For a few decades now, NETSHARE has been supporting senior executives, helping them work through career challenges and open new opportunities for professional and personal advancement. Of course, when you are talking about senior executives, by definition you are talking about older workers, typically those over 40, and today’s corporate climate continues to overlook older workers for any number of reasons. I recently ran across an interesting academic discussion on the New York Times opinion blog, Room for Debate, where various professionals chime in on why American companies have so much trouble embracing an aging work force.
According to Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School, older workers bring a lot more to the workplace than younger workers. They perform better across a wide range of areas, bringing more mature skills and better interpersonal skills, they are usually more conscientious, they have better attendance, and so on. As Cappelli says, “While one might assume that older workers cost more, in truth any premiums that older workers receive are related to experience — which affects performance.”
Some of the other blog contributors note that performance does change after a certain age. Laurence Kotlikoff, professor of economics at Boston University, notes that productivity peaks in the mid-40s and gradually declines with age. However, the real issue for most employers, or more specifically, most managers, is that they don’t know how to manage older subordinates. This is a problem that Randy Block and other career coaches cite regularly; no one is going to hire their mother or their father, or as Cappelli explains it:
“The real reason employers seem to prefer younger candidates has to do with perceptions of supervisors who often worry about how manage older subordinates: How can I supervise someone who has more experience than I have, how do I motivate them when they are less concerned about the carrot of promotions or the stick of being fired? Managing older workers in fact doesn’t require rocket science, but it does require a more collaborative approach that respects their expertise and engages their interests.”
Jean Twenge, associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, notes that there are some real challenges with the younger work force as well. She notes that, as a generation, younger workers tend to be more self-assured, higher in self-esteem, assertiveness, and narcissism, which are characteristics that tend to serve you well in a job interview but can create additional problems on the job, like promoting a feeling of self-entitlement and overconfidence; “Narcissistic people tend to take too many risks, leading to failure, and they react with anger and aggression when criticized.”
So what’s the solution for older workers looking for a new opportunity? Sell your strengths. Promote your experience, reliability, steadfast work ethic, and interpersonal skills. Also demonstrate your flexibility; show them that you can adapt like your younger counterparts. And consider offering your expertise for rent rather than for hire. If you can offer your skills on a consulting basis, then your prospective employer can take advantage of your experience without having to worry about concerns like, “How do I manage my dad?” Don’t try to compete on their terms, but inventory your value to the organization and make your case on your own terms.
