Too old to rock and roll, too young to die
Cruel, unpleasant, short-sighted, wasteful and stupid are just some words describing the attitude of many employers towards hiring older knowledge workers.
I’ve used the word ‘older’ in the opening sentence, but the age threshold we’re talking about is barely middle-aged.
Put it this way, if you’ve been around long enough to remember where the headline on this story originally came from then you’d better watch out because by many recruiters’ standards you are already over the hill.
Over the years I’ve spoken to or been in contact with workers, employers and recruiters who believe anyone over the age of 40 will find it hard going looking for a job in knowledge industries.
This gives the lie to all the fancy talk we hear about the value of experience. At the point in their life when a knowledge worker has built up enough personal experience to know what they are doing, they drop off the employers’ wish list.
While the much talked about skills shortage of recent years is no longer pressing, you have to ask yourself what was going on when employers bemoaned the lack of trained workers and at the same time refused to consider anyone with grey hair.
Some older workers complain they didn’t get interviews or replies to their enquiries about vacancies even at the height of the skills shortage.
At the same time I heard from freshly minted graduates who couldn’t through the door. That sets the age limits for desirable recruits at roughly between 25 and 40 – a small percentage of most people’s productive working lives.
When you use the phrase “labor shortage” or “skills shortage” you’re speaking in a sentence fragment. What you actually have to say is: “There is a labor shortage at the salary level I’m willing to pay.” That statement is the correct phrase; the complete sentence, the intellectually honest statement.
If you start raising your wages and improving working conditions, and continue to do so, eventually you’ll have people lining up around the block to work for you even if you need to have huge piles of steaming manure hand-scooped on a blazing summer afternoon.
Re: Shortage due to retirees: With the majority of retirement accounts down about 50% or more, people entering retirement age are being forced to work well into their sunset years. So, you won’t be getting a worker shortage anytime soon due to retirees exiting the workforce.
Okay, fine. Some specialized jobs require training and/or certification, again, raise your wages and improve benefits! You’ll incentivize people to self-fund their education so that they can enter the industry in a work-ready state. The attractive wages, working conditions and career prospects of technology during the 1980’s and 1990’s was a prime example of people’s willingness to fund their own education.
Suzanne Gilly
7 Jul 09 at 12:40 pm
Suzanne
“What you actually have to say is: ‘There is a labor shortage at the salary level I’m willing to pay.’ That statement is the correct phrase; the complete sentence, the intellectually honest statement.”
Yes, good point. Funny how the laws of supply and demand don’t always apply.
billbennettnz
7 Jul 09 at 4:48 pm