Can You Hear Me Now?
I was speaking to an older gentleman on the phone. That’s all I do all day long, by the way. Talk on the phone, with people, about their money. Anyway-this particular gentleman was a little confused by some information he had gathered on his account. I was doing my best to figure out where this information had come from and I made the erroneous determination that he was currently looking at said information.
“Are you online?” I asked.
“No,” he responded in a confused voice, “I’m on the telephone.” Like I was the confused person. Like how was it unclear that he was currently talking to someone on the phone? How would he be talking to me if he was on the internet?
Way to make me feel like a moron in 2.8 seconds flat. Sigh.
I experience this a lot. Older people, who maybe shouldn’t be managing their own money anymore, calling about something very simple that is super confusing to them. “Why am I getting charged this fee?” That has always been charged and listed on the statements. “Why is my money moving around?” Because you enrolled in a managed account service years ago.
I feel bad for these people, they’re confused, and it’s not really their fault. They’re old, their memories are going, they live alone and no one has had the guts to tell them “You really shouldn’t do this anymore, let me take care of it for you.”
It used to be that you didn’t grow old alone. Generations of the same family lived in the same house. Younger people watched every day and noticed when you started forgetting to put on your pants and took care of you. Now days, people live alone. Often times there’s no one around to notice when they’re not doing so well all by their lonesome. So why, exactly, is it better to be “independent” into your old age? To live alone? To have no one to look after you.
So – is this new way, the “independence” that older people now have really better? Is it better that sons and daughters don’t see their parents every day as they age, and therefore don’t really have a clear picture of their health, mental or physical? Are nursing homes really the solution? And if sons and daughters aren’t paying attention, whose job is it to notice when things begin to go downhill? The person on the phone?
Sorry – this one turned out to be a little dark and depressing folks, I’ll try for some levity tomorrow, I promise. Today, I’m just in one of those moods.