Age 56. Can't be arsed at work anymore.

said me,
less than 365 days until I am 60.
The lump sum I can claim will not last more than 2 years
and then how will i survive.

dont get old before your time folks.
all this talk of not being about to work leading up to 60, yes i know i felt like this a year ago, but plenty of my colleagues work until they are 66 full time.
you have plenty of time for retirement after then, all being well!

I’m 44 and I feel the same 😢 Whilst I don’t want to wish my life away, I literally can’t wait to retire.

I'm a 50 something and completely feel like this, hoping to get out at 57. Far too many young uns posting 'look at my classroom' on TikTok, or 'here's my teacher outfits for the week'. Too much to excitement about stuff I've seen a thousand times.
I'm a definite old, grumpy fart and I couldn't care less

They're important in contract tendering, and those contracts keep people in employment.

It's not always older people. My last job was in the charity sector and reluctance to engage with team meetings, personal and professional development and learning was a sure fire way to be at the top of the list if redundancy processes were happening.

THere are quite a few in the 50s/60s age band in my team, and we just collectively take the piss all day long, very loudly, about whatever recycled corporate drivel they are pushing on us. Personal branding at the moment. There is strength in numbers. But the men seem to be far more able to quiet quit than us relentlessly diligent women so programmed to do a good job. My mistake is that I still care, at 65.

Yeah 60 is 'too young' to retire.

Said no-one ever........ 😂

@Whosaidthattt I don't blame you for feeling like you do. After 40 years of working, I have fucking had it, and will be retiring at 60. (Several years to go!) DH is too. Not a cat in hell's chance will we be working past 60!

🤣🤣🤣

The funny thing is, the directive for change in large organisations come from the top. Who are these executives...usually older people.
Also it's them that make the decision to hire all these 'young' people. And give them carte blanche.
Usually execs operate on a 5 year lifespan (after which they rinse and repeat in another org)... So they don't actually CARE about longevity or blockers. They just want something delivered quickly that looks good to the board, get their kudos and bam next job.

Hmmm... A lot like our dear government actually.

I'm only 30+ but already aware of this because of the nature of my work. Many people don't get it until they're much further in their career.

So I make my decision, do what I have to do understanding the way of the world. Do I like it? No. Can I do anything about it? Usually, no.

Oh no I was only replying to you r.e. the widow comment. I don't see what widowhood has to do with your career.

The rest of it was directed to the OP - she called her colleagues 'excited young puppies bounding about'. I'm sure she would consider it perfectly acceptable for her to be called, I don't know, a 'jaded old tortoise, heading towards the grave'.

Ageism either way isn't acceptable but even more ironically, OP admits to doing all this herself 20 years ago. So she presumably benefited by getting her current position off the back of that work. But is derogatory towards others wanting the same.

It's OK to rant about corporate culture, work outside one's JD, unrealistic expectations. But the OP is just ageist. Unacceptable.

BTW OP maybe you hoped to find commiseration... But many of the best people I've worked with were your age or older. As @Kneidlach said you need a mix of all age groups and as a youngling I was privileged to learn from them! Quite a few directly responsible for the success I enjoy now, I remember one lovely chap patiently walking through something very technically with me when I was busy stressed and crying. I missed him so much when he retired and still spend time with him. He has some great stories.
Also worked with quite a few late career changers. Again, the ones with a great attitude soared ahead.

Maybe you're upset because you hoped to retire here but won't get hired again if you leave, although you can't stand the culture anymore. Many young people have similar constraints due to disability, caring responsibilities or a shit job market so again.... Not age related.

Keep your head down, do the bare minimum if that's what you want. Nothing to lose is there? Let everyone else get on with their promotion projects.

A lot of enthusiasm can be age-related. But IME it's personality that drives the irritating behaviours, not the desire to do well.

There's a mid-20s woman in my team who is lovely - bright, ambitious and yes, enthusiastic. But she's really good at talking to people and seems to genuinely want to understand other views and experiences. If there's a reason why she can't include/act on those, she's very good at feeding back and letting people know. It doesn't change the overall seen-it-done-it frustration with the firm - but that's on the firm rather than her. I think she's got a very promising future and bloody good luck to her. It's noticeable she gets a lot of backing and engagement from the older/experienced end of our team, because they want to see her do well.

By contrast the newly appointed manager, junior to me but who is my age, who booked a meeting with me in his first week to tell me that he'd been tasked with solving a problem. And wanted to tell me all the ways in which I was going to help him do that. Without stopping for a moment to wonder whether it might be a good idea to ask A) why said problem was still kicking about after x years. And B) whether I had any views of my own which might be relevant or useful to him. Nope. I wasn't in his presentation, but apparently the description of more experienced staff members as blockages did not go down well.

When someone with more experience wants to tell you about when the firm did this last time, then it's pretty arrogant to dismiss them as resistant to change, without stopping first to examine why they are concerned. There are absolutely some people who do not want to change - often older but not always. I'm always struck by the irony of firms that will fall over themselves on their complaints and social media KPIs, but won't entertain talking to their own staff who know where all the previous bodies are buried!

I am senior. I earn a lot. But alone I can’t change the culture!

How old are you? Because if you’re younger than 55 come back in 20 years and tell us how you feel then

I'm 36 and... Well, if you find the answer, let me know. I'll be around for another 30 years, at least.

I think this is a very skewed perspective. Organisations benefit from having a mix of people, including in terms of age and experience.

So yes, a firm that only employed cynical slightly jaded fifty year olds would likely be a disaster. But a firm that only employed ‘passionate’ twenty-five year olds who over enthusiastically implement every new idea at breakneck pace would also be a disaster.

Having a mix of ages, in theory anyway, allows a firm to benefit from what people of all ages can offer.

The system was set up when people didn’t live so long.
Yes, and most started work sooner.
DFIL started full-time work at 14, DH at 18 and DS not until 23, so that must make a difference as well.

I’m in my sixties myself. The system was set up when people didn’t live so long. It was designed for 10 - 15 years of retirement pension.

In order to pay out for the same period now, that age where the payments start obviously has to rise.

It really is shit, and I am prepared with an exit strategy when my enjoyment of life ceases before my body entirely packs up. When I started working I expected to draw my state pension at 60. I totally understand why this isn’t possible now. It would put a burden on younger taxpayers that they really couldn’t shoulder.

Two of the best people I ever recruited were both men in the late 50’s who’d been made redundant from more senior roles and wanted something less stressful to tide them over for the last few years as neither ready to switch off yet.

Ok they were not as technically savvy as the younger ones but they were reliable, didn’t need too much training, both stepped up to help out above their pay grade when the younger ones said ‘but that’s not my job’. If I was away from my desk, they’d take calls and help the person on the end rather than take a message and the apprentices loved their wisdom and maturity. One especially really enjoyed being an informal mentor to them.

Yet both had struggled to find work after being written off as too old.

I’ve had young women I work with complain they don’t want to work with old people (over 40),

She’s a lazy, entitled, work shy, useless lass. I don’t want to work with, or more correctly do her work on top of mine, her either.

The charity sector are struggling to recruit people. You would have to demonstrate transferable skills. Charity job website will direct you as to how best to do this.

How do you find one that isn’t trying to sell you a load of stuff you don’t want?

Living ‘too’ long due to poor financial management by the government and let’s be frank - some people who don’t save for retirement.

Theres no such thing as living ‘too long’ and I hate the term as it’s pretty much like saying you should just go die now you’re not economically viable.

A record number of young people aren’t bothering to work, but let’s blame the pensioners 🙄

Do you think there should be some jobs where people are roughly grouped by age. I'm sure some people would apply for them

I'm 40 . I hate having twenty something year old managers shout at my team about KPI's.

Similarly some young people don't like working with us either.

A 22 year old man works in our organisation. He's on a different team to me. He told me that he doesn't like working with the 40- 50 year olds on his team bevause they're the same age as his mum, and he has nothing in common with them

I retired two years ago at 63. I’d always interested to stick it out to 67 as I enjoyed my job but found I just couldn’t be arsed to sort out other people’s mistakes yet again. That’s not as arrogant as it sounds as most of the improvements to systems had already previously been tried and rejected.

A major factor was a new young senior manager who would fanfare some major cost saving in conjunction with a supplier, instruct me to implement it only for me to realise it was only for a particular contract we hadn’t yet been awarded or similar.

When I started work it was expected you would work hard but not that your job should be your passion.

Yes I agree, it can be that feeling that as an older person you can’t possibly have knowledge and experience ALREADY that could be valuable! Isn’t “ learning from experience” generally seen as a good business tool?

Absolutely. In my field it often goes like:

Client: Hey here's a great new project for you blah blah
Me: Fab but IME elements ABC could cause problems because blah blah. I suggest maybe modifying it along the lines of XYZ.
Client: Nah, it's staying as it is.
Me: OK but be aware ABC could cause problems but I'll do my best.
Client: OK boomer <totally ignores me>

A few months later:
Client: It seems elements ABC are causing a shitshow! Whodathunk!? Whattery can you fix it?
Me: Yes I suggest XYZ AS I SAID TO START WITH
Client: OK please do that! ASAP!
Me: OK but I need paying for the extra work undoing ABC and implementing XYZ
Client: OK whatever

A few months later:
Rinse and repeat

I feel like this at 59, the last intake of recruits at my job are my DC’s age and there are few colleagues older than 40. For those previous posters who mentioned being at a workplace with many contemporaries, I would be interested in knowing what you do? I have a decent private pension due at 65 and could afford to take it earlier (maybe not quite yet) but I would actually like to continue working part time.

My current job is STEM-related and I doubt I’ll find anything at a similar level again but I am experiencing menopausal brain fog and quite fancy working in a minimum wage job that isn’t too mentally draining. Not sure what that might be though because I haven’t worked in that sort of area (hospitality, retail etc) since I was a student. Does anyone know what sort of places might be wanting to recruit older employees with a lot of life experience but no relevant recent experience?