Time To Start Talking About Ageism Realistically

Are you ready for 2050? Can you live on Social Security alone? Ageism in Silicon Valley is real, is hurting a lot of very competent professionals and is costing the economy billions of dollars. And the over 50 crowd has no realistic way of coping.

This realization caused me to write this new book. It is time to have a frank discussion on this subject and find a constructive way to change the thinking of people across the age spectrum as to what is young and what is old. Life expectancy has moved from the mid-50s of the New Deal to mid-80s today. Society has an extra 30 years and we do not know how to deal with this.

Poor job market knowledge has caused literally thousands of competent people to become frustrated in their professional lives, particularly after age 50. They often ultimately settle for something that does not really fit what they are capable of personally and professionally, nor does it correspond to what they would really like to do for themselves, their families, and society as a whole. The microeconomic result is great people who are under employed, under compensated, and not happy at work. The macroeconomic result is that immense amounts of highly qualified human capital are grossly wasted on a global basis.

In reviewing thousands of career progressions, interviewing thousands of candidates, and hearing countless stories of how individuals are sometimes promoted, sometimes passed over, and sometimes fired, I have come to the conclusion that companies, and individuals, will state that they hire on the basis of some stated and perceived objective measures of competence: Hired on Competence. To support that hypothesis and contention, they will point to multipage and detailed job specifications. What usually actually happens is that the specific manager simply hires another young person their own age who offers youthful energy, hipness, potential, etc. Hired For Youth.

However, when it comes time to fire, lay off, downsize, right size, or whatever the politically correct term then in vogue happens to be, the most common reason given is, "the individual just did not fit in with the team." Stated succinctly, they were Fired on Personality. Often, this personality or fit comment is another way of saying that the new younger manager no longer wants an older person, who distinctly reminds them of their parents, watching over them and possibly giving advice based on real experience. After all, this is the new world; there has been a "fundamental paradigm shift," it is all about “taking risks”, and all that old thinking just slows things down. Fired For Age.

My hope is that the tools in my book will help those impacted, especially all the dedicated professionals who often gave decades to a company with little to show for it, a starting point for going after this problem in a solution oriented, non-litigious fashion. If you are over 50, no 30-something is going to hire you. Start building your village of the increasing number of over 50 year olds and look for creative ways to build a professionally satisfying next 30 years. Together, we can do this.