More cheers for Men of a Certain Age

Last Monday's episode of Men of a Certain Age on TNT is worth a second look if you have an on-demand service or if you happened to record it. It's not up on the TNT web site yet.

Episode 7 is titled Fathers’ Fraternity. As you might figure, it centers on father-son relationships. But the show also touches on three forms of rejection -- obvious rejection based on misconceptions or prejudices (in this case, age discrimination), mysterious rejection where the victim doesn't quite understand why he's being turned down and begins questioning his own self worth, and justifiable rejection where one person is picked over another for logical reasons that are tied to abilities rather than emotions or clouded perceptions. My favorite scene is when the Ray Romano character goes to a large hardware store to speak to the general manager about why he rejected his elderly father for employment simply based on age. The manager explains that the work done in the store requires tasks like climbing ladders and expertise on computers, implying that it's work for younger people. Romano looks around and points to a young but obese employee and asks if the overweight worker is climbing any ladders. Meanwhile, Romano's father is roaming around the store, browsing at merchandise, unaware that his son is talking to the manager.

As that discussion continues near the service desk, a dispute occurs in another part of the store where a customer is trying to get an answer about a product from an inexperienced employee who obviously doesn't know the business very well but is trying to compensate by fruitlessly fumbling around on the store computer. The angry customer is about to leave when Romano's father, who owned a hardware store for many years prior to retiring, happens to overhear the discussion and comes to the aid of the customer.

The manager arrives on the scene with Romano and witnesses the exchange and the now-satisfied customer. Romano makes some funny wise crack to the manager about the kid with the computer, which practically made me stand up and cheer. And yes, the manager, now realizing older workers have a lot to offer, hired the retired hardware store owner.

As I have mentioned in a prior post, I like this show. It touches on a host of small and big topics meaningful to men my age. There's a lot of us, so a show like this is long overdue. But the dark-comedy/drama also should have value to women who try to understand us, younger people who will get to 50 one day and to seniors who have been there and done that.

Still, it's a fictional television show. In real life, would that store manager have hired the elderly retiree, regardless of how much knowledge he had about hardware? Do managers these days have the insight to understand why experience matters? Do companies, desperate to trim payroll in this recession, understand that their bottom lines ultimately aren't going to improve by ditching so much institutional knowledge or that there are many seasoned workers who can be had at bargain prices these days?

Technology is great. I truly enjoy the digital age, various new gadgets and such. I like working with younger, high-energy folks with fresh ideas from different cultures, genders, races and ethnic backgrounds. But I also understand that without men of a certain age (and older) being welcomed in the workplace, American society as a whole is diminished. Being unfairly rejected later in life has across-the-board consequences that rival many other societal problems.