The dismissal of Jérôme Ferrand for economic reasons in 2017 marks the beginning of a turbulent period for this construction salesman. For six years, the 57-year-old “juggled small jobs” and unemployment.
And even with ten years of experience behind him, this resident of Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes) struggles to find missions or long-term contracts that allow him to reach retirement age with peace of mind. Especially if, as provided for in the reform presented by the Government, the legal age of departure was increased from 62 to 64 years.
The fifty-year-old has no illusions and knows that in France the job market still tends to be hostile towards older people. In fact, the employment rate for people aged 55-64 was only 56% in 2021: a growing figure but still below the European average.
Older “devalued” and “mistreated”
On the Côte d’Azur, Jérôme Ferrand affirms that he only finds short or medium-term contracts in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): “My situation is not stable, but we take what we find, we don’t.” we have no choice because we try to keep our rights (unemployed). We always try to push the deadlines to try to go all the way, to get to retirement by putting everything together.”
For him, “elderly people are devalued in this country.” “I’ve already been told in conversations with professionals that older people are more difficult to manage and fit less easily into the mold.”
“The shock” was the same in early January for Catherine L., a 57-year-old top executive, when her IT company decided to part ways with her as part of a structural reorganization. “It’s extremely violent: they told me clearly that I no longer had my place in the new organization of the company,” laments this former “key account manager” of La Défense in Paris.
“It is a double punishment, even triple… It is frustrating: I really feel that they got rid of me to be able to employ young people at a lower cost and obtain more profits,” laments this woman, who marched this Thursday against the pension reform along with to their relatives.
With 5 years less, “the perfect candidate”
She regrets “a profoundly unfair reform” that will delay her retirement for at least a year, initially scheduled for October 2027. However, Catherine is not one of those who resigns easily. If she is determined to roll up her sleeves, she is also aware that the task ahead of her will be difficult, especially if she wants to maintain the same salary expectations and standard of living.
Jacques Peronnet has also repeated this phrase a lot during his last two years of unemployment. “It had become my obsession,” this former commercial director, fired in December 2020 after 19 years at the same company in the Paris region, told BFMTV.com. At 59 years old, Jacques Peronnet testifies to “the difficulty of remaining unemployed” a few years after retirement, at the age when we usually prepare our boxes instead of new CVs.
“At first, I thought the business would be finished in a year. But life quickly disappointed me,” says the father. “However, I tried everything. I sent almost 300 applications from right to left, I multiplied the training courses. But nothing helped… -7 years younger, I will be the perfect candidate, but with a profile equal to another candidate, we would necessarily choose someone in quarantine
“Bring the neck” to the French mentality
“It was difficult because the more the years passed, the less I knew that I had a chance to return to the business,” continues the fifty-year-old. “Approaching retirement put a lot of pressure on me.”
After two years, Jacques Peronnet finally found a job as “development director” at the beginning of January thanks to an internship carried out at the end of last year as part of a training course paid for by Pôle Emploi. But he is “deeply marked” by a “period of fog”, “a tunnel made of great moral suffering” that he “mentally crushed” during which he did not really feel accompanied.
Today, those approaching sixty want to “wring their necks with the French mentality” which views employees over 55 as unfit or obsolete for the job market. “It’s terrible because those repeated denials gave me impostor syndrome. I felt like a good for nothing, which is a normal feeling since nobody likes you. For example, I had the impression that I was no longer capable of doing business negotiations”.
However, “all the reflexes come back” once in the professional field, this “development manager” is happy, who says he has managed to find his place in his new job, within a company of products for the treatment of wood with headquarters between Mulhouse and Colmar (Haut-Rhine).
A “senior index”?
The lowering of the retirement age is not a problem for him: for him, “this reform is necessary if we want to maintain the pay-as-you-go system, as long as it takes into account the harshness of certain professions.” . Jacques Peronnet has already decided to remain in office until he is 65 years old.
With the aim of improving the employability of the elderly, the pension reform presented by the government provides for the establishment of a “upper indices” which will be published for all companies with more than 1,000 employees as of this year and 300 employees as of 2024. “It will promote good practices and denounce bad ones”, and its absence could lead to sanctions.
“A good idea to show bad students”, for Jérôme Ferrand. “If there are no sanctions or obligations, nothing will change,” Catherine L. replies. “It has no interest.” As for Jacques Peronnet, he prefers “pedagogy” to quota systems. “You have to do things smarter. There, he really gives the impression of forcing companies to incorporate dinosaurs at all costs ”.
Source: BFM TV
