A word about ageism
A word about ageism. It’s in the news these days, as it should be, and it’s top of my mind in my consulting business. It’s also something I’ve experienced firsthand, so, yes, it’s personal to me. But here’s the thing: ageism isn’t a simple generational battle or a cry to listen to your elders. It’s much more nuanced than that. It’s something we do to ourselves, sometimes. When we say “oh, I’m too old to learn that social media stuff,” or we pooh-pooh the latest innovation in communications, we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice. When we spend hours trying to look younger than we are or we hide our age because we’re “embarrassed,” we do ourselves a huge disservice. I’m not clear what we should be embarrassed about, anyway. That we’ve lived long enough to have some perspective and long enough to know what matters in life?
I became an entrepreneur at 60, and, frankly, the only thing getting in the way was myself. I was lucky to be part of a local women’s business initiative that gives free help to women with a business idea. My leaders and mentors in both my entrepreneur classes were young enough to be my kids. But the smarts they possess, the kindness they exhibit to people of all ages and all backgrounds, demonstrated to me that the age issue isn’t an issue most times. They helped me learn tech (“still learning” is my tagline) and answered all my questions, not once suggesting any question was silly. They gave me the confidence to launch a business, and I’m thrilled I didn’t (completely) self-sabotage myself.
But if we’re not self-sabotaging, sometimes we’re bumping up against hiring managers who think we’re “overqualified” or bosses who create job descriptions with the idea (unintentionally or not) of hiring a younger person. What can we — the over 50 group — do about this? Not much, is the bad news. Yes, you can leave your college graduation year off the resume (I’ve done that) and, yes, you don’t need to list every blessed job on your resume (also done that), but that will only get your foot in the door. I once went through five (5!) rounds of interviews with reference checks all completed only to be told they were “going in a different direction.” They hired someone born the year I graduated from college. Not hard to connect the dots there.
What we can do is this: amplify the stories about ageism. Talk about it. Share our experiences. We can claim our age, loud and proud. I’m thankful for the wisdom I’ve gained, the experiences I’ve had, the perspective I now enjoy. I’m just grateful to be here, now, on earth, with interest and passion still to share. And, I’m thrilled my son’s generation — the twenty and thirty somethings out there — seem to revel in the diversity of the workforce. That diversity just needs to include age diversity, too. Multi-generational work teams, like multi-cultural work teams, allow us to be the best organizations we can be.
