I read an article on LinkedIn by Lesley Jane Seymour about ageism in the workplace that made me want to expand a little bit on this:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-age-still-last-taboo-workplace-lesley-jane-seymour
I am almost sixty too, just like Ms Seymour. I returned to work in 1994 at the age of nearly 37 after staying at home to look after my boys. I chopped and changed jobs in the next few years without any problems, until I found the one that suited me the most – a medical secretary in my local NHS hospital.
The NHS took me on at the age of 44, after I voluntarily left my previous job. I was promoted over the years and gained experience in several departments until I took early retirement in 2014 due to side-effects of treatment for thyroid cancer. I eventually ended up 2 grades higher than when I started. Probably about 90% of the secretaries there were ladies in their fifties – free of childminding duties and willing and able to start at 8am and work past 3pm. I can actually say that I never came across ageism when I was a medical secretary at all. Even now my ex-manager often sends me emails and asks if I would like to return to work as a bank secretary to cover for holidays and sickness.
The NHS put up with my frequent hospital appointments when I was initially diagnosed with cancer in 2005, and my colleagues always welcomed me back after time off due to major surgery. I cannot fault the NHS at all as an employer. I now receive a pension. I know that some people in their fifties do experience ageism in the workplace, but I just wanted to write about the other side of it.
When I went for one particular interview just before I returned to work in 1994, I was told that the company never takes on women of childbearing age. It did cross my mind to wonder why they had invited me for an interview in the first place, but I’ve since learned that companies do have to interview a range of prospective employees to make their documentation look good. I actually found it more difficult to get that first job when I was of childbearing age and after 12 years at home. The older I became, the more easily I was able to find employment.
I can actually say that I’ve never experienced ageism at work, but was definitely discriminated against in my childbearing years a few times in the 3 years it took me to find a job and return to the workplace.
Have you experienced ageism in the workplace? I’d love to read your comments!
Stevie Turner 
I recently was laid off from my job of 26 years. I am 58. The IT company I worked for let 40 people go and the youngest was 48. They use the extra money to hire younger workers. I have since been looking for work and did not understand how the new job search worked so I ended up doing a lot of research for this and starting a blog on what I found. Anyway this is a blog of my very first interview. It was very disheartening. https://thesilverparachute.blog/2017/08/04/my-first-interview-unintended-ageism/
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Thanks for your comment. I’ll check out your blog.
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Pingback: Ageism and the Possible Perks of Eradication | The Barefoot Aya
Thanks for linking up.
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It is hard though. I chose to stay at home with my children, but it took me 3 years of fruitless interviews 12 years later before I was able to get back into the workplace. Well done for raising 4 children single-handedly; that’s a tough enough job as it is.
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Interesting and heartening. Actually I had a conversation with my (84 year old) mother recently in which she got very het up about perceived ageism and how it is important to remember that older people have more experience. I entirely agree (and she was not suggesting she wanted to return to work by the way!) BUT, and I think it is an important but, I pointed out to her that we must not get so carried away with making sure older people are able to work if they want or need to that the workplace has no place for the young who need to learn the skills. Of course there is a much bigger political discussion about WHY older people (and I am talking over 60s now) need to carry on working but we must make sure there is a balance and your piece neatly points to that – when you were out of the child-rearing stage, you were able to be a better employee to the NHS because you could work the necessary hours. I really enjoyed reading this.
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Great comment, thank you. The child-rearing stage is hard for women when it comes to working as well. I’m glad it’s all behind me to be quite honest.
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I was a single mother of four and had to work through most of their childhood. I found most of the people I worked for to be decent and accommodating but it certainly wasn’t easy … the positive is that I raised four girls with strong work ethics who refuse to role over and say ‘I can’t’. What is so hard is that young women who are building a career have a stark choice – give it up in order to give the time to their children when they are at their most needy or use childcare and stay in the fast-lane. It should not be so hard for a woman to pick up her career later if she chooses to be a full-time mother or to work part-time during those precious years.
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This is an interesting topic. I left industry after 27 years and joined a big four consulting company. Ageism is definitely a part of this environment. I was almost 50 when I started this job and there is a definite feeling that I don’t know what I’m doing because of my age. The shock is, I actually know a lot more than the people that hold this viewpoint. I’m older than many of the senior executives in the company and many of them have not worked in industry and have an inherent arrogance about them. It’s fun to watch them crash and burn when the client warms up to me because of my background and refuse to interact with these “seasoned executives”.
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It’s natural that older workers have more experience. They also lose their brashness and are nicer to deal with! Thanks Don for your comment.
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I have been lucky as I have mostly been self employed. Sadly, jobs are very scarce in Donegal, and most of our young men have had to leave Ireland to find work. My mum and dad left here in the fifties for Scotland, and so history keeps repeating itself…
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I felt a pressure from my boss the last years I was at work. She “often” asked me how long I wanted to stay at work and she had my working conditions changed over and over to push me away. Well at last I just felt it was not worth it any more. I am 66 now and have been retired for the last three years.
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Only after I was laid off and tried to get a new job at age 62.
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Difficult if not impossible?
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It is an interesting thought Stevie!!
I know when I had my office, I loved the thought of older women in the workplace. They just seemed more mature and experienced!!
I actually tried to get a part time job right after I retired with a couple of places, but I didn’t even get an interview. Who knows why though??
jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
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At times I was like an agony aunt to younger colleagues with relationship issues!
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It will be interesting to see what I experience when I go back to work full time. I work part time at the school right now (almost full time) so I work around my kids’ schedule. I have a feeling since I’ve been out of the work force for so long that I might have trouble finding that first job. Wish me luck!
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Yes, good luck. It took me 3 years to be able to return to the workplace. Three years of filling out application forms and sending off CV’s. I am not one to give up though, and so you’ll need to persevere!
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Thanks for the heads up!
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Yes it is different for women, especially if that woman has young children. We’re seen as unreliable due to the fact that small children are always ill. However, once I found a job and my children grew into older teenagers, I had no trouble finding work. When working in the NHS, one of the new female consultants in my department ‘forgot’ to inform the interview committee that she was newly pregnant, and these days employers are not allowed to ask a woman if she is pregnant or has young children. She had only been in the job for a few months when she took 15 months paid maternity leave. She then came back for a year, got pregnant again, and went off for a further 15 months paid maternity leave. I think that’s commonly known as ‘taking the piss’!
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Sad to say, it’s probably different for women than for men. At 45 I negotiated a voluntary redundancy package for myself from an organisation for which I had worked for 18 years. This was because I had taken on a huge work load as a local politician. Two and a half years later I was unseated and had to return to an ordinary job. I never found any difficulty getting jobs in my 50s – hanging on to them was harder because of the general economic circumstances of the early 1990s. At 55 I got my final job – the one that lasted until my 65th birthday. Mostly working alongside younger people, with a manager a couple of decades younger than me, I did not encounter any ageism during that final 9 1/2 years. Ahead of my birthday I was given a form on which I could, should I wish, defer my retirement beyond age 65. I was happy to decline because of the pension I’d accrued from that original 18 year employment (the redundancy package included bringing forward the age from which my pension became payable by 5 years) and that from the final 9 1/2 years.
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