Rebecca Danigelis was a dedicated hotel housekeeper in Boston who loved her job. Danigelis worked for 55 years in the business, never taking a day off—she even had to miss her own sister's funeral to continue working. Yet, although she enjoyed working, Rebecca did not just do it for fun; she needed to make enough to support her two kids, even having to use her 401(k) money to put Sian-Pierre through college. While working, Rebecca barely had enough money in her bank account to support herself, and certainly did not have enough to fall back on just in case. Thus, as long as she kept working, she was able to keep herself and her family afloat, even if it meant she would be working for the rest of her life. This would all change when Rebecca was unexpectedly fired at age 75 due to her age. 

Danigelis never thought she would lose her job; she was a committed employee who always put her work first. For that reason, Rebecca assumed that her five loyal decades of experience had proved her worth with the company. It was not until the hotel began downsizing and reorganizing that she began to notice the hotel asking other older employees to retire.

Rebecca told us, "A lot of the older employees...were saying, 'They're asking me about retiring, and I don't want to retire" (Danigelis and Regis). This pressure to retire that Danigelis details further demonstrates how employers specifically target older workers and force many of them into retirement simply because of their age. 

While this reorganizing was occuring, and as she noticed these other older workers starting to be pushed into retirement or laid off, Rebecca told Sian-Pierre, "I feel like I'm very dispensable" (Danigelis). Danigelis reflects the shared perception of many older employees by their employers as burdensome and useless for their companies, which derives from the ageist stereotype that these workers are unproductive and take jobs from younger employees. Further, this feeling of being "dispensable" reflects the internalized feeling of worthlessness after older workers are targeted in the workplace.

Soon enough, the hotel began minimizing Rebecca's role in the workplace. "The thing that happened to me was," she explained, "they were taking away my duties [jobs] and stuff like that" (Danigelis and Regis). This limitation of Rebecca's work further reveals how older employees are commonly, and unfairly, excluded from participating in workplace activities and tasks due to their old age. 

Then it happened. Rebecca was suddenly informed that she would no longer be working for the hotel. Danigelis explains in Duty Free, "They were reorganizing, and my position was eliminated” (Danigelis). Again, this sudden firing exposes how her experience and history with the hotel no longer mattered—only her age did. This termination further reinforces how older Americans across the country suffer incredible job uncertainty once they get older, able to be removed in an instant despite their skills and hard work.

Rebecca's story did not end here. Immediately after being fired, Danigelis reentered the application process, searching for a new job to get her back on her feet. Rebecca filled out countless applications and attended numerous interviews (Danigelis). After these interviews, Rebecca expressed each time how confident she was that she would land the job (Danigelis). Yet, for a span of three and a half years, Rebecca was rejected from every single one.

In the documentary, Rebecca expressed, "No one’s gonna hire someone 75 years of age...When you get to my age, you send out your resume…and people think in their head...about the old [lady] with the walker" (Danigelis). Rebecca's constant rejection from these new job opportunities further illustrates how so many employers assume that all old workers are incapable of working due to their old age, having these stereotypical images of older workers already in their head before actually meeting them. Further, Rebecca's own unemployment spell of three and a half years exemplifies the reality of how older workers have much longer times finding a new job once rehired, especially compared to younger workers, as discussed earlier. 

Adding to his mother's experiences with the application and interview process, Sian-Pierre told us, "You go on LinkedIn and there are coded ways that older people are being weeded out in the job hiring process...Facebook and Twitter allow you to pitch advertising to only the audience that they want to see it. So, if there's a job opportunity posted and that job says they don’t want people over fifty to see the ad, then people over fifty wouldn’t be able to see the ad" (Danigelis and Regis). As explored earlier, and now strengthened by Rebecca's own struggles, companies are using application services to institutionally discriminating against older workers in the hiring process. Contributing to Rebecca's three and a half year long unemployment struggle, such advertisement methods are clearly effective at keeping older workers out of the office, demonstrating how easy it is for employers to bar older workers from finding jobs.

Rebecca then shared a challenge she encountered when trying to apply for a new job: “I went on LinkedIn and it says ‘Date Last Finished High School,’ and it stopped past 1979!” (Danigelis and Regis). It then deleted her application after she could not provide the answer. Similar to the use of targeted advertisement by employers, this experience reinforces how employers are can easily use application tactics to close off work opportunities for older individuals. Stereotypes of older people as unproductive workers must be so deeply ingrained into many employers' minds to prevent them from even letting these potentially talented candidates apply first.

Then, Danigelis finally got accepted at another hotel. Yet, unsurprisingly, the job she did receive was a much lower position than she had before, and only allowed her to work part-time; while happy to be back at work, Danigelis had to do more physically demanding work for less pay than she was making before she was fired (Danigelis). Rebecca's new job models the previously discussed path that many older employees are forced to take after being fired—finding lower skilled and lower paying work—a result of stereotypes that older workers cannot carry out difficult work. However, the fact that she did land a job at all means there still is hope for older individuals in search of work, even if it is minimal.