Once I was 25, then I was 35 and years later, today I am 55. How did that even happen? If you are reading this and you are younger than 40, take note…one day, hopefully, you will graduate to milestones in age. But beware! While there are many advantages to aging, professionally there are many pitfalls.

In an era of #BlackLivesMatter and an increase in awareness of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the workplace, there seems to be a continued absence of diversity/inclusion when it comes to the “over 40” employee.

According to a 2018 AARP article:

• Nearly 1 in 4 workers age 45 and older have been subjected to negative comments about their age from supervisors or coworkers.
• About 3 in 5 older workers have seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace.
• 76 percent of these older workers see age discrimination as a hurdle to finding a new job; another report found that more than half of these older workers are prematurely pushed out of longtime jobs and 90 percent of them never earn as much again.

If you are under 40…imagine….this can be you, too!

Recently, while interviewing with a top tech organization, the Head of People was proudly commenting on how her organization has a strong value on diversity in the workforce. While we were discussing the role, I asked her, “How much of your workforce is over 40?” Unfortunately, she was unable to answer that. I also mentioned that on their career page, there is a beautiful image of a young fresh team with people of many colors and genders, which is awesome. There was, however, no images of people who looked over 35 let alone 50. At the end of the day I did not get the job and woman who did get hired, while I am sure she is capable, looked to be in her late 20’s as based on her graduation from college I noted from LinkedIn.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of the American worker is 42.2 years old, and those over 55 will comprise a quarter of the entire American workforce in less than five years.

“People have sexual harassment training, they have unconscious bias training around race, but we have not been intentional about conversations around age and ageism in our training,” says Johnny C. Taylor Jr., CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management.

While speaking with a young female client in her early twenties recently, we discussed what is important to her regarding culture in her next role. “I really want to work with people my own age,” she said. “I like to be able to go out and play games and have drinks with people my own age.”

When I heard her comments, I completely understood her point of view. However, I looked back on my own career. When I was junior in my career, there was always someone older than me that I completely enjoyed working with. When I worked in hospital administration, I recalled Becky and Lanier, the amazing older women I sat next to and had so much fun with. When I was working in publishing, I remember working with Sandy who handled Ops and Finance. She was tough, smart and I loved working with her. Not only did I enjoy working with them, we also had fun hanging out at work events, at lunch and I am still friends with these people years later. At many stages in my early career I was in management roles and I always felt comfortable managing folks who were older than me. I enjoyed it also because they called me on my mistakes and helped mentor and shape my career path. Today I believe there are many young leaders who might feel uncomfortable managing a person 10, 15 or 20 years older than themselves.

I also understand a few other things as I continue to mature. Older workers do come with more experience and want to be compensated for their knowledge and value they bring to an organization. If you are in recruiting or a hiring manager, consider the following:

·      Older workers are more likely to save you money in the long run as they will be loyal and will not job hunt thus lower costs on recruiting, training, loss of time, sales and productivity.

·      Older workers have older children, resulting in a reduction of maternity and sick leave to take care of children.

·      If you value mentorship at your company, consider this: Mature workers can help mentor and train newer employees in the workforce.

We have such amazing young and intelligent talent out there. Sometimes, it has been my experience, that younger generations may have an attitude of “I am smarter and faster than you.” Or “I can hire someone younger at 30% less,” which can be true, however, there is a cost to bringing on that younger person too including lack of training and years of knowledge and experience.

THE PROBLEM

Over the years, I have experienced many mature clients who often tell me, “I want to be relevant. I have the energy. I am smart and I want to keep contributing but they won’t let me.” A brilliant marketing leader who is over 40 took 9 months to find a great role. He had to take a 20% pay cut just to take the job. An active and intelligent 62 year old HR professional still is unable to make it past final round interviews even though she is over-qualified for roles she is applying for AND she is willing to take a pay reduction to keep working. And on a positive note, my 68 year old IT/Software lady found a contract position less than a year ago and she is working and the company loves her and have extended her contract for another year.

According to SHRM, following are 7 Ways that Ageism in the Workplace Adversely Impacts Your Business:

1. Employment law violations and fines. The longstanding Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) is a federal law that protects individuals who are 40 years and older from age-based employment discrimination.
2. Negative impact to employer branding. When job applicants or employees experience or witness age discrimination, employer branding can take a direct hit. Whether feedback is by word of mouth, on social media, or career sites like Glassdoor, negative commentary can result in attraction and retention issues and poorly perceived employer branding.
3. Costly mistakes due to inexperienced workers. Inexperience often equates to not only a longer time to learn one’s job but also lower quality decision-making and potentially costly mistakes that negatively impact the bottom line.
4. Fewer subject matter experts to bolster team bench strength. True subject matter experts are worth investing in and retaining. While their corresponding salaries may potentially be higher, they will save the business money through the breadth and depth of specialist knowledge they bring to the table, their ability to get up to speed more quickly, and through better decision-making.
5. Lack of middle-aged intellectual resources. It pays to cultivate an age-diverse workforce. Many older workers outperform or perform equally as well as their younger counterparts. Middle-aged brains shine when it comes to reaching solutions faster, making sounder judgments, and better navigating the complex world we live in today. As for creativity and innovation, these abilities span the spectrum of age. By not tapping into these key skillsets that older workers can provide, organizations risk missing out.
6. Diminished pool of mentors to develop future leaders.
7. Loss of historical knowledge and key business relationships. Older workers with tenure often take priceless historical knowledge with them when they are sent packing. This type of information can be invaluable to business strategies as well as day-to-day operations. The same goes for those beneficial business relationships older workers have nurtured with clients, service providers, and others within their network. The loss of these assets can prove to be costly to the business.

SOLUTIONS

In a 2019 HBR article, Josh Bersin and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic provided some exceptional considerations when it comes to decreasing ageism in the workplace:

• Give older people titles and roles that let them contribute their expertise. You can do this without necessarily offering higher and higher pay (to prevent replacing them with “cheaper” young people).
• Offer accommodations for flexible work. This includes more accessible workstations with more light, larger fonts, and other things that can help accommodate the needs of people of all ages.
• Look at pay equity by job and level, not tenure. Tenure is not a useful measure for pay unless it directly translates into experience and skills that drive value to the company. It is more than OK for an older person to make less money than a younger person if they are new to the job. In fact, it is fair.
• Bring age diversity into your DEI programs. One of the studies at Deloitte showed that age-diverse teams feel more psychological safety and innovative than teams which are age-biased. Age brings a sense of security and wisdom to teams, so use it to your advantage.
• Give older workers managerial roles, supervisor roles, and mentor roles. These positions will let them leverage their years of expertise or tenure.
• Recruit older people. Invite them back to work from retirement and tell stories of older people succeeding at your company. Companies like Boeing, Bank of America, Walgreens, GM, and others now invite older workers to come back, through specific programs tailored to the aging. They are branded “returnships.”
• Coach and teach recruiters not to discriminate by age. This includes tackling implicit biases, which is an illegal practice. When older workers find out they are excluded for non-specific reasons, they can and will sue your company.
• Teach younger leaders about reverse mentoring. Show them how they can help older people and understand how to manage older workers, who have biases of their own.

CONSIDER THIS…

At 52 I wrote an article about a role I had taken where I was 20 to 30 years older than everyone at my company. Even though I was laid off earlier this year, the experience was amazing. I had managers much younger than me and we learned from each other. I made long term friends AND had fun. I know the work I did impacted many people’s lives. However, today, I see rampant ageism through the conversations I am having with potential employers and clients.

At 90, Warren Buffett is still regarded as one of the most brilliant brains in the world of finance, and Charlie Munger, his righthand man, is 96. At 62, Madonna is the undisputed queen of pop. At 82, Jane Fonda is as prolific as ever in her careers as an actress and activist. Recently Queen Elizabeth was seen having a ride on her horse at the age of 93. And have you met our new 78-year-old President, Joe Biden?

At 55 I have a different perspective. If you are under 30 and are a CEO, hiring manager or recruiter, do consider adding diversity to your teams with older and experienced employees. People want to share experience and want to be relevant. Sixty is the new 40. (You will see.)

And if you are over 40, share the message. Talk about your experiences. If you are being discriminated due to age, talk about it. If you are mature, talk to people and share your experiences about the benefits of bringing in mature people into the workplace. Be a mentor. Share on your social networks. Boldly discussing this global concern can result in more awareness and hopefully, more action in the workplace to bring in diverse mature talent.