To blog or not to blog, that is the question. I have decided to go for it, though it is something new to learn. Getting that balance of introspection and useful insights will be a tough number. I will try to offer thoughts on age and employment issues. There is plenty to say.
Age really shouldn’t be a hang up, but I was asked recently to give my age to accompany a picture for a news story carrying a quote from me. I found myself demurring; who wants to be defined by their age? At least that’s what I thought at the time.
On second thoughts, however, perhaps we should boast about our ages more. Shout them from the rooftops to make a point about the collective successes of senior workers. It isn’t just about Sir Ranulph Fiennes climbing Everest at 65. We all have our challenges to face at work.
Many older workers overcome the toughest tests daily. That’s one of our selling points and helps explain why more companies are holding on to us during the recession. Think of Captain Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson River recently, saving 155 lives. He was 57; a few years previously he might have been compulsorily retired. Skill and crystallised knowledge acquired in a long working life came together to enable him to perform a brilliant manoeuvre to perfection.
Meanwhile, Jobseekers over 50 continue to struggle against outdated prejudice. So, in the spirit of coming out of the closet, I hereby break my coyness. My father toasted my arrival in the world with Normandy Calvados and my own life slogan could well have been “Dig for Victory!“ There, that should be a good enough clue.
Well before the white heat of Harold Wilson’s technological revolution, I used to be faced with laborious calculations following each run of the enormous air-blast tunnel burners we were testing in my job at the time. We used slide rules and log tables – no talk of machinery to do arithmetic. What a leap it has been from those first calculators, like old sewing machines with hand wheels to turn n revolutions to multiply by a given number. Maths could be hard work in those days! Now we have credit card sized things with a zillion times more power. Our kids have the easiest of gadgets today, though perhaps they make up for it with all those computer-based multiple choice questions at exam time.
So when I hear talk about older people finding it harder to learn, I can’t agree. Of course it does take time to learn, but that is a different matter. Given more time, we can do anything. And there was nothing user friendly in all that old gear we used back in the early 60s. Things broke down and we fixed them. Not so common now I fear.
So I reckon there’s an argument about old technology providing greater challenges that should benefit today’s baby boomers in the workplace. We really ought to be good at solving problems – we grew up with them aplenty.
A reality check reminds me there is widespread ageism however. The 2006 Employment Equality (Age) Regulations are the classic example. They were supposedly designed to eliminate age discrimination but in one area they have institutionalised it. I refer of course to retirement.
It is perfectly legitimate to discriminate against people by ‘retiring’ them at 65. The waste and needless insult to perfectly capable people who wish to work beyond 65, but can’t, offends all sense of decency, not to mention human rights. No wonder retirement farewells are sad events.
More of this in my next entry, but you will have guessed that I intend to air my views on the matter further from time to time. Well, we have a battle on our hands and should use every available weapon to get our points across. All is fair in love and war, as they say. I will be blogging for Victory!