To think there's massive age discrimination after 50

[Livelifelaughter]

My company recently made redundant some extremely competent experienced lawyers. All the ones below the age of 50 (40s)have got new jobs. None over 50 have even though they would accept the salary on offer to the 40 year olds.
Some have approached firms asking to retrain in other areas of law at a lower salary and have got no where even though many firms will re train women who have left for years to have families.
It seems very difficult to get a decent well paid job at 50 plus.

Of course ageism is in rife in employment.
At the moment I’ve not experienced it. I’m nearly 58 and have been offered a place to do the next level qualification at work. Other people younger than me have expressed an interest but I was picked this time.
Our company do apprenticeships and a colleague is in her 59s currently doing one.
So far, so good for me. I definitely don’t feel like the old woman on the team but have been treated excatly the same as everyone else and had the same opportunities.
I have heard from my friends the difficulties some of them have had in their jobs though.

if the company gave that as their reason it would clearly be age discrimination!

I’m 47 and stepped down in my career due to husband’s job and young children 18 months ago.

I’m definitely keeping my eyes open for new jobs though to try and climb back up because I’m conscious that once I’m over 50, that ageism is absolutely rife and I may find it harder to climb back up again.

but same as a previous poster, I’ve read an article about removing jobs from years ago and actually it’s just not bloody relevant what I did 20 years ago except for tell you how old I am and why does that matter? So I will be doing the same moving forward

There was an article in the Times at the weekend saying that a survey showed that 4 in 10 managers would not hire people over 50.

It's astonishing (and shocking). Also why are all ads aimed at 20 somethings? Don't they realise that middle aged people tend to have the most money to spend?

On the plus side, the same article showcased some companies which are hiring over 50s. Some are even offering apprenticeships to the over 50s.

I don't really understand the "up or out" mentality in some law firms. It's good to have experienced people in the firm who do a good job but don't want partnership - no room for competitiveness, just getting on with things. Most people don't coast until retirement, that's a fallacy. And younger people can be just as lazy. Manage the person, not the age (or other) group.

@lieselotte That's amusing, as The Times has run a couple of stories about the government wanting the fifty-somethings to go back to work. If they really wanted it, they would incentivise it - tax breaks for employers employing over-fifties. Funnily enough, no sign of that.

Not what I've found.

Got made redundant at 50 and was back in employment a week later.

In my 50s I was approached about moving companies and I did move twice.

Now in my 60s I was approached about joining another company. When I broached my age with them (I know companies SHOULDN'T decline on age grounds but we do know it happens) I was told they were after my experience. (I'm a dinosaur ) Certainly gave me a boost.

I was offered the position but turned it down due to change in family circumstances meant I wouldn't be able to stay away in the next six months or so. But I was offered the job.

Why do they flippin well need tax breaks though? The over 50s are perfectly capable! Probably more capable for a lot of jobs. They just need to stop being arrogant and ageist and recruit the right person for a job, not the one most like them - this all fits in with the discussion on the "mistaken for the PA" thread. People need to stop recruiting in their own image and think about who will best do the job.

Yes but people do recruit in their own image, and moreover it's not visible to them. We don't see our own blind spots.

On the subject of the government, if they want a certain outcome they should incentivise those who can achieve it or shut up because that's their job.

My husband was told by the recruitment agency (he is in IT and works projects) that he was getting to a difficult age and would probably not make the cut for future projects. He is 52 now. They want guys in their 30s. Doesnt matter that my husband has ketp up to date in his field.

There is age discrimination for both age and women over 50. It’s frustrating for women as this is often the stage of life when you can focus on your career as kids are teens or at uni. We don’t need tax breaks we need companies to be given incentives to hire us and penalise age discrimination. I think managers being uncomfortable managing older and often more experienced people is part of it. The fact we are likely to not leave after a couple of years and stick out jobs for longer doesn’t seem valued. Many people just want an interesting job at this stage and not necessarily climb the career ladder. Civil service and their bizarre and over complicated recruitment process is really not helpful.

I find this interesting. The government seem to be encouraging more older people to 'return' to the workplace. However, I wonder how many of the people who may have taken 'early retirement' are actually working.

For example, I took 'early retirement' from my role eight years ago. The professional pension I received was miniscule, because I had not been paying into the scheme for very long. Therefore, I looked for work that I could do from home, so I could undertake caring responsibilities, but still work. That is when I entered the 'gig' (or freelance) economy and the casual workforce.

In these sectors (casual or freelance) there are many older people. In fact, I would say, there are primarily older people. The work is insecure (but often plentiful), and you tend to be treated a little like an afterthought. However, it is often flexible and can be varied.

I really do not believe there are large numbers of economically inactive older people. Rather, I think a huge swathe of older people have found they can use their skills and experience working online, and the flexibility of some kinds of online working enables them to undertake their caring roles.

The ageism that seems to be raising its head in the traditional workplace, may have arisen because older people may now be a minority in such environments.

I think it can be very sector dependent. Certain roles in my industry are pretty openly discussed as needing a woman with one or two grandkids to fund in her 50s to 60s. By all accounts they make the most reliable medium term investments so long as they can’t afford to retire.

Nobody wants to employ someone who can afford to walk out at a moments notice, and close proximity to retirement age comes at that risk.

Nobody wants to employ someone who can afford to walk out at a moments notice, and close proximity to retirement age comes at that risk

Ah so they don't want people they can't exploit. Nice. This is why we need unions.

I'm 55 and have been out of work because of disability. I've been searching for Excel etc computer courses, so I can show upto date skills. I'm also looking for voluntary work. Many roles want recent references. I'm recovering but it isn't looking like I'll be re-entering the workforce. Likewise a lot of my male peer group who were the unskilled building workers, physical factory/warehouse workers are finding the lack of retraining opportunities frustrating, especially as we are expected to work for another 20 years. The same applies to women whose jobs were very physical. The 'unqualified' etc 50+ year olds are often without pensions, so no chance of topping up the part time minimum wages on offer. It isn't going to be our, or the next generation that benefits from the menopause recognition, it'll be viewed as having to give maternity leave, was, a liability to employers. Women are up against double discrimination. My generation in Liverpool in the 80's didn't have the opportunities that our male peers had, the jobs done had lesser pensions, if any attached and we couldn't go and earn £kkkk in the likes of Saudi etc.

YADNBU. It affects men too.

@ijphoo do you mix with 55+ year old who were cleaners, manual labours, shop workers, taxi drivers, warehouse workers, care home workers etc? Are they using their skills on line? In pocketed areas, especially those of deprivation, there'll be large numbers of older people who can't get back into work and if they do they'll get the 16 hour jobs that others don't want and still have to be topped up by UC/HB.

This is exactly our situation, DH was punted from his job 6 years ago (aged 55) and set up as a freelance contractor instead.

This suits him very well at this time in our lives as we are comfortably off, but it might not have worked for us so well when we were younger.

He always has work if he wants it, but he does get treated like shit, the money is good, and he can take time out if he wants.

Like other posters, I only go back so far on my CV, for me that's 2011 when I started to retrain.

I realise though that for local authorities and central government departments they want every single breath you took since birth accounted for, which is a pain in the arse.

I wonder if you live in the UK

@Goldpaw Yes, I've noticed this too and this puts older applicants at a disadvantage as you can pretty easily work out how old someone is based on those dates and any qualifications.

Well we at least pay lip service to combating racism and to a lesser extent sexism. Not so ageism.

Yes they should only be able to do it for jobs where there is a safeguarding, regulatory or national security issue. Otherwise the last ten years should be enough.

As PP said, I'm of two minds around the Menopause Awareness stuff. Unless someone is offering me a substantive benefit then no I don't want to share Menopause struggles at work. I want to come across as fresh and capable, so I'm not overlooked for promotions.

I find it crazy given younger folk often churn faster to move on and progress in their career. At 50 we have at least 17 yrs to go even with 3 yrs per post thats alot of contribution to ditch

I’m really unusual I think as I’ve worked in the same company for 20 years now. I notice we have v v few new people coming in not in their early 20s but in general people stay long term. In my department majority have been there well over 10 years