I am 45 and the second oldest woman at my work

[TodClarty]

What about you?

I'm on the receiving end of ageism for the first time. I read about women just leaving the workplace as they get older cos they arent valued and dont fit.

(My place is an office based work where age shouldn't matter)

45 and in the civil service, probably one of the oldest in my directorate. There are a couple of men and women older than me in different work areas under the same banner, but in my work area I suspect I'm one of the oldest. My line manager is at least 5 years younger and other team members are quite young.

I don't think there's any ageism - at least I've not experienced any so far. But then again nobody believes I'm the age I am (must be doing something right ), and I wonder how things will be as my perimenopausal symptoms increase as they are doing...

@MissMarplesGoddaughter

Sadly, all too true.

Lots of snide comments about ageing, not knowing about IT, social media etc.

And of course the two biggest 'crimes' of all being a BB and a MiL.....

What's a BB?

I am the youngest in my work department at 30. Oldest is 53, others all in their 40s.

I worked in the steel industry, in finance. Out of twenty five people we were all within a 5 year age span, I used to say to management that one day finance would fall over a cliff, we'd all be retiring at the same time.

We did all leave on the same day when they closed us down, were between 50 and 55, majority of us very happy, final salary pension scheme available at that time from 50.

Not exactly as I'm not working right now due to ill health & more recently (&later) I'm self employed & my age doesn't affect my work now.

I was a member of a Facebook group related to my trade though & though I was very respected as being one of the best in my field at a technical aspect of the job, I've definitely felt ageism on that group & left as a result. I even tested it by changing my profile photo to a very old one & got a totally different response to my answers to posts.

With a recent photo, even though I'm regularly told I look a lot younger than I am, so would look about your age OP, my responses were literally ignored in favour of someone's ideas so how to do something, rather than my experience of actually doing it. Comments that were pretty bloody ageist & ignorant weren't uncommon

A few old similar age & very experienced friends had the same experience & we all tested it by changing to old younger photos of ourselves & git a far better response to our replies. We all left the group as a result 🙄

Thinking in it further, I've also seen it first hand too

One place I worked had a much older, close to retirement man, whose work history made him something that most in my trade would snap their hands off for the kind of training & skills he had. I personally saw it as an opportunity to learn from him & I did, he was fantastic & even in a short time I learnt so much

The rest of the staff either ignored him or took the pee

I work in academia and don't feel particularly young at the age of 42. But I remember working in international NGOs in my 20s and thinking that there aren't any women past 30 here. So I did sort of pick my career in view of that i.e. where can I see women still working 45 and above.

It would be nice to move industry and have a bit of a change but everywhere I look is staffed full of 20/30 year olds so not sure that I would fit.

At my work they offered voluntary redundancy to a whole department - all of whom were older than 50. Happily 5 out of 7 of us said "stuff you" and took the money!

@3Britnee

BB = Baby Boomer

[quote MissMarplesGoddaughter]@3Britnee

BB = Baby Boomer[/quote]
Ahh ok, thank you.

Get a job in local authority or social care! I am in my late 30s and the youngest in my team by nearly 15 years

I’m the youngest at 37, out of a team of 6, the others are 3x mid 50’s and 2 in their 70’s!

What type of job @DowntonCrabby?

I very recently (sort of) retired in my late 60s. In my job I frequently had to help much younger members of staff with IT, particularly problems with spreadsheets.
I’ve got a new job starting in September. I expect much of the same.

@DayPyjamas

I always wondered what happens to women after the age of 50 in the workforce. There were very few of them in the city when we used to work in the office and I'm worried for my own future as a female employee.

@DayPyjamas Well you won’t be considered for promotion and you won’t get an interview for similar jobs in other organisations despite years of relevant experience. Speaking from experience