Article October 3, 2011 Issue

My get-up-and-go career

By Phyllis W. Zeno

When the new president of the company where I had worked for 29 years called me to his office one Tuesday morning, along with the director of Human Resources, his announcement came without warning. He opened his portfolio and said briskly, “We’re planning a retirement luncheon for you this Friday and thought we’d get a list of the executives you’d like invited.”

As editor of the company’s travel magazine, which I had founded some 20 years earlier, I had received nothing but glowing reports on every review, and my success had been well regarded. How could he do this to me?

But in my heart, I realized that being 78 years old and highly paid in a period of economic stress, I could easily be replaced by a younger person at a lower salary.

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