Experienced, Capable - and Overlooked: The Quiet Reality of Ageism at Work
Next week is my 60th birthday. It has prompted me to think about what growing older means in a society that encourages us to remain active, keep learning and work for longer.
What happens when the opportunities to do those things begin to narrow?
Several years ago, I worked with Voice of Older People Donegal, alongside Jean Wilson, John Gallagher and John McGlinchey, all now sadly deceased. I had enormous respect for their community leadership, their commitment and the experience they brought to our work. They were older than me, but their ideas and determination inspired me.
As I approach 60, I increasingly find myself following in their footsteps. That experience stays with me as a reminder of how much older people contribute, and how much we lose when they are overlooked.
For many people in their 50s, 60s and beyond, the desire to contribute remains strong. They have skills, qualifications, responsibilities and ambitions. Some are looking for work after a job ends. Others want to change direction, return after caring for someone, or pursue something they finally have the confidence to attempt.
Yet they can find themselves feeling like a coiled spring in a box.
There is energy there. There is purpose. There is nowhere to put it.
Not every unsuccessful application is the result of age discrimination. Applicants cannot know everything that informed a recruitment decision. But there is a wider question worth asking:
What happens when employers see someone’s age before they see their ability?
The assumptions that accompany ageing
People grow older in different ways. Health, income, caring responsibilities and access to opportunities all shape that experience.
A date of birth tells us very little about someone’s curiosity, judgement, ambition or capacity to learn. Yet older people can find themselves treated as though those questions have already been answered.
They may be expected to slow down, step aside or become grateful for whatever opportunities remain.
Retirement can be a welcome and fulfilling choice. It should also be possible to seek a new challenge, develop a skill or continue working without having to justify the desire.
Ageing should leave room for different futures.
The evidence exists
Age discrimination in recruitment cannot simply be dismissed as the frustration of disappointed applicants.
A study by David Neumark, Ian Burn and Patrick Button, published in the Journal of Political Economy in 2019, examined responses to more than 40,000 job applications. It found clear evidence that older women faced discrimination, especially those nearing retirement age. Findings for men were less conclusive. That distinction matters: the results should not be presented as identical across genders.
A separate experiment by Ian Burn and colleagues found that job advertisements using language associated with age stereotypes discouraged older workers from applying, even without explicitly mentioning age. Exclusion can begin before an application is submitted.
These studies do not tell us how often discrimination occurs in Irish workplaces. They do show why recruitment practices deserve scrutiny.
The assumptions nobody says aloud
Subtle ageism is difficult to challenge because the reasoning behind a decision is rarely visible to the applicant.
Will this person adapt?
Will they be comfortable reporting to somebody younger?
Will they understand the technology?
Are they looking to wind down?
Will they expect too much money?
Where relevant, employers can discuss these matters with an individual candidate. The problem arises when age supplies the answer before the person has been asked.
The same scrutiny should apply to phrases such as “overqualified” or “not quite the right fit”. Either may reflect a genuine concern. Neither should end the conversation without a clear explanation of what the concern actually is.
If salary is the issue, discuss the salary. If a skill is essential, assess it. If the role involves change, ask candidates for evidence of how they have handled change.
Assess the person in front of you.
Experience includes having adapted
There is something particularly strange about assuming that a person with decades of working life behind them cannot adapt.
Those years may include new technologies, organisational restructures, changing expectations, funding crises and entirely new ways of delivering services.
Someone who began working before email became routine and now works across digital platforms has already lived through considerable technological change.
That does not mean every older applicant possesses every skill a role requires. It means adaptability should be demonstrated and assessed, rather than inferred from a date of birth.
The same applies to ambition. Approaching 60 does not tell an employer whether somebody wants a quieter life, a demanding challenge or a new direction.
Ask them. Their answer might surprise you.
What workplaces overlook
Experience can bring practical judgement: knowing which problem needs immediate action and which needs a careful conversation.
It can bring perspective during a crisis, specialist knowledge, established relationships and an understanding of how organisations actually function.
It can mean recognising a familiar mistake beneath fashionable new terminology, or having the confidence to ask an awkward but necessary question.
These qualities are not guaranteed by age. They are capabilities people may develop through years of doing the work, and applicants should have the opportunity to demonstrate them.
Older workers also deserve access to new learning. Nobody should have to present themselves as a finished product, useful only for what they already know.
Younger colleagues bring valuable knowledge and perspectives too. Workplaces benefit when people can exchange ideas across generations, challenge one another and learn together.
There is room for the person beginning their career and the person bringing decades of professional experience. Fair recruitment requires taking both seriously.
The cost extends beyond lost wages
A rejection letter is a small document. Its cumulative weight can be considerable.
Repeated exclusion can leave people questioning qualifications they worked hard to earn and skills they have spent years developing. The effort required to keep applying becomes work in itself.
Employment also provides structure, relationships and opportunities to contribute. Losing access to it can leave knowledge and energy unused while confidence gradually erodes.
We should be careful about responding to that experience with yet another instruction to become more resilient, rewrite the CV or improve the personal brand.
Useful support has its place. So does examining the recruitment processes applicants keep encountering.
There is also a wider contradiction worth challenging. We talk about longer working lives and the importance of lifelong learning. Those expectations need to be matched by opportunities to secure work, change careers and develop new skills later in life.
What employers can do
Employers can begin with practical questions:
- Does our advertisement describe the skills required, or an imagined age and personality?
- Do we assess candidates against consistent, relevant criteria?
- Can we explain what “fit” means in terms of the actual work?
- Are assumptions about salary, ambition or adaptability being tested?
- Do people across age groups have meaningful access to training, progression and new responsibilities?
Removing a date of birth from a form achieves little if assumptions take over when the candidate enters the room.
Inclusion needs to be visible in decisions: who gets interviewed, who gets hired, who receives training and who is considered worth investing in.
Experience has no expiry date
Older people deserve a fair assessment of what they can contribute. They also deserve respect regardless of whether they are employed. Nobody’s worth should depend on their usefulness to an organisation.
For those who want or need to work, fairness means examining their skills, listening to their ambitions and questioning assumptions that turn age into a reason to overlook them.
Across our communities, there are people with ideas to pursue, skills to share and work they are ready to do. They deserve the opportunity to show us.
As I approach 60, I count myself among them. I remain keen to teach, write, develop projects and put more than 30 years of professional experience to use.
If you can see a place for that experience in your organisation, I would welcome a conversation.
I’m available. Any takers?
And I still remember asking John McGlinchey how he was. I can see the little smile that accompanied his answer.
“I’m alive and sinking.”