Ageism in the industry?

We were sent an interesting press release today about a firm whose two 60-plus year old salespeople have just won awards for doing a great job.

I wasn't sure what to make of the release - whether to view it as extremely patronising of older workers, or just a great PR exercise.

I have come down on the positive PR side because I think the older workforce are often overlooked when it comes to handing out credit.

Older workers have far more experience of both working environments and life than their younger counterparts. And they certainly don't act as if they know it all, like many younger people coming into the workplace tend to do nowadays.

The truth is we could all learn a lot more from them than they could learn from us.

Over the past five years I have watched a close family member re-enter the workplace and she has proved to be a valuable and much loved member of her team and very respected by customers - not only because she is very good at her job, but because her experience of life means she knows instinctively what people need and how to go about doing it.

Older people are hard working and are an asset to most teams. And their achievements often go unnoticed because they don't like to draw attention to themselves.

It would be interesting to see some figures as to what the average age of worker is in most IT organisations today.

Saying that though - the age of chivalry is dead - it is often the older male commuters that push you out the way to get on the train and would rather stare at the floor than give their seat up for an elderly or pregnant person.

So it is not all brilliant. Trust me to find a negative angle!