The Predicament of Aging in the Workplace

I have recently noticed on LinkedIn a spate of articles discussing the predicament of aging workers and the aging workforce. As a member of said population I want to provide what I believe is a pragmatic point of view. Public service announcement, my 30+ year background is predominantly IT in Financial Services and Commercial Software. This discussion or blog (as the kids say) is grounded in my experience, a few facts, my biases and a couple of big words. I will offer two solutions after setting the table for this topic. My intent is to create positive dialogue, inject some humor and share ideas. Hang tight and read on, older workers like me can be loquacious.  

The Economic Challenge

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t01.htm ) as of November 2019 there are approximately 7 million unfilled jobs across the entire work spectrum in the US. The authors of the articles addressing the aging predicament suggest that age discrimination is a large contributing factor to high rates of unfilled jobs.

Social Challenges

There are many types of discrimination and they all exist at some level. Even though every company’s job post includes the Fair Employment Act statement declaring that they don’t discriminate based on race, creed, religion, age, blah…blah…blah, other than acting as a legal shield, the words are mostly aspirational. Please don’t misconstrue my intent. I believe it is a self-evident aspiration all companies should strive to uphold.  But, in my many years of life and work I observed that discrimination levels are altered by the imperfect human condition that ebbs and flows with changing popular sentiment.   Look no further than the social media and news channels to see the vicissitudes of tolerance toward others. Millennials and Baby Boomers are the generational demographics du jour. Funny that both groups are openly interrogated daily for their sense of entitlement.  Boomers coddled their kids who became spoiled Millennials the story goes.  What happened to Gens X, Y and Zed? In Silicon Valley coders apparently age in dog years. There are 29-year old’s reporting that they feel very old in the high-tech mania.

Truth be told we all discriminate in some manner, consciously or unconsciously, blatant or nuanced, intentional or not. From our childhood development through adulthood we are bombarded with all sorts of messages that get processed and put away, weighted by our individual experience. Let’s be transparent with ourselves first so we can improve our own behavior and navigate the behaviors of others to interact more productively.

It’s About the Benjamins

There is another significant unspoken age-related discrimination factor that often trumps the social issues, COST. Age discrimination is amplified largely due to the high cost of older workers. In a study by Gary Burtless, a Fellow at the Brookings Institute, his paper entitled Age Related Health Costs and Job Prospects of Older Workers ( https://siepr.stanford.edu/system/files/BURTLESS_Age-Related-Health-Costs_1st-Draft_Oct-2017.pdf ) , using data from research and scientific testing methods proves age discrimination exists (duh) and that older workers are more expensive (huge duh). Try this excerpt on for size,  “ In the 2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), for example, mean health expenditures per person were nearly four times greater for Americans between 60 and 64 compared with adults between 25 and 29. Mean spending in the older group was nearly 2.4 times the per capita spending on Americans between 40 and 44”. While all health care costs are not borne entirely by companies you get the point. Healthcare insurance on average per employee per year now exceeds $14,200.  Employers cover about 70% or $10,000. Employees will pay 30% or $4,200.  

Don’t Be a Victim Old Person

Career development pundits have always urged aging (we’re all aging BTW) IT workers to stay technically up to date to remain relevant. Interview techniques abound for older workers to appear more hip in interviews. First tip don’t use the word hip. I don’t think the need to be a continuous learner has changed during my career in IT. What has changed dramatically is the pace of innovation across technical disciplines that has spawned many new technology cliques.  How many programming languages are there now? Wikipedia says there are 700 plus.  API’s, micro services, UX, UI, RPA, workflow, scripting tools, software defined everything, containers, cloud specific languages……it grows exponentially.  Try putting Ruby zealots in a room with .NET coders. It creates immediate anarchy.    The challenges will only get magnified as AI, Machine Learning and RPA eliminate all the other remaining jobs. Just kidding, I hope.  What happened to neural networks? COBOL anyone, anyone? Apparently, there are only two roles left in IT, coder and program manager. Picking a career path is core. If you don’t know where you are going any road will take you there. While that can be fun it is smart to have a plan so you can gauge when to pivot. Notice my subtle use of hip LEAN terminology.

Poor, Poor Me

By the way I have not seen one heartfelt article empathetic to aging IT executives. A group with which I identify. (Correct use of a current expression!)  These stalwart folks took the leap of faith to give up their technical prowess to gain the soft skills needed to build strategy, plan, execute, communicate, negotiate budgets, connect the dots between business and technology and lead people. This group makes sure the work that matters most gets done well. In a tech driven world CEOs, presidents and heads of HR, who themselves are generally older, continually restack their teams with younger leaders so their company is perceived to be vibrant; then they get their hair dyed, eyes and chins lifted. 

A Way forward

So what are the answers? As in most situations in work and life there is no one silver bullet. I offer the following two ideas that I feel could be positive catalysts.

First, address the reality of cost that no business can ignore. Separate insurance carrier plans from the discretion of the company. When an employee joins a company all insurance providers can (maybe must) offer their plans in an open competitive exchange. Providers would no longer be bound by state lines. Based on whatever actuarial methods and algorithms they devise providers set their plan terms and prices. The new employee selects the best fit from the exchange. The employer contributes a standard amount (set by an objective oversight board using audited cost data) per employee regardless of age.  The standard per-employee amount is the same for every company. Payment would be made through a block chain ledger style clearing house. Based on the difference between the standard employer paid amount and the price of the selected offering the employee contributes the difference via the same clearing house. Market forces and SOME government and industry oversight likely required. If the employing company wants to differentiate themselves to attract talent, they can pay the employee more salary to offset employee health costs. To protect against loss of insurance coverage in periods of unemployment both the employer and employee pay a pre-tax stipend into a re-insurance pool that will cover payments to unemployed employees is in transition. The added federal taxes generated by increased salaries can be allocated as an additional backstop to the risk pool. When an employee leaves a company, they keep their insurance plan if they so choose or transfer to a new plan in the exchange. COBRA goes away.  When they take a job at a new company the payments become the obligation of the new company and the same employee. The identifier for the exchange is a combination of company code and employee social security code. Encrypted of course! Companies will realize savings through simplified benefits management. When an employee ages to social security Medicare takes over.  Yes, this is simpler than it will likely be, but why not leverage some of the good work in the ACA and Medicare structures and fix the broken parts. This is full competition, full choice, boundary-less and transparent. All the other critical work to reduce medical care costs and provide care to the uninsured is outside this scope. Stay focused. Solve one problem at a time.

 Second, the current corporate ethos is work hard and get promoted until your cost/relevance ratio is too high or you are politically out of favor.  When a new sheriff comes to town they like to bring their own posse.   I believe that human resources have sorely missed how to repurpose talent between ages 55-67+. As one gets older the earning power needs can scale down. For many having a process to step down corporate rungs, accepting reduced pay and salary increases while doing good work improves their life/work balance. They can transition with dignity. It would be well received IMHO. Placing senior talent into roles that leverages their acquired knowledge and continues to train them can strengthen overall execution. Many older workers may be able to and desire to stay in elevated positions continuing to perform at superior levels. It is not a one size fits all. It does provide options. 

Join In

What do you think? What would you do? Feel free to share your experiences.

Thank You!