Age & wisdom in a world of time & speed

Ellie McDonald and Andrew Ellson recently wrote a story for The Times on a survey of 750 HR people and 4,000 workers that found nearly half of recruiters think applicants are too old for a job at 57. [Link to that in comments below]

The bell curve bias as a hook for this focused on those deemed too old and experienced. It touched too on those rated as too young and inexperienced. Many are caught working in bell jars.

The stat snippet lands at a time when the UK continues to face a shortage of skilled workers, especially in healthcare, digital transformation, the green economy and STEM.

Geo-economics aside, the story lands as we are living longer, having fewer children and when it should not need to be said, there is ultimately more that connects than separates us.

At a lunch this past week, I sat next to a former finance operations director for a major print and digital media group.

Amid backstories, we clocked that as teenagers we both had jobs delivering newspapers to home-based print subscribers in different countries on opposite sides of the world.

From my teenage lens, every two weeks on a Saturday morning after knocking on doors, I collected payments in cash and tracked non and late payers by pencil within pages of a notebook. The following Friday I got paid in small-denomination notes and coins folded in a tiny brown envelope with my name in blue biro on the outside. It was fished from a bag in the boot of a car, along with many other small envelopes for those at the next drop-off and pick-up point.?The newspapers were bound by a single wire and cut when we were ready to load and deliver.

Her story was similar.

I ultimately moved through time to media and brand development with words.

She moved through time to media and brand development with numbers.

By the time I was 20, as well as that casual job, I had worked outside school/college hours as a strawberry picker, carpet shop assistant, supermarket bag packer, construction site labourer (sanding walls of a near-finished underground swimming pool), fast-food employee, steak house waiter and travelling ad sales rep.

This was before journalism, corporate communications and brand narrative work.

It helped.

As a teenager I learned about goals, aspiration, parent & peer pressure and/or apathy, budgeting, what interests the person who might buy or need what you sell, the power of moments in time and how, to quote the Stones: ‘You can’t Always Get What You Want’.

It helped me buy clothes, a stereo for cassettes and vinyl, windsurfers then bigger, faster motor bikes and tickets to travel.

I have since worked in places with those I thought looked old, yet were young in mind and ability and those who looked young yet had insight that was pretty much beyond timeless.

I have been grateful to date that few of those I worked with judged books by covers.

I’m often struck by how at many different points in our careers we learn so much from little moments rather than big canvases.

That gets absorbed and matured with time.

I appreciated the counsel of a CEO I once worked with who often said: "We have two eyes, two ears and one mouth – and should use them accordingly."

An executive once remarked: "Yes, you can send that to [the CEO], but it is not a transactional ask. Maybe save it for when it matters and you actually need [x] to do something."

Another business leader years ago once said: "Write down in a note book at the end of each week what you think matters and is blocking the business and you from moving forward. As you do this with time, you will realise in latter months what really matters. Much doesn't.”

The weird thing about mentors is that you don't always know when you are with them and getting counsel.

That too gets absorbed and matured with time.

Elon Musk's incredible Starship rocket return this week aside, there are invariably always those who have gone further who help you anchor the past to today and the future.

Bringing it closer to ground, take Clare Elms.

Clare recently became the oldest woman to break the 5-minute barrier for 1,500m.

Then, a couple of weeks ago she set a 5,000m record for those aged 60+.

A mother of triplets who only started running in her 40s. She turns 61 this coming Boxing Day.

In an interview once she said:

“It’s not running against people. I don’t look at it like that. It’s your time or what you can improve on …”

We beat on …

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