Older Worker Stereotypes: A case of mistaken identity
In Australia, the 9th of October recognises the important Ageism Aware Day event. The focus this year is on how the advertising industry primarily through the use of dated stereotypes negatively influences perceptions of ageing within the broader community. We support the message of this Day, but in a very positive way. We will not be focusing on all the reasons ageism is a blight in our community and specifically the workplace, but rather celebrating the benefits older workers offer. In doing this, our contribution to tackling ageism is helping overturn many of the negative stereotypical myths attached to the older worker.
Chris Fagan holds the Premiership Cup after Brisbane won the 2024 AFL Grand Final. Picture: AFL Photos
And what a great way to start us off by celebrating Chris Fagan becoming the oldest coach to ever win the Australian Football League Premiership with his Brisbane Lions. Coaching in the ultra- competitive fast paced Aussie Rules industry is considered a young person’s game with the general view that to ultimately be a successful coach requires having played at the elite level. Chris Fagan has defied this stereotype. He has won his first premiership at the age of 63 whilst also being the only current AFL coach not to play at the elite level. In 8 years he has taken the Brisbane Lions from bottom of the League ladder to League premiers.
The moral of this story is do not accept stereotypes at face value or allow your attitude to others to be prejudiced by them. Perpetuating stereotypes maybe a major blocker to performance improvement within many organisations. There are a lot of happy footy supporters in Queensland, delighted the Lions leadership team defied the stereotypical thinking of the industry appointing a coach on their unique skills, capabilities and breadth of experiences and not merely their age or perceived coaching success requirements.
We all understand a stereotype as an oversimplified and widely held belief or idea about a particular group of people, often based on characteristics such as race, gender, age or nationality. Representing generalisations, stereotypes, can be positive but are more often associated with negative characterisations of a group leading to unfair judgments or biases. Age stereotypes are no different and contribute to ageism in the workplace or societal neglect of older individuals. Research reveals a perceptual bias called representative error may be influencing attitudes to older workers.
Specifically, many presumed attributes associated with old age have been observed in samples that are not representative of older workers still in the labour force. Unfortunately, negative stereotypes about ageing are often socially constructed from observations of the declining health of very old people who have long since retired.
So, let’s do a little older worker stereotype myth busting. More and more research and studies are debunking the negative industry attitudes towards older workers. Let’s tackle the most prevalent older worker stereotypes. A very popular myth about older workers is they are less productive than younger workers, although the evidence increasingly shows:
Productivity is not a function of age with older workers just as productive as all other workers.
Company’s financial performance is not negatively impacted by older workers. A more age-diverse workforce in fact actually increases organisational performance
There is no significant difference in job performance between older and younger workers or older and younger managers.
Another accepted myth about older workers is they are change resistant and afraid to embrace technology when in fact:
A 2013 meta-analysis of 98 studies demonstrated that older workers are just as capable of innovation and creativity as younger workers.
Neuroscience research indicates middle aged people in comparison to younger people are more likely to cling to the status quo, with people over 60 more open to changing outlooks in response to fresh information.
Surveys conducted in 104 countries by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor suggest the age group most willing to risk starting a new business are the 65 – 80-year-olds.
Australians aged 55-64 are the fastest growing users of information technology.
Another big myth is that a major disincentive to employing older workers is they are more expensive to hire than younger ones. However, AARP argues a ‘net positive” business case exists for having a focused strategy to retain and hire more workers aged 50 and over. Any extra small incremental labour costs associated with older workers are more than offset by their higher engagement, lower absenteeism rates, knowledge and skills accumulated over a career and the attrition costs saved through lower unplanned turnover.
In simplistic financial terms, the argument about older worker cost is a ‘red herring’. Older worker salary costs reflect:
The implementation of pay for performance policies replacing employee age considerations as the prime determinant of wage levels. 90% of large companies now use performance-based variable compensation rather than only tenure-based compensation an increase from 78% in 2005.
Older workers doing harder jobs. A study from the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows that, as workers age, they take on jobs that require more intensive social, verbal, and math skills. Simply, wages grow with seniority because productivity grows with seniority.
Compensation and length of service being more closely correlated than compensation and age. The more experience an individual has in a role, generally speaking, the greater the level of competency and proficiency and the higher the compensation.
A further big myth is the idea older workers lose their cognitive capabilities. The conventional wisdom, it seems, is that the older we become the more our cognitive capacities decline until we are reduced to doddering old fools living in a twilight world of forgetfulness and lost agency. This has more than a whiff of the representative error referred to earlier. Research provides powerful insights into older brain functioning. On one hand it does confirm as we age our information processing speed diminishes but this does not mean our overall information processing capability is reduced. The wisdom we have already developed over our life, our work experiences and skills act as powerful resources to offset potential losses in information processing speed and assumed productivity. On the other hand, neuroscience is also revealing our cognitive capability strengthening over time.
A 2013 meta-analysis of 98 studies demonstrated on complex tasks typical of clerical and higher-level occupations, the experience of older workers mitigates effects of reduced information processing speed and performance.
A 2015 meta-analytic study of cognitive tests taken by people of all ages found that four types of proficiencies didn’t fully ripen until people were in their 50’s: vocabulary, maths, general knowledge and comprehension.
A recent book by the Yale Professor Dr Becca Levy ‘Breaking the Age Code’ confirms a number of types of cognition improve in later life, among them metacognition or thinking about thinking; taking into account multiple perspectives and solving interpersonal and intergroup conflicts.
The final myth we want to tackle is older workers been characterised as socially inept and too emotionally ‘soft’ to survive the modern workplace. Apparently, the older worker is self-centred, non-trusting, prejudiced, snobbish, demanding, and annoying. Yet, unsurprisingly, the evidence suggests otherwise:
Developmental psychologists and gerontologists argue as people age greater and greater maturation processes take root resulting in increased emotional intelligence. The resulting behaviour changes include:
better anger and stress management
greater empathy and social awareness
positive change skills and capability for self-renewal
Research reveals older workers seek close, positive and productive relationships with co-workers. The stereotype of the older worker as less trusting of others is not consistent with existing empirical findings. Selfish behaviour is uncommon with a greater emphasis placed on wanting to help create a better world for their families, employers and a true desire to benefit society.
Studies suggest consistent negative relations between burnout and age with burnout more often observed among younger employees at the beginning of their careers.
Some final words
The immortal ‘Tell him he’s dreamin’ words of Darryl Kerrigan in the wonderful film “The Castle ’‘come to mind when addressing the stereotype myths undermining the value of older workers to the workplace. The evidence shows the idea that older workers are less productive contributors, or a change resistant workforce obstacle, or cognitively impaired, or a major cost impediment to business are either greatly exaggerated or completely wrong.
Mercer, the world’s largest human resources consulting firm, finds a positive association between the older worker and organisation productivity with older worker contributions showing up in improved group performance and increased productivity of those around them. Further, Carl Honore observes in his book ‘Bolder’: “There may be some business problems you cannot solve unless you have the deep knowledge and experience of the domain expert – and you’re more likely to have that if you are older and wiser.”
Preserving ageist business practices by propagating negative older worker stereotypes is not a smart business strategy to address a competitive environment being impacted by massive demographic changes in traditional markets. The foundations of ageist thinking are complex often reflecting individual experiences and social conditioning by media and government. What we find is the embedded ageism built into company operation practices and decision-making structures is often overlooked.
Not sure how to get started? We can help you identify where and how you have ageist thinking embedded within your business operating structures.
We’re happy to speak to your organisation on the business case for older workers and intergenerational teams, and how to make age-inclusive teams’ work. It's a winning proposition for your organisation.
References
AARP. (2015) A Business Case for Workers Age 50+: A Look at the Value of Experience https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/research/surveys_statistics/general/2015/business-case-workers-age-50plus.doi.10.26419%252Fres.00100.001.pdf
Backes-Gellner, U., & Veen, S. (2013). Positive effects of ageing and age diversity in innovative companies - large scale empirical evidence on company productivity. Human Resources Management Journal, 23(3), 279 - 295.
Bryson, A., Forth, J., Gray, H. & Stokes, L. (2020) Does Employing Older Workers Affect Workplace Performance? Industrial Relations, 59(4) DOI: 10.1111/irel.12265. Vol. 59
The Business Case for Older Workers. (2019) https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/The-Business-Case-for-Older-Workers.pdf
The Economist (2017). “Footloose and Fancy Free: The recently retired may have a promising future as entrepreneurs and giggers” (July 8th)
Harshorne, J.K., & Germaine, L.T. (2015). When does cognitive functioning peak? The asynchronous rise and fall of different cognitive abilities across the life span. Psychological Science 26 (4) 433-443
Honore, C. (2018). Bolder: Making the most of our longer lives. Simon & Schuster. Great Britain.
Levy, B. (2022) Breaking the age code. Vermillion. London
Ng, T. W. H., & Feldman, D. C. (2012). Evaluating six common stereotypes about older workers with meta-analytical data. Personnel Psychology, 65, 821-858.
