U.S. Labor Law, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, written when most of us worked in factories, has not been changed in my lifetime.

A Personal Account: Laid Off at 63 and Left Without Options

Let me paint you a picture: I’m a 64-year-old Army Veteran with a 33-year tech career, believing in job security—until I was laid off at 63. My role was shipped to India with no warning, just a vague “restructuring” excuse. When I tried to fight back, I hit a wall: lawyers uninterested, and the EEOC not scheduling interviews until 2026—long after my case would expire. I’m not alone.

My experience of being laid off at the age of 63 reflects a broader trend affecting older workers in the technology sector and beyond. A 2025 report by ProPublica documented a lawsuit accusing IBM of failing to comply with laws requiring disclosure of the ages of workers over 40 laid off, underscoring systemic age discrimination in corporate downsizing. Similarly, my story echoes allegations against TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), where the EEOC is investigating claims that the company targeted older U.S. workers for layoffs while retaining younger H-1B visa holders. These cases are not isolated—they signal a disturbing pattern of workforce displacement masked as corporate restructuring, where age and national origin become unspoken criteria for separation.

The Quiet Cracking: A National Crisis of Workforce Disengagement

That Fortune headline—”Half of workers are at breaking point”—is real. A 2025 TalentLMS survey of 1,000 U.S. workers found 54% are “quiet cracking,” meaning they’re mentally disengaging—20% constantly, 34% occasionally—due to burnout, stagnation, and feeling unseen. According to TalentLMS, “Quiet Cracking” is defined as a persistent feeling of workplace unhappiness that leads to disengagement, poor performance, and an increased desire to quit.

Gallup’s 2024 State of the Global Workplace Report shows only 21% of workers worldwide are engaged—a 10-year low—and disengagement is costing $438 billion in lost productivity annually. This corrects the original article’s claim of 31% U.S. engagement, as Gallup reports global figures. My story—age-based outsourcing, legal silence, and systemic neglect—mirrors this crisis of disengagement and disillusionment among the modern workforce.

Further data from the survey reveals that only 62% of employees feel secure about their long-term future with their current company, despite 82% feeling safe in their current job—a disconnect suggesting widespread job insecurity masked by immediate stability. Employees report a lack of training and recognition as core drivers of disengagement: those experiencing “quiet cracking” are 29% less likely to receive employer-provided training and 68% less likely to feel valued. This combination of stagnation and invisibility fuels a silent exodus from mental investment in work.

The EEOC: An Overwhelmed Agency Unable to Deliver Justice

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), our frontline defense against workplace discrimination, is overwhelmed. In FY 2024, it received 88,531 new charges of employment discrimination—a 9.2% increase from FY 2023. Despite this, the agency is understaffed, under-resourced, and backlogged, with reports indicating that initial interviews for some cases were scheduled as late as 2026, well past the statute of limitations for filing claims.

Studies suggest that only 1–5% of workers experiencing age discrimination file charges with the EEOC due to fear of retaliation or a sense of futility, and up to 75% of harassment victims never report incidents internally. With such underreporting, the 88,531 charges received represent only the visible tip of a much larger iceberg of workplace misconduct.

The EEOC’s FY 2025 enacted budget was $455 million, despite a request for $435.382 million for FY 2026. This level of funding is insufficient to manage the growing caseload, especially with ongoing initiatives such as digitization and backlog reduction. The agency is actively working to improve processes, including implementing a new scheduling tool and modernizing its intake procedures to reduce delays. However, staffing levels have dropped to 1,767 full-time equivalents in the proposed FY 2026 budget, down from 2,246 in FY 2024, raising concerns about the EEOC’s capacity to handle future caseloads.

Systemic inefficiencies exacerbate the situation. A 2022 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the EEOC needs better oversight of its charge intake process, and recommended improved tracking of intake timelines—a suggestion the EEOC has since implemented via daily management reports. Yet, delays persist, and claimants continue to abandon their cases, aware that justice delayed is often justice denied.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA): A 1935 Law in a
21-Century Economy

The 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is outdated and fails to protect modern workers. Designed for an era of factory labor and in-person union organizing, it excludes gig workers, independent contractors, agricultural workers, and supervisors from its protections. This leaves millions of workers in the gig economy—such as Uber drivers and freelance coders—without the right to collectively bargain or form unions.

The rise of remote and global teams has further eroded the NLRA’s relevance. Union organizing becomes nearly impossible when employees are scattered across time zones and national borders. A 2025 report notes that remote work is associated with higher engagement but lower well-being, highlighting the paradox of flexibility without support. Yet, the NLRA offers no tools for these workers to advocate for better conditions collectively.

The law also fails to address offshoring and job displacement. When companies restructure by moving roles overseas—often using H-1B visas to favor younger, lower-cost foreign workers—the NLRA provides U.S. employees no leverage to negotiate retention, retraining, or severance. The alleged practices at TCS, where older U.S. workers were laid off en masse while Indian H-1B visa holders were retained, exemplify this systemic vulnerability. Bloomberg reported that TCS laid off workers aged 40 to 60 across over a dozen U.S. states, sparking an EEOC probe into discrimination claims.

The misuse of H-1B visas to displace American workers has become a growing concern. The Economic Policy Institute notes that top H-1B employers hired 34,000 new H-1B workers in 2022 while laying off over 85,000 employees, highlighting a pattern of workforce churn favoring foreign labor. While the visa program was intended to attract specialized talent, it is increasingly used as a cost-cutting tool, often at the expense of older American workers.

Legal Recourse: A Broken Path for Workers

Seeking legal help often proves to be a dead end for most. Employment lawyers frequently decline age discrimination cases due to low financial returns. The average settlement for such cases ranges from $25,000 to $40,000. LawLinq estimates average EEOC settlements in California at $40,000–$45,000, with trial verdicts significantly higher—around $200,000 to $700,000—but far less common.

Success rates are dismally low. Only 2–3% of age discrimination cases succeed at trial, and closed charge statistics show an overall success rate of just 17.4% for workplace discrimination claims. The EEOC itself reports a litigation success rate of approximately 90.2%, but this refers to agency-led lawsuits, not individual claims. For a worker, the odds of winning are slim, making it a losing proposition for most lawyers to take such cases on contingency.

This economic reality explains why legal billboards advertise injury law, not employment rights. If workers had automatic standing in court or collective bargaining rights akin to injury victims, we would see “Fired unfairly? Call Worker Warriors!” on every bus stop. But the current system incentivizes lawyers to focus only on high-value cases, leaving ordinary workers voiceless and alone.

Toward Reform: A Call to Modernize Labor Protections

My story is not just personal—it is a warning. Outdated labor laws, an underfunded EEOC, and the profit-driven dynamics of offshoring and visa exploitation are fracturing the American workforce. Until we modernize these systems, every worker is one layoff away from joining the “quiet cracking” epidemic.

Needed Reforms

1. Modernize the NLRA to include gig workers, remote employees, and those affected by offshoring. Reforms like the PRO Act could expand NLRA coverage to freelancers and independent contractors, closing a critical gap.
2. Strengthen the EEOC with increased funding, staffing, and technological modernization. The agency’s efforts to digitize intake and improve data tracking are steps in the right direction, but must be fully funded and implemented.
3. Reform H-1B visa usage to prevent abuse in displacing American workers. This includes greater transparency in hiring practices and stronger enforcement of non-discrimination provisions.
4. Expand access to legal representation by creating public legal aid programs for employment disputes or incentivizing class-action mechanisms that make litigation viable for more workers.

The crisis of “quiet cracking” is not just emotional—it is structural. Workers are disengaged because they feel powerless. Until we give them real power—through modern laws, accessible justice, and collective voice—no amount of wellness programs or management training will fix what’s broken.

Conclusion: Join the Movement

Got a story like mine? We’re not alone—let’s fight back.

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