I recently celebrated my 58th birthday. Well, when I say “celebrated”, I mean “grudgingly resigned myself to acknowledging”.
Nobody likes the idea of getting older. And it’s especially difficult if it’s combined with the sense that your shelf-life is about to expire thanks to shifts in the job market that seem to favour younger people with less experience.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely dupportive of giving young people a leg up the career ladder. And I don’t have a problem with those high achievers who move on to senior roles at a relatively young age. I was one myself.
But even then — once I’d overcome the arrogance that can come with rapid promotion — I valued the experience and advice of those who’d been in the job a lot longer than me. Everybody needs mentors.
In journalism, the vocation that has has put food on my table for the past 37 years, people of my age are leaving the workplace in great numbers, often not by choice.
As a former colleague once observed — and this is also true of other industries — it’s not just a case of “wise heads” moving on (because, let’s face it, age doesn’t automatically endow wisdom) but also of “institutional memory” (or occupational memory) being lost.
All workplaces need
experienced hands
Experienced workers know where the metaphorical bodies are buried, and they recognise the traps to avoid. Even when they don’t work harder, they can work smarter. When competent older people leave, young people are often required to “reinvent the wheel”: find ways to do things that came instinctively to their predecessors. Sometimes they find better ways, especially when it comes to the use of technology, but often they don’t.
Discarding staff on the basis of age and/or pay bracket can have unintended — and sometimes costly — consequences. Time is wasted and mistakes are made.
All workplaces need experienced hands, if not on the payroll, then certainly on call.
Many people out there have been cast adrift before their time. Finding an affordable way to tap into this vast knowledge base could offer a solution to that greatest of business challenges: making more with less.
