 

The younger ones universally think the older ones are annoying. I even remember times my girl would call me to vent, she was reprimanded by older ladies for eating lunch for over 15 minutes, while they would sit eating and chatting for an hour. I was shocked why she didn't tell them the truth but she explained and it took a while for me to accept it but that's how it is in Thailand, they must respect elders.

 

I'm not surprised that lower level jobs won't accept older people then. 

[Berkshire]

13 hours ago, Anastasios said:

My girlfriend told me about this a while ago with many examples from her workplace. The older women often henpeck the younger ones and are bossy and demanding, despite being so far behind in ability and expertise that they still can't use a computer. Even a janitor lady would come up to her and make demands or say something negative about her work.

 

The younger ones universally think the older ones are annoying. I even remember times my girl would call me to vent, she was reprimanded by older ladies for eating lunch for over 15 minutes, while they would sit eating and chatting for an hour. I was shocked why she didn't tell them the truth but she explained and it took a while for me to accept it but that's how it is in Thailand, they must respect elders.

 

I'm not surprised that lower level jobs won't accept older people then. 

Much truth in what you say.  I've been told by more than a few Thai females that they'd much rather work for a Thai man than a Thai woman...for many of the reasons you mentioned.  And It can be even worse if the younger female employee happens to be attractive.

[connda]

On 5/10/2019 at 10:44 AM, Peterw42 said:

Have other come across this age discrimination ?

It's endemic.  Most Thai companies will not hire adults over the age of 35 except for low-paying jobs like maids.  

That type of discrimination is perfectly Ok with the Thai government it seems.

[mngmn]

On 5/15/2019 at 3:04 PM, Berkshire said:

Much truth in what you say.  I've been told by more than a few Thai females that they'd much rather work for a Thai man than a Thai woman...for many of the reasons you mentioned.  And It can be even worse if the younger female employee happens to be attractive.

But what is the Thai man is younger and more attractive?

[Pique Dard]

thailand isn't an exception, many women above 40 find it difficult to get a "good" job in europe, unless he has got high academic qualifications

[mike787]

On 5/10/2019 at 12:07 PM, Dmaxdan said:

Yes. Banks are a classic case in point. You hardly ever see any staff working the counters who are much over 30. And they are nearly always of a certain standard of attractiveness.

YES!  Over 30 is considered old. She sadly is correct.  Just the nature of the beast here.  That includes other Asean countries like Philippines.  Same ideology and marginalization of women.  Not a great deal  one can do, like fighting a rip current.  Good luck.

Edited May 21, 2019 by mike787

[tabarin]

It is the culture, Thais do not want to be told what to do so it is unimportant to have an experienced employee in general. 
Obviously it is then easier to use a cheap young and if possible attractive and fkable employee that you can shape as desired and ditch when finished.

 

Edited May 21, 2019 by tabarin

[GinBoy2]

This is a topic that my wife has a pretty visceral reaction to.

 

She was working in Singapore when we met as a project manager for a major international company as a material scientist working on silicon structures for the semiconductor industry.

 

When we moved to Thailand she was in her early 40's, you would think her education and experience would have made getting a job easy.

 

Far from it.

Women in that kind of job are subject to a whole host of sexist and agist barriers working in Thailand.

 

It was one of the factors that drove us to move back to the US, amongst others

 

Now in her early 50's she's basically been able to restart her career, without the Thai factor that she's not simply some 20 years old eye candy for an aging, balding Thai male boss, simply there to bring him his coffee and decorate his office!

Edited May 22, 2019 by GinBoy2

[spidermike007]

I am not sure if this approach would work here, but in the West, sometimes if you go into a job interview and ask a lot of questions, it piques their interest. If you do research on the firm in advance, appear very knowledgeable, and assertive, and qualified. Make it look like you are interviewing them, and trying to decide if you want to work for them, or not. Do they qualify, to have you work for them?

 

Sometimes, you just need to shake things up, if something is not working. Slightly unconventional thinking, so you would need to coach her, and embolden her to do this.