Age really is just a number
By Brian Kreissl
Continuing with the theme of my last two posts, this week’s post is for individuals facing potential age discrimination in the workplace. While it is impossible to cheat the aging process entirely and there are no guarantees in life, looking and acting younger, being flexible, adaptable and curious, keeping up with current trends and best practices and having a commitment to lifelong learning can help overcome age discrimination.
In many ways, my previous post about future-proofing one’s career is also relevant because it relates to the concepts of adaptability and flexibility. Older workers are more likely to face the possibility of obsolescence (or at least perceived obsolescence) in their careers.
Before I go any further, however, it is important to reiterate that I’m not saying age discrimination on the part of employers is justified or that people should necessarily go to extreme measures such as Botox, hair transplants or plastic surgery in order to look younger. We live in a youth-obsessed society, and we need to be more tolerant of the fact that aging is a natural part of life and have more respect for our elders and the wisdom and experience they bring to the workplace.
Having said that, age discrimination is a fact of life and in many cases it isn’t something people are even consciously aware of. While I’m not saying mature people should ever lie about their ages or try to dress, talk and act like teenagers, being young at heart can help people overcome some of the stigma associated with age.
Age really is just a number, and I am sure we’ve all met people who just seemed much younger than they really were. Sometimes being “youthful” is just an attitude and an unwillingness to be pigeonholed based on one’s age.
My own attitude towards aging
By the time I was 22 years old, I was bald. Added to that, the hair I had left had started turning grey. People simply refused to believe my age when I told them how old I was.
Having had long, thick, dark hair in my teens, it was a pretty traumatic experience for me. As someone else once wrote on an online forum, at the time I felt like I was robbed of my early adulthood.
But I was lucky in many ways because from the mid-90s onwards, it was fashionable for men to have shaved heads, so I started shaving my hair very short. While my mother hated it at the time and told me I wasn’t fooling anyone, I wasn’t actually trying to fool people, although I did think it looked better than leaving the sides longer and being bald on top.
Without consciously realizing it, premature aging actually motivated me to try to stay young. Much like the fact that top performers are often people who experienced setbacks in their careers and feel self-conscious in some way, I simply refused to give in to the aging process or be constrained by my age. By now, I have absolutely no hang-ups about my hair (or lack thereof), but I do think it impacted me in many ways.
I’ve actually met people my age who are counting down the days until retirement, but I cannot for the life of me understand that mentality. Aside from those with serious health problems, such people constantly moan about their aches and pains, never want to do anything involving physical activity and decide not to take part in activities because they’re “too old.” The truth is they are old before their time.
Even though I have experienced a certain measure of career success, at 45 I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up (I enjoy what I do, but I have no plans to retire doing what I’m currently doing, nor do I plan to retire early or even at 65).
I’m still taking college and university courses part-time and my education is far from finished. I try to keep fit by walking, swimming and going to the gym (although my schedule makes that challenging at times). I still check out new bands and attend concerts where most people are half my age.
I simply don’t care what people my age are supposed to be doing with their lives, and I believe that having a similar attitude can help combat age discrimination. Being young at heart really helps.
