27-year-old told by 50-year-old employer that she's "too old" to work at a smoothie shop: 'I'm sure Leonardo DiCaprio would love this place'

Imagine being told you were too old to make smoothies for a living!

Regardless of whether or not we'd like to admit it, there are some professions in which age is an inevitable factor. Professional athletes and dancers are likely to understand the fear that comes with approaching one's thirties all too well. However, can someone please explain to me how working at a smoothie shop also falls into this category? I'll wait for a valid response.

In the meantime, let's pour one out for this 27-year-old, who recently found herself looking for a new job after two back-to-back disastrous experiences working for a cleaning services company and as an ophthalmologist's assistant. She decided that while she continues to look for a more long-term full-time position somewhere, she might as well pick up work at the new local smoothie shop in her neighborhood to make some temporary income. She saw that they were hiring and thought that given the difficulties of the contemporary job market, she wasn't in a position to say no to this seemingly easy opportunity. 

Let's just say that the interview did not exactly go as expected. When she met with her potential employer, who was a man in his fifties, she learned that she was no longer eligible for the position out of nowhere. This revelation came directly after he asked how old she was. She made the regrettable admission that she was 27 years old, even though no job candidates should ever be pressured into revealing their age. Regardless, she made that mistake and was turned away all of a sudden. 

Apparently, the author had not read on the job posting outside the store that the age range for the position was 18-25. Sounds pretty ridiculous to require a limit for throwing some fruit and vegetables into a blender. Clearly, the author is better off not working there. Despite her need for another job soon, there is no point working for a toxic employer with such a backwards perspective. 

As one might expect, several members of this online community expressed their sympathies to the author after such an unnecessarily upsetting job interview experience. So many folks have found themselves in similar situations in the workplace, where their youth seemed to play a greater factor in the minds of their employers than their actual abilities. Here's hoping this is a practice that continues to go out of style.