Youth vs Experience in the workplace
We all know that fresh innovation and digital savvy is the future and most people over 50 do not take well to changes in a company. Hence innovative companies’ reluctance to employ people over 50.
Youth and innovation
Even when they know that older workers stay longer while the younger executive are more likely to do job hopping between the ages of 25 and 40. Younger employees can create marketing ideas that appeal to their age group. Companies see this as an investment in a future market. Young employees are seen as a blank slate and don’t have previous outdated workplace habits they bring into a company. You can mould them. That is if they stay after you invested in their training. Staff turnover is expensive, and the employer might have to take the risk of losing their young executive to direct competition in pursuit of a younger market.
Flipside
“I was 18, didn’t have a care. Working for peanuts, not a dime to spare. But I was lean and solid everywhere…. like a rock……
20 years now. Where’d they go? 20 years. I don’t know. I sit and wonder sometimes, where they’ve gone………”
I remember clearly listening to this haunting song by Bob Seger, thinking that 20 years is still a lifetime away. I just turned 30, opened my first business and bought my dream house. The world was my oyster and with the typical arrogance of youth, I somehow did not want to think about where I would be in 20 years. My creativity and energy were at an all-time high. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING could stop me from reaching my goals. It is 28 years later and when I look back now, I wish I had an older mentor then, someone whose experience I could draw from. Maybe spend a little less and took more calculated risks.
Somehow experience don’t get valued by the youth until they are there themselves. The world is run by people over the age of 50 but, if you apply for a job at any company, you have had your innings. Just imagine how it could be if we utilize experience instead of cutting it short. We had four children and our family GP outshone so many younger doctors with diagnosis. He is about to retire with 40 years of practical experience under his belt. If he had a young apprentice that he could share his knowledge with, I for one, would carry on supporting that practice instead of asking around to see if I can find an experienced GP. South Africa needs a program in place that use the elderly as mentors to the youth. If only…….