Abolish the over 50s

I’m going to start a new campaign. News that Plymouth City Council has opened a ‘ONE-STOP-SHOP’ which they hope will become a social hub for Plymouth’s over-50s once again caused a red mist to descend upon me, swiftly followed by a big dollop of absolute rage. So prepare yourselves for a bit of a rant…

Why does this artificial, meaningless and inappropriate division of society into the under 50s and the over 50s still persist? What is different today about being over 50 to being over 40 or over 30?  If the implication is that over 50 means “elderly” how long is it going to take before rational, intelligent people (i.e. those at the Council) catch up with the fact that these days, even “over 60” is unacceptable if you want to suggest that people are ageing.

The council proclaims that its new facility will act as a drop-in centre providing information on everything from health and housing to education and jobs. Okay. So why is this needed for the over 50s? If people in their 30s and 40s can sort things out by themselves, why do we need to be patronised and insulted by the assumption that we can’t?

Ageism and age discrimination is deeply ingrained in our society and prevents opportunities and progress at the level at which things really matter such as jobs. These worthy initiatives for the “over 50s” are hugely damaging through their reinforcement of the erroneous notion that ageing means mental and physical decline, lack of independence, and an inability to cope. If we are to have such schemes (which may have a role for the elderly) then for goodness sakes let’s keep abreast of change and imply that they’re for the over 70s at the very least.

See more at: http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/health/50s-stop-shop-opens/article-1727850-detail/article.html

As old as you feel

One of the key aspects of positive ageing is staying healthy. Steps we take now to improve our overall fitness and wellbeing will enable us to remain at work longer and to avoid many of the preventable ailments of later “old” age.

By and large we all know vaguely what sorts of things we ought to concentrate on and – especially at this time of year – generally try to do (or not do) some of the obvious things like eating less or eating better, and getting more exercise.

To really focus the mind, go to www.realage.co.uk  where you can complete a free questionnaire about how old you really are compared to your chronological age. At the end of the survey it gives you a list of recommendations of what to do or continue to do in order to avoid being older than your years. It’s based on an American site and to a degree needs taking with a pinch of salt, but as a first step to really thinking through all the things that add up to a healthy lifestyle at this age, it seems as good a place as any to start.

Meaningful mentoring

The value of older people as mentors and their understanding of the power of on-line social networking have both been amply demonstrated in the Yell and horsesmouth Mentoring Works Awards. The three awards for business mentoring, which were drawn from user nominations on the online mentoring website horsesmouth.co.uk, were all won by individuals over the age of 50.

The winner of the £1000 Mentor of The Year Award is 64-year old Keith Williams from Ackworth in Yorkshire, a SFEDI (Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative) accredited professional, who advises small businesses and social enterprises. Having created and developed many successful businesses in the last 20 years, Keith feels he has made plenty of mistakes and learned from them and believes that today he can pass on this learning to young entrepreneurs on the way up. 

Winner of The £500 Editor’s Prize, for the most inspiring story published on horsesmouth.co.uk, is 51-year old Jayne Bellis from Chester. The £500 M-Factor Award – for the most active business mentor with the highest rating on the site, goes to 52-year old Michael Birchmore from Portsmouth.

horsesmouth.co.uk is the world’s first ‘pro-social’ networking site and was purpose-built in 2008 for online mentoring on a wide range of topics including education, careers, health, families and relationships. It is free and available to anyone over the age of 16, with the majority of the site’s users being under 25. The site is professionally hosted, managed and moderated and all profiles, stories and weblinks are approved before posting.

Much is talked about in the workplace concerning the potential role of older workers as mentors. This is proof, if any was needed, that the wisdom of age and experience is welcomed by the young if presented in a relevant, individualised and meaningful way. Employers would do well to consider what they might learn from this model.

Good news and bad judgement

Hooray! Harriet Harman has announced that moves to end “default” retirement at 65 are being brought forward, with older workers also getting the right to request flexible retirement/working options (not that this means they will automatically get them). No doubt there are many dark and devious economic and political forces at work behind this but no matter – the outcome is just as welcome.

Two interesting points stood out from Ms Harman’s speech: the first referring to the role of older women, many of whom are just getting into their prime in their working life – having taken time off work when their children were young. This is a point which is largely ignored in talking about later life working where male work patterns are generally used as the standard. Much more attention needs to be paid to gender differences in work attitudes and abilities in later life if erroneous assumptions are not to be made by employers about what older workers want and are able and prepared to do.

The second point was Ms Harman’s use of the term the “wellderly” to describe well, older people. By doing so she has shot herself in the foot and demonstrated she has completely missed the point – which is that older working people are NOT elderly. Let’s hope this dreadful term is relegated to the government’s “thought it was a good idea at the time but let’s pretend it never happened” pile, immediately.

Keeping up with change

Last week we were pleased to be able to take part in Peter Day’s In Business programme on BBC Radio 4 which was looking at the ageing marketplace.  The programme was eclectic, wide-ranging and extremely interesting. Its main focus being on a number of new developments – in the UK, US and internationally – which are being created to meet the changing needs of our increasingly long-lived population.

Personal robots and individual monitoring systems,  when finally refined and brought  to market, have the potential to revolutionise later life care of the elderly, enabling many to stay in their own homes rather than having to be institutionalised. Advances in medical science will also enable better self-management of increasingly prevalent diseases such as diabetes.

On the basis of these developments alone (and there must be thousands more) the future is exciting.  But underneath it all, we need to take on board a couple of salient points. Such advances will need paying for and, as with any new product, won’t at first be cheap. This means that people themselves need to factor the cost of such items as home monitoring systems into their later life financial planning – it is unlikely the cost will be able to be met by the state. So choices will have to be made, another round-the-world trip or saving the money for later life care?

Second, and perhaps the key message, is that these developments are taking place and will become real whether we like it or not. As we have seen in the past few decades, the march of technology is fast and unrelenting.  What is lagging behind, as ever, is our ability as humans to change our thinking and attitudes fast enough to keep pace and fully realise and appreciate the implications – positive and negative. If only someone could invent a machine to enable us all to do that… that really would be a breakthrough.

If you would like to listen to the programme or find out more about the technological and medical advances discussed click on here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pl1h3

Enduring entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs. They’re young, innovative, dynamic types aren’t they?

Apparently not. Interesting results from the publication Management Today show a surprisingly high number of older people popping up in their list of the year’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs.  “An extraordinary 58 are aged 60 or over. And no fewer than 11 have passed their 70th birthday”, they report. Well blow me down.

Obviously as with all research you need to dig a bit deeper to find out what this actually means. Are these just enduring entrepreneurs who started young (e.g. Richard Branson) and are now ageing, or those who have taken up the sport recently? Either way, it hardly matters if their current performance demonstrates that they are outstripping their younger rivals.

This is certainly something to be taken on board by employers or HR managers who may believe that older people aren’t capable of high performance outputs and are only fit for the knackers yard. There’s an interesting use too by MT of the term “Silvertops” to describe older entrepreneurs.  It has quite a jolly ring to it somehow.

Reward and Recognition

Splendid news that Caroline Waters, director of people and policy at BT has been awarded an OBE for “services to diversity and equal opportunities”.

HR Magazine who voted her HR director of the year in 2009, reported:

“Waters is one of the pioneers in the adoption of innovative approaches to workforce management and her enthusiasm for the benefits of work-life balance are unrivalled. She has been unflagging in her efforts to demonstrate that flexible working is good for business.

BT is a leading employer when it comes to an ageing workforce …The company’s youngest employee is 16 and oldest 75, marking an age gap of nearly 60 years.”

It’s great to see that Caroline’s efforts have been rewarded – particularly in the area of demonstrating that flexible working is good for business – and that “age management” applies to workers of all ages. Let’s hope this leads to a greater recognition by other employers that great things can be achieved in this area and equally, that there is a strong business case for doing them.

Giving age discrimination a bad name

A red mist descended at the recent news that a 42 year old banker has won his case for age discrimination.  Quite rightly, a leading employment lawyer commented that the discrimination laws have become a “gravy train” for sacked employees and their lawyers.  As discrimination removes the cap on damages in legal cases it is extremely advantageous for appellants if they can prove they have been discriminated against.

In this instance the banker, who was made redundant, apparently based his claim on the fact that according to an internal memo his employers were “seeking [a] younger, more entrepreneurial profile”.  His eventual replacement was 38.  Well you have to laugh – both at the absurdity of a legal system which allows such a ruling, and at the carelessness of his employers.

This aside, there’s not much to laugh about. Such rulings cause employers to focus increasingly on the letter of the law rather than its spirit while greedy, disgruntled employees seek retribution using laws that should be reserved for those few cases where age obviously is the key issue.

Ultimately age is a moving target – there is no one agreed definition of when one is “younger “or “older “ or what that would mean even if it were agreed. Age can be functional, relative, physical, emotional… what it isn’t is the difference between 42 and 38 years.

Start the ball rolling

New Year is a time for reflection. In this instance, wondering how much progress will be made in respect of an improvement in the position of older workers in 2010 and onward through the next decade. Hopefully progress will be made, but undoubtedly it will be slow. This being the case it’s essential that older workers themselves take a more proactive role in furthering their cause.

There’s a saying that “If you keep on doing what you always do, you’ll keep on getting what you always get” – and it can be both proved and disproved in respect of older employees. On the one hand if you just keep performing in the same way as you age, in effect showing that you’re inflexible and stuck in a rut, that’s what will be reflected consistently in the feedback you get. On the other hand, if what you always got were promotion, respect and a front-line position, this is now unlikely to be the case even though you feel you still do what you always did. Either way, it’s not a good position to be in.

The underlying message is clear. What we all must do as we age is make a conscious effort to learn, develop, change and demonstrate our adaptability and flexibility. We are not “owed” anything in the workplace and if we are to be valued in the way we would like then it is down to us – individually – to prove that we deserve an equal position. Amongst the numerous benefits of ageing is that it bestows upon us greater wisdom, patience, resilience, and for many, innovation. By incorporating these qualities into “what we always do” on a daily basis we can take meaningful steps to helping improve both our own situation and the image of older workers as a whole. The time to start is now.