“It’s great to be here, it’s great to be anywhere”

As I trawl through my inbox each day, it never ceases to amaze me what public relations firms and advertisers send me and how convoluted and tenuous are their arguments that the material to hand is just right for our over 50 audience. In fact, the range of items and activities is getting wider almost daily.

Which got me to thinking – maybe these items are, indeed, very suitable and the increase in variety is just a reflection of the societal changes taking place and how older people are viewing  themselves and are being viewed by others. And, on the whole, much is very positive.

Take this one for instance “Festival essentials – a packing checklist”.

Now, no one can deny that the over 50s have been going to festivals for decades and that there is still much fun to be had whether keeping fresh and up to date or whether wheeling out some of the greats from the past. But, in youth, optimism and taking things as they come were the order of the day – not meticulous preparation.

But therein lies the message. The over 50s have “been there, done that” and the wisdom that comes with experience means that we can have the good bits without the pitfalls and errors.

If only more of society could see that!

I’d really like to g-nash my teeth at you

It’s quite a while since we wrote here about demographics or employment and unemployment numbers. By and large we had assumed that most people had now got the message and fine-tuning the precise figures each time that the ONS came up with their latest version was akin to shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic – fills in some time but really doesn’t do much for the iceberg coming our way.

It seems that we must adjust our thinking and go back to poring over numbers and re-reading the definitions of how ONS compile their figures. To be fair, others have already reached that conclusion. People are beginning to believe, at least in the short term, that it is easier to try and obtain a larger share of a static (or even declining) cake, for their own particular interest group, than it is to make the cake bigger and provide more for everybody. So we are entering a phase of quite sinister intergenerational warfare and statistics are beginning to be used as a prime weapon.

A few days ago Dick Stroud in his blog (http://20plus30.blogspot.com/2011/03/even-official-statistics-can-be.html) drew attention to a report by John Philpott of CIPD concerning the place of student numbers in the unemployment figures and how, maybe, these should be looked at more closely when trying to understand unemployment amongst the young. However that is not the subject matter of this discussion.

A few weeks ago Chris Ball in his TAEN blog (http://taen.org.uk/blog/view/71) took Stephanie Flanders (BBC Economics Editor) to task over her interpretation of the employment figures, in particular as they relate to the over 65s, Last week she was at it again, both in her blog “Stephanomics” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/stephanieflanders/2011/03/jobs_for_the_boys_-_and_the_ov.html) and, worse still, striding towards me in my own living room on the BBC News.

I quote from her blog:

“To put it bluntly – it’s a good time to be a man, working in the private sector, and/or over 50. If you’re under 25, or a woman, or working in the public sector, the labour market is a bleak place these days, and there’s little sign that it’s about to get better.”

There’s a lot more like this in her blog and in my opinion very little of it, I’m afraid, comes from an objective analysis of the stats.

Come on BBC. We are in for some very tense times ahead with a lot of difficult decisions for many people. Stuff like this doesn’t help.

No jobs or pensions for life

Yesterday, watching the BBC news coverage of the proposed Public Sector pensions changes, I was surprised by the naivety of a young male school teacher who featured large in the story. In a longish piece to camera he revealed that he saw the proposed alterations to the scheme as somehow fundamentally damaging his career, talking about how pension changes equated to “broken promises” relating to his reasons for entering the profession.  He concluded that his dismay was such that he might even have to consider his career options…

Now whilst I can see that anyone in the public sector is not going to be over the moon about the changes, this young man’s particular innocence about the state of the world was somewhat alarming. Anyone in their twenties or thirties who believes that the world is going to be the same as they now know it, in three or four decades when they retire, is sadly misguided.

The pace of change over the lifetimes of today’s retirees is proof of the fact that any expectations (relating to pensions in particular) are almost certain to be overturned for one reason or another. The world, in short, will be a different place.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try and make some provision for likely outcomes but, when all the signs are that work in itself is likely to be a radically different concept in years to come, it’s unrealistic to base your expectations on current or past models. Jobs for life no longer exist. Careers are what you choose to make them. Survival and success are increasingly going to be for the fittest.

It’s particularly worrying that a school teacher doesn’t seem to understand this.

Agenda for Later Life 2011

Yesterday I attended the “Agenda for Later Life 2011” conference in London organised by Age UK and sponsored by Sainsbury’s. The material was fascinating from start to finish and reflects a really well structured, well organised and well presented event.

The topics covered included work, health, care provision, pensions, older people as consumers, poverty, financial abuse and many others. In fact, the list of concerns, all extremely pressing, is almost endless and it is good to see that these are being given the attention they deserve with high levels of government involvement. Well done to Age UK for giving them such high profile and for the continued lobbying and pressurising.

If there is one criticism that I would level, not at the conference itself, but at the wider community, is still there are too many “weasel words” and not enough action and direct intervention, particularly by employers and by commercial organisations. I really do think that people know when they are being sold a line.

Nevertheless, well done and if anybody would like to read more and to see “Age UK’s 12 challenges for an ageing nation” click on the link below.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/professional-resources-home/

This is what we must fight against

Yesterday an email came into my inbox. It was the newsletter for smallbusiness.co.uk and its subject line said simply “More old people in work”.

Blunt? It would be difficult to imagine how it could have been more direct – or more insulting.

The story, of course, related to the latest ONS statistics showing that the number of people aged 65 or over in full-time employment has more than doubled in the last decade to 870,000.

Why the journalist (or editor) responsible couldn’t have used a little more accuracy and written “More over 65s in work” is beyond me.

The current title is as offensive as saying “More fat people in work”.

Now that the red mist is starting to clear I’ll add it to my list of examples (for training and writing purposes) of how ageism is entrenched in our society. Any other examples always welcome…

Seen it all before

Older workers are often spoken about using terms such as “wise”, “resilient”, “cynical” or “resistant to change”. But probe a little deeper and there’s little evidence of how exactly these qualities manifest themselves in workplace behaviours that can only be attributed to age. In general, examples are more likely to be linked to factors such as personality, performance management, or organizational culture.

Interesting to see then that new research from the Manchester Business School reveals that older staff members are generally more effective at coping with emotional stress and burnout than younger employees, particularly in customer service industries where staff often face high levels of stress and conflict. They report that older workers in this environment find their roles less emotionally draining and tend to have less cynical attitudes towards customers than their younger colleagues. 

Sheena Johnson, a professor at the Manchester Business School, said: “Our research… showed that older employees tend to have specific strengths such as the ability to control their emotions, which help to overcome difficult situations when dealing with customers. Such skills are valuable because the attitudes of customer service staff who have become cynical about both their role and their employer inevitably spill over into their treatment of the customers themselves”.

Now obviously there may be a whole raft of reasons why older people exhibit such resilience,  composure and emotional control (rather than the cynicism which might be expected), not least a generational influence that may mean that their approach to customer service and work in general is inherently different than that of their younger colleagues. However, it is also likely that it is a by-product of pure experience – the “been there, seen that, got the t-shirt” factor that can be both a negative and positive element of older workers’ attitudes. 

It may be that when you’re younger you’re more optimistic that given the right situation – job, employer, customer type – things and people will improve in comparison to those you are currently experiencing. In fact, with experience we realise that once the honeymoon period of a new job passes, things tend to even out and life – and customer service – goes on much the same.

So no point getting stressed, depressed or angry with your job or the customers – it doesn’t change anything. And once you accept this, you do feel less stress. Not less concern for making things better but certainly less angst about one’s personal role in changing the world.

Hopefully these positive findings will filter through to employers who, as the report also revealed, are still discriminating widely against older workers by focusing on their potential physical and cognitive decline rather than the positive contribution that they make. 

It’s frustrating and upsetting that nothing seems to change – but hey, no point getting stressed about it…
For more:

http://www.hrzone.co.uk/topic/recruitment/older-workers-have-emotional-intelligence-share/109746

It’s not rocket science

Extracts from two pieces of information that have “hit the streets” just recently.

Firstly:

The UK’s ageing population and huge debt have propelled it into the top 10 of countries threatened by unsustainable public finances, new research has found. Britain is now one of 12 nations rated “extreme risk” in the Fiscal Risk Index compiled by global analysts Maplecroft.

The UK was ranked 10th in the list of 163 countries – up from 27th last year under a slightly different method of calculating positions – because of its high public spending on health and pensions, massive borrowing and shrinking working population.

The Fiscal Risk Index identifies nations that will come under increasing economic pressure in the future because of low birth rates, high life expectancy and state commitments to look after older people.

Italy topped the international league table, followed by Belgium, France, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Denmark and Austria. Japan came ninth, the only non-European country rated “extreme risk”, with Finland 11th and Greece 12th.

Professor Alyson Warhurst, chief executive of Maplecroft, said: “Governments in high risk countries may need to rely on business to help them absorb the costs.

“At the very least, governments will need the private sector to recruit and retain older workers and provide for more generous pension arrangements.”

(Press Association)

Secondly:

Talent management has become the number one preoccupation among chief executives at global organisations this year because skills shortages are becoming increasingly apparent as they gear up for renewed growth.

The report (by PriceWaterhouse Coopers) indicated that skills shortages were not limited to (such) emerging markets, however. “Voluntary turnover declined in mature economies during the recession, but historical trends demonstrate that it will return. As a result, talent is at the top of the agenda for global CEOs.”
   
But the scale of the skills shortage problem was also leading to some new thinking in order to tap its underused resources – although action remained limited. For instance, although fewer women than men were economically active in nearly every country in the world, only 11% of chief executives were planning to make ‘significant changes’ to policies aimed at attracting and keeping more female employees.
 
Few have altered policies (10%) in relation to older workers either, however, even though they constitute another underused talent pool and there is an awareness that the retirement of large numbers of baby-boomers could cause problems. Some 54% of bosses said they were looking at more effective ways of recruiting and keeping younger staff, however.
 
Because of these skills shortage issues, some 54% of respondents said that they intended to work with government and educational establishments in future in an attempt to improve the available talent pool.

(HRZone)

Conclusion:

Sounds like good material for a joint research project between the “University of Joined-Up Thinking” and the “University of the B******g Obvious”?