Ageism and Old cruisers

[Jabberwocky]

Sorry Sas you are wrong, my reports always said that I was" lazy, which would be fine if only he had the intellect to make up for it". Oxbridge was never on the cards. I never even went to University...

Dodgy in "Do I hear screams of disbelief?" mode

I am afraid I only listen to "graduate calibre" posters on this board. Think of it as sweeping generalisation that comes from a deep understanding of the dynamic market place.

Lets face it if you haven't got a degree you are uncompetitive and have a permanent chip on your shoulder. Graduates can think outside the box - nongraduate CVs get filed in the waste basket in my office.

[BlasterBates]

There was a survey a few years back done in Gulp (a German contractor web-site) and they found a positive correlation between the number of offers each contractor had and age, and what was interesting was the correlation went right up into the sixties, so a sixty year old could on average boast a higher number of contract offers than a 25 year old.

so there...

[SupremeSpod]

" lazy, which would be fine if only he had the intellect to make up for it".

Typical retarded teacher, hadn't s/he heard of the word "compensate"?

Mind you Dodgy, it probably hadn't been invented when you (sometimes)attended school...

Ah, public school, I remember it well, the thwack of willow against buttock...

Spod - In "Duck and Cover" mode!

[WageSlave]

Bloody hell, Dodgy. You're 45!? I thought all male agents were 25 and full of hair gel.

Ah, public school, I remember it well, the thwack of willow against buttock...

Quite right, Spod. It's a shame that in adult life, to receive a damn good spanking one needs to part with wads of cash. Like most things in life, you only miss it when it's gone.

Wage in 'didn't recognise a good thing' mode.

[sasguru]

Hmmmm

The fact that Dodgy is 45 explains much. Well over the hill. Too old to do his job. Replace yourself with someone younger, Dodgy, you're past it.

[expat]

Optimist that is the closest I have been to receiving a compliment on this board.. I am 45.

"Anyone more than 5 years older than oneself is past his best" (Townsend, Up the Organization). So that's what you've got against 50+!

[AlfredJPruffock]

It is a rare event when I find myself in accordance with DA; but I too have never attended University; save the Ccollege of hard knocks and University of Life which I suspect DA knows only too well: and would you believe I am also 45 and never been in better form.

And DA even gets a mention in this weeks Poetery Corner; stay tuned folks.

[BobTheCrate]

Let me take your point about "experience" and older people being threatening. That is entirely your subjective view. Can you not accept that one man's skills and experience is another mans set in his ways. The skill of management is steer a path through the project that takes account of and exploits to full potential the resources that are available.

I didn't say older people were threatening, I said many a manager has felt threatened by someone with more skills and experience than they.

"Can you not accept that one man's skills and experience is another mans set in his ways" (Let's remember that term, 'set in his ways' for a moment.

Sure I can. What I take issue with you over is the clumsy assumption that the latter is the exclusive domain of the over 40s or that it is a remotely worthy generalisation one would find in the toolbox of the successively skillful manager.

"The skill of management is steer a path through the project that takes account of and exploits to full potential the resources that are available."

(Oh dear, some pros straight out of the 'HR guide'.)

I'd agree DA but for the other other facet of this management skill you bang on about but omit from that phrase. Your phrase should have read,

"The skill of management is to steer a path through the project, carefully avoiding anyone remotely around the 40 mark, and exploits to full potential the remaining resources."

Prejudice is not a champion of skills by a long chalk. Prejudice has much more in common with being 'set in ones ways'. The very same thing you object to.

[lance.delahaye]

2) The forced comparison to sports. Clearly that isn't fair as in sports you have the inevitable physical decline which stops you from being in your prime. That is a fact and it's proved. For the brain yet it's not proved when you are in the prime of your intellect. In my opinion the brain never gets old and recent theories seem to go into this direction. It's only the way your brain controls your body that deteriorates because the body can't respond that quickly and effectively. But that isn't really an issue with an office job where minimum physical effort is required.

Actually the sports comparison is forced, but there's another one which works better, namely high flyers in academia - eg einstein. I remember reading somewhere that genius always manifests early - like before thirty or so. Einstein was actually a late starter, with his finest work appearing at about 29 from memory.

The great leaps forward like those from Newton and Einstein and others of their ilk occur before thirty, maybe BECAUSE their minds have not set in the ruts of their predeccessors. The rest of their lives are spent building on that genius - experience is a different thing than genius. Academics want to keep the Einstein's arround for more than prestige, since they still have a head start on the followers in their newly discovered fields.

"Genius is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration". Inspiration occurs early if it's going to happen. You perspire for the rest of your life, working with that inspiration.

I think there is a more useful analogy than sportsmen.

I hate knowing that as much as anybody here who reads this, but I am clear that for myself my thinking is pretty much set. I must constantly set aside old assumptions and keep this in my mind to keep myself learning.

[expat]

Would not ageism in the workplace be substantially removed if youngsters were educated in all the tricks and scams employers use to get them to work for nothing?

Tricks and scams such as "Professional Working Day"=="60 hours a week and no overtime", "Profit sharing scheme"=="Development department moved to a subsid that accounts run at a paper loss"

For isn't that what ageism really is: the desire of employers for people they can pay lower wages to?

Quite so.


"Stock purchase scheme"=="pay your own salary".