Grey Hair Management's Blog

Bring on that older workforce! 2010/08/16

Writing in today’s London Times, William Rees-Mogg Times Columnist and Editor of The Times from 1967-81 makes an impassioned plea to recognise the older worker. Surely there is something entirely wrong with having a prescriptive retirement age of 65. I struggle to understand why the government are “considering whether to abolish the fixed retirement age”. Just do it. The decision as to when one wants to stop working should be a personal one based on the established principles of freedom of choice that apply to most other decisions in our lives. While there undoubtedly is age bias in the marketplace the bottom line is if you are the true solution to the company’s problems what does age have to do with it?

At Grey Hair Management we have found you just need to give people the tools to convince a potential employer they have that solution to solve their problem. Abolish the fixed retirement scenario and let the quality of candidate – an experienced individual is actually far more likely to provide that solution – dictate market forces. With current statistical information telling us that in today’s demanding work environment one’s next job may probably only last 1.8 to 3 years, employers not just want but need people to deliver solutions and consigning experienced brain power to the intellectual scrap heap makes no economic sense at all.