When the World Turns Against You: Tales of Freak Accidents and Workplace Ageism

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The unpredictable dangers that surround us take center stage as I explore how quickly life can change when we least expect it. A Google software engineer's life was tragically cut short by a falling sequoia branch at Yosemite National Park, highlighting the random perils that exist even in nature's most beautiful settings. This sobering reminder of our vulnerability extends to supposed "controlled environments" too, as evidenced by the disturbing incident where an octopus latched onto a six-year-old boy at a Texas aquarium's interactive exhibit, requiring three staff members five minutes to free him.

Beyond physical dangers, we're navigating social threats as well. The viral story of a 58-year-old professional who believes his age has rendered him unemployable resonates with many Gen-Xers and Boomers facing similar challenges. With studies showing 90% of workers over 40 experiencing ageism, it's clear that expertise and experience aren't always valued in today's job market. It's particularly frustrating when considering the superior work ethic many older workers bring to the table - something I've witnessed firsthand in my workplace, where punctuality and preparation vary dramatically between generations.

My frustration reaches its peak when sharing how my workplace essentially penalized early arrivals by changing policies to accommodate chronically late employees. What kind of system discourages dedication while enabling tardiness? As I wrap up today's episode, I'm on the hunt for new television recommendations - preferably crime fiction without excessive elements, similar to Broadchurch or Landscapers. What are you watching right now that might fit my tastes? I'd love to hear your suggestions for solid, entertaining shows that don't sacrifice quality storytelling for agenda-pushing content.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, good morning, happy Friday.
Okay, you guys know that I'mlistening to Father Mike in the
Bible in a year.
Well, I listen to it everymorning on my way into work.
That's the only time I listento it, though Sometimes I skip a
day.
Obviously, I don't listen to iton the weekends.
So it's more than a year for me.
I started this April of lastyear, so we're on day 29090 and

(00:26):
he is still only in the OldTestament he's and he's reading
the Catholic books that are notin the regular other Bible he's
read.
Right now he's on Sirach,maccabees and Proverbs.
We're on day 290.
He's got, if my Keith math iscorrect, we only have 75 days

(00:49):
left, right?
290?
365 days?
We're on day 290?
I don't think he's gonna makeit All right.
We need to move on.
Look, look.
I hate saying look, I'm sorry,I apologize.
Um, if, if the criminals anddegenerates and awful people out

(01:10):
there don't get you in naturewill I hate to report this.
Well, I'm not reporting it, I'mreading it.
A 29 year old google engineerdies in freak accident on
popular yosemite trail.
She's just out on a hike,walking along, minding her own
business, when a huge treebranch falls on her and kills
her.
My goodness, I'm not anoutdoorsy girl.

(01:34):
This is part of the reason whyNot for tree branches falling.
But there's other things.
There are other things outthere that are just bears and
snakes and no thanks.
Oh, and then you got that guykilling those two the parents
out there in den devil dens orsomething like that, out in
Arkansas.
They caught the guy.

(01:55):
They're not providing a motiveyet, which is weird.
He was out there after he wentand murdered these two people,
the parents of these two girlsthat they had their girls with
them too.
Luckily, the mom was able tousher the girls away from the
incident.
I guess while the guy waskilling the dad, she comes back

(02:18):
to try to help the dad and thenshe gets murdered, oh my gosh.
And this guy goes out and getshis hair cut right afterwards.
And they caught him while hewas in the barber seat, in the
barber chair.
It's insane.
I've got to know why, why thishappened.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Back to the original story.
A 29-year-old Google softwareengineer was killed in a freak

(02:41):
accident at Yosemite NationalPark this month when a branch
from a giant sequoia tree felland struck her on the head.
I guess you don't need to hearany more about that.
That is insane.
That's why I don't.
It's just I don't why.
Why do these things happen?
Moving on to the next story aoctopus attacks a six-year-old

(03:02):
boy at Texas Aquarium.
Mom claims we start yelling forhelp.
Well, look, it's supposed to bean interactive aquarium.
I've been to some of thesethings like this.
I am not interacting with that,with that crap.
I'm not putting no, no, I am.
I have I think I have a healthyfear of nature.

(03:22):
I'm not touching an octopus.
I'm not touching a stingray.
I'm not touching a fish.
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope,nope.
An octopus attacked asix-year-old boy at an
interactive exhibit at the SanAntonio Aquarium.
According to his mother, whoalso claimed, workers brushed
off the incident involving whatthey called the super playful

(03:45):
creature.
Yeah, it's an octopus, it's notplayful.
No, it's an octopus that doesnot need to be interacting with
humans.
Nope, probably doesn't need tobe in an aquarium either.
Needs to be out in its naturalhabitat in the ocean.
Mom Brittany Tarrin went viralon TikTok, of course TikTok with

(04:05):
claims that an octopus at apetting section of the aquarium
Okay, you have these interaction.
The insurance must beastronomical so lashed onto her
son's arm, leaving him severelybruised with suction hickeys.
After a nightmare July 14thvisit and they have pictures of

(04:26):
it and everything the octopusstarted to come out up and over
the glass.
My friend and I were not surewhat to do.
There's no employees around, sowe start yelling for help.
The employee came up and justsaid oh, she's super playful
today.
And then he could not get theoctopus off.
The mother recounted.
The worker ended up having tocall two other San Antonio

(04:48):
Aquarium employees to help prythe grippy tentacles off the
boy's arms.
It took three workers and atotal of five minutes to wrestle
the boy free from the minikraken.
According to Taryn, leosuffered deep purple suction cup
bruises up and down his armthat spanned from his wrist to
his armpit.
During their many previousvisits to the touch tank, an

(05:12):
aquarium employee is generallyby the octopus tank to guide
interactions.
Look, no, no, that lawsuitprobably for sure.
All right, next story up, allright.
Apparently this Gen X fella, 58years old, says he can't find a
job.
Let me go find the story.

(05:34):
I'm sorry, I clicked off of X.
All right, here we go from theNew York Post.
Gen Xer is qualified but can'tland a job.
He thinks this is the bizarrereason why I may never get hired
again.
He thinks it's because of hisage he's 58.
I can see his point, but to methere's more to the story.

(05:56):
He's too old for this is whatthe it's how this article starts
off.
A Gen Xer sparked a fieryconversation about ageism in the
workplace, and many agreed withhis sentiment.
I may never get hired again.
Bradley Richardson, a58-year-old who now peddles
adulting courses online, said inan Instagram video Lord, this

(06:18):
tells me something.
Already he's trying to peddlethis kind of life coaching crap
online, of adulting coursesonline.
You're already, you're alreadya step behind, guy.
This is not the way to go.
You can't.
No, no, you're not going tomake it.
You're not going to make it.

(06:39):
He claimed that, despite havingskills and experience, he
believes his age nowdisqualifies him from
traditional employment.
Bullshit.
I will make money, but I maynever be an employee or get a
job ever again because of my age, he said.
His post quickly gainedtraction, with nearly 30,000
likes and over 4,000 comments.

(07:01):
Richardson's concern resonatedwith many Gen Xers and boomers
who echoed his sentiment thatageism is a real barrier in
today's jobs marketplace.
I can see this a little bit.
I mean, I'm out in theworkforce.
I don't think I would ever geta job now, with my age, in any

(07:22):
kind of tech industry, justbecause, number one, I'm not
qualified.
Hello, I don't have a collegedegree, in that I don't have a
college degree at all.
Now I have military time andexperience, but I don't think
that counts for anything thesedays anywhere, especially in
this town that I'm in right nowin Huntsville, alabama.

(07:43):
They are big and strong oncollege degrees, especially in
engineering.
Now I do have a good job, Ihave a fantastic job that I love
, but you know, and it obviouslydoesn't require a college
degree, and I think they didtake into consideration my
military experience because ofwhat the job is about.
Okay, so moving on, some pointedto the added challenges faced

(08:09):
by older workers frommarginalized communities, where
their race, gender and sexualityfurther worsen the
discrimination.
Sexuality should not even be inthe topic.
Okay, because you're not goingto be having sex at work.
So let's just.
Well, normal people like me arenot going to be having sex.
Maybe that's the problem.
Maybe that's why this Gen Xercan't find work.

(08:31):
All right, hold on a minute, Idon't know what is going on with
my throat.
All right Back to the story.
A survey conducted by resumebuilding site, resume Now,
proved all their worries to betrue.
It pointed out that, sadly, 90%of workers over the age of 40
have experienced ageism in theworkplace and almost half of the

(08:54):
respondents witnessed theiremployer hiring predominantly
young workers.
I don't think this is anythingnew either.
I think this has been aroundforever.
I think this has been aroundfor a long time, so it's not
something new.
It's not something that'strending.
It's not something new.
Many people empathized with theGen Xer in the comment section
in his viral video.
Many people empathized with theGen Xer in the comment section

(09:17):
in his viral video.
I'm 46 and I'm already feelingit in my industry.
Well, what industry is that?
I'm 42 and I feel this hard.
Others insisted their skillsremain valuable and said they
continue to find work withcompanies that prioritize
experience, and I think itdepends on what you're trying to
do Now.
If it's a specific field andyou are qualified for it, you

(09:41):
have a college degree, you haveexperience.
I don't think that should be aproblem with your age, and I
think the older workers have adifferent work mentality, ethics
than the younger people do.
I used to work with a girl.
I have to tell you I'm gettingoff topic.
No, not really getting offtopic, but we're going to go
over time.
It's already 10 minutes, we'regoing to go over time.

(10:03):
I used to work with a girl whowas late every single day and
one time I asked her.
I said why are you always late?
She said oh well, you knowthey'll wait for me, it's no big
deal.
She was a lot younger than meand listen where I work.
Now you guys, you're not goingto believe what I'm about to
tell you.
You are not going to believewhat I'm about to tell you.

(10:23):
I used to go into work 15, 20minutes early.
I'd get settled in, I'd loginto my laptop, get my other
computer up and running and I,you know there's a lot you have
to do Log in, you have to loginto all these different, all
this different crap.
I mean it takes like 10, 15minutes to get up and running.
So by the time six o'clock camearound, I was already at my

(10:46):
desk, I already had my firstcase pulled up and I was working
.
Meanwhile, the young peoplewere still coming in at 6.05,
still walking through the door.
Now we used to have our teamleads would take turns.
We have like five, six teamleads.
Okay, they do what we do.
They just do a little bit extraresponsibility and they used to
have to sit at the front doorand watch everybody come in and

(11:07):
check them in as we came in.
And in order to do that, theywould get there 30 minutes early
.
They'd get there at 530.
And then they'd have to, youknow, get ready for people to
come in.
They'd take the alarm off theplace and all this stuff.
Well, and then doing so, byFriday, they had some.
They had like what?

(11:27):
Two, three hours, I forget one.
They'd have like one.
They'd have a couple hourssaved up as comp time so they
would leave.
Whoever the team lead was thatweek, they would leave.
Whoever the team lead was thatweek, they would leave Friday
early at lunch.
Nobody cared.
It was comp time, nobody cared,nobody complained.
It was great.
We had a system going on.
It worked Well.

(11:48):
I guess somebody didn't likethat in management after,
because one guy, our big programmanager, he moved on to go to a
different job.
So we got a new program managerand, like the day after he got
in his position, he stoppeddoing that.
He said no, we're no longergoing to have the team leads sit

(12:10):
.
Nobody can come in the building, at least until 5 till, 10 till
, 5 till I forget what it was.
Our team lead said 10 till,somebody else said 5 till.
I'm like you are fuckingkidding me.
We can't come in early now, wehave to wait.
So I'm like, okay, by God, I'llcome in like everybody else
comes in.
So the first day this goes intoto be enacted, I sit out in my

(12:33):
car until six damned o'clock.
I finally get out of my car atsix and there are people still
driving into the parking lot.
I'm like how's this working outfor you?
It's like they are rewardingthe people who are constantly
late.
The excuse was well, we weredoing away with comp time and
it's hard to hold peopleaccountable.

(12:54):
You know, if they're not attheir desk, we don't, you know,
because some people come inearly, they'll go to the
bathroom, they'll do this,they'll do that.
It's hard to keep track of themall.
I just call bullshit, it's justbullshit.
But you know, whatever, okay,I'm done, I'm done.
Then we need a question of theday.
All right, I know I've askedthis question before, but what

(13:15):
are you guys watching right now.
I need something new to watch.
I've watched um, I may justre-watch the Crown.
I love Olivia Colman.
Uh, I just watched a recent Isay it's recent, recent to me a
show called Landscapers.

(13:35):
It's weird, it's an artsy, Iwant to say it was tried to,
they tried to direct itartsy-fartsy.
It was weird, but it was a goodstory and I was just fascinated
by it.
There's only four episodes ofit.
It's about a true story too.
Anyway, here's what I don'tlike.
I don't like.
I didn't like Breaking Bad.
I know that's very popular, butI didn't care for it.
I didn't like it at all.
I like crime fiction.

(13:59):
Um, I liked Broadchurch.
What was the crime fiction Ijust recently watched?
I forget now, but it was reallygood.
I liked it.
Um, so I like fiction.
That's crime, but lightheartedkind of, uh, I don't know.
I just I don't like a bunch ofwoke crap.

(14:19):
I don't want a bunch of sex inthere, I just want a regular,
good, old-fashionedentertainment.
Okay, I need something to watchthough.
Okay, I gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
I'm sorry I went over my time.
Bye.