AIBU to ask who will employ us at 60 plus?

[RachelGreep87]

I have made peace with the idea of not being able to retire before 70, if at all, however I don't see much conversation about what I perceive to be rampant ageism in the workplace.

I am struggling to think of anyone above the age of 55 in my workplace - private sector, professional services. Perhaps they have been fortunate enough to already retire but this seems unlikely, have also heard blatant ageist comments in the workplace as well.

AIBU to ask how we will find jobs after 60 even if we are happy to continue working?

YABU - Society will have to adapt and workers in their later years will be valued more than they are today
YANBU - Society will remain ageist, people will be screwed as they will be unable to find work but will not be able to afford retirement

@CactusBlossom i dream of opening my own business after many unhappy years in a professional role. What area is your business in?

I have a friend whose parents opened a wine bar at 70 and they’ve just celebrated their very successful ten year anniversary! It’s been amazing.

he did have a background in wine making which obviously was a huge help - but they’d never run a shop or anything.

I find it a real inspiration

When I was 61 I was made redundant from my job as a manager.
It took me nearly six months to get another job and the one I got was at a far lower pay grade.
It was wonderful to be back to a basic grade job, I was good at it but had no responsibilities.
I went in, did my shift then left.
No working extra hours or worrying about work.

I did retire 6 years later and I miss the people I worked with but retirement is great.

I am 52 and was a relatively senior professional but for various reasons I had been out of the workforce for about three or four years. I don’t think I would have secured a position at my previous level after my gap and at my age, but fortunately that isn’t what I wanted to do. I was concerned about having a bigger gap and then looking for work when I am nearer 60 so thought I had better get back to work now.

I applied for a lot of jobs online and didn’t even get responses to most of them, but when I walked into a high street temp agency they were pretty confident they could place me quickly and they did.

I have been there a month, one of my colleagues is a man in his late 50s and I get the impression he is the same as me, he wanted a job but not a career any more. Quite a few of the department are older than me and probably him too, but the supervisor / manager are younger.

Craft. I love it. It's fun and helps me meet new people. Being your own boss is so much better than having other people tell you what to do, especially if they get it wrong.

I’m going to open a pasty shop in bude. Got it all planned.

I’m late 50s now, I had worked for nearly 3 decades in a travel industry role (same firm) until they collapsed in 2017. I was gutted. It took me 16 months to find a new job in a totally different industry. Out of about 130 people, only 6 are over 50, with 80% of staff being under 30. It was very, very hard. That said, I get on incredibly well with all the young uns, they are hardworking, bright and incredibly focused with a great work ethic.

It is crazy - who would want to be operated on by an elderly surgeon? How the hell do teachers cope with a class full of energetic children when they are knocking on 70?

We have to take on board that many people endure the physical problems of ageing whilst still trying to hold down a job, so that they can accumulate enough pension to retire.

I retired early - I had managed to organise it so that I could - retirement so far has consisted of nursing a husband sick with a neuro-degenerative disease, watching him die, then undergoing surgery for various breakages and dealing with the resulting pain and impaired mobility. I want to be out and about on walks, holidays, concerts - all the things we look forward to in retirement. I feel very sorry for those who will work till they drop and have no real retirement at all. I have had none yet.

It’s interesting isn’t it. I’m an academic which you think would be fine for “older” people but in my mid 40s I’m probably one of the older ones. I’d say our dept/school is maybe a bit age biased unless you’re in senior leadership. I suspect it’s because the older ones have normally been there longer and are expensive as will be at the top of the pay scale.?? I’m hoping I’ll get another ten years in. But I won’t have my pension until I’m 67yo.

a politician got asked this years ago on Newsnight and he said B&Q happily employ older people so I assume we just all go and work there? 🙈😂🙄

State retirement age is currently 66 in UK
67, 68 if you are younger
I anticipate that it will increase to 70

The average life expectancy before covid was 80+ for men & women

Of course there are jobs

There is also no retirement age, unless you work in a job that requires specific skills

I currently work with people from 18 to 70
Several in their mid 60s

Stay where you are is fine, until your company collapses and you're made redundant. I just don't believe that many companies will consider over 60s for new hires.

I know alot of nurses who retire from their contracted NHS positions at 60 but return to bank in their 60's. I also know a lot of nurses who didn't start their career in nursing until their 50s. Alot of the older staff work in the clinics, younger on the wards or positions more suited to their needs - I wouldn't want to be working 12 hour shifts in my 60's! Would much prefer a practice nurse role by then! But there are always positions in various roles and hours, which I guess is one of the draws to the job.

I'm 63. I've been "persuaded" into a change of role that I don't really want. I'm pretty sure that they felt I'd be open to accepting it because I have very little chance of getting another job at my age.

My dh was a senior manager. He is over 60. He got a job in retail without any trouble at all , as we are still supporting a dc and he is over 60. Some employer s seem very positive and age a non issue. I am under 60 but likewise , on giving up my career easily got a job. Not my first choice tho but it pays the bills.
This may not be the case in more career like jobs . However, after both having those sort of jobs , we are very happy to do less stressful jobs .

😄 yes why is that? There was a spell when my local one only seemed to have blokes in their sixties called Barry! There were at least three of them!

I'm happy to employ older people if they hold a relevant qualification and their CPD is up-to-date.

I would think twice about taking on an older person if they had a massive gap where they hadn't worked/done any CPD (because they'd effectively retired before having to go back to work), but I'd have exactly the same reservation of a younger person who had taken a sabbatical/gone on parental leave and not stayed up-to-date.

I don't mind a gap between jobs if there's a reason for it - I do mind if the person has checked out of the profession and not kept up with technical reading and the odd online conference. Some parents for example are very diligent about keeping up with their CPD whilst taking time out to raise kids - others let all the knowledge fall out of their brain and expect to pick back up where they left off. Er, no.

It's a bit like a surgeon taking 5 years out and not doing anything that uses fine motor skills. I wouldn't want to be their first patient back. As with everything, you need to keep your skills up-to-date or you start losing competence.

If someone's worked consistently and they're enjoying the work, TBH, I don't see why they couldn't do it in their 70s. It's the advantage of a professional white collar job - there's nothing physical about it, so there's no automatic cut off where you need to stop. You can work as long as you want to/need to, as long as your faculties are still intact. Which should be the case for most people.

I've managed people who are younger than me and older than me. I really don't care how old they are, as long as they're good at the job.

I’m 63, can’t afford to retire early. Fed up of “subtle” questions about when I’m going to retire.

The younger generation have different ideas about work that some employers will find unpalatable hence I think older workers will start to gain an edge. Just my two pence worth!

The school I just left (I am 51).
Reception- one teacher in her 40s, 2 just graduated.
Year 1: one in her 30s, keystage lead, other one an nqt.
Year 2: all under 25, recently qualified.
Year 3: all under 25. 1 of whom is keystage lead despite bugger all experience.

Year 4: 1 lone over 30, managing 2 nqts in theirfirst year of teaching.
Year 5: 1 27, one just graduated.
Year 6: me, 51, just left, and a newly qualified.
Teaching is a bloodbath. Anyone with any experience is used to support the massive flow of young teachers who constantly leave after 1 or 2 years because they have more sense. When they complain that this impacts on their teaching for no more renumeration they are "managed out". I've been watching it implode for several years.

If there are no experienced teachers in the classroom, the teaching is a bit shit, frankly. But it is cheap.

Staying where you are is all well and good until you there are redundancies or a restructure.
Also the norm in my industry is to change roles every 2 to 3 years, although presumably people may stop doing this once they reach a certain seniority level

I've just employed someone of 68.

Admittedly it was after advertising the role 3 times and getting little interest and he's a very fit 68, but I'm feeling quite good about the appointment. He hasn't started yet.

Fairly blatant comments - one manager openly spoke about declining to progress a candidate in their 50s as they would be "set in their ways".
Younger candidates are thought of as being more "malleable" i.e they haven't developed boundaries yet and will put up with any kind of treatment

I am struggling to think of anyone above the age of 55 in my workplace - private sector, professional services.

Really? There are many people over 60 working in my company. I do think you have limited options to move around after a certain age and probably just need to ride out the job you are in though.

This is really bleak

These stories are encouraging, I expect at that stage I would be happy as well to pivot a bit from a "career" to a "job". No offence meant to those who were always happy in jobs of course.

The only thing would be drop in income, would ideally have a mortgage almost paid off if going down that route