Have the Boomer’s passed their
“Use By’ date?
Rob Crawford 2009

This presentation invites the viewer
to redefine the meaning of work,
consider who and what has value,
recalculate the cost/benefit analysis
of the employment relationship and
embrace the value of a diverse
workforce

The current economic
recession has impacted the
American workforce’s sense of
job security.

This crisis has
caused
employers’ to cut
staff
& labor costs
across
all positions

A reoccurring theme in
the media suggests that
this burden is being
unfairly borne by the
Boomer’s

Significant numbers of unemployed
“older workers” over the age of 45
are having a hard time finding new jobs

The notion is knowledge is not an
asset. Companies need labor.

The prevailing stories says a smart
ambitious kid who has no
preconceived understanding, can be
quickly molded for less money.

Is there an age bias
against hiring older
workers or is this just
business as usual?

The April 12& 13, 2009 edition of
the New York Times Room for
Debate blog asked experts and
reader’s to comment on the
issue.

Specifically, are older
worker’s being viewed as
less qualified, less
hardworking and more
expensive than younger
workers?

As one can imagine, there was a
broad range of commentary….

The expert’s provided context
& duly noted perspective….

Qualified? Yes. Expensive? No.
Nothing is really new about employers
preferring to hire younger candidates.
Experiments have shown that even when
credentials are absolutely identical,
employers much prefer the younger
candidates.
Peter Cappelli

Their Skills Are Too Specific
Older workers have a lifetime of
preferences and skills — essentially
unique-shaped pegs that can fit into a
limited number of holes. Younger
workers are malleable and can fit more
easily into a variety of positions.
Alicia H. Munnell

Pay the Aged Less
“The older I get, the more productive I
am.” Experience counts for a lot. But the
painful truth is this: Our productivity
peaks in our mid-40s and gradually
declines with age. Employers should
simply pay you less with age. There is no
need to lay you off.
Laurence J. Kotlikoff

It’s About Cost, Not Competence
Clever and nimble employers use
recessions as an opportunity to shake up
their work forces: they can get younger,
cheaper, freshly trained workers for
bargain-basement salaries and lower health
care premiums.
Teresa Ghilarducci

Young and in Love — With Themselves
The younger generation, on average, is
higher in self-esteem, assertiveness &
narcissism… unfortunately, these same
traits- particularly narcissism- will later
cause large problems for managers when
they reappear as entitlement,
overconfidence and conflicts with co-
workers.
Jean Twenge

Gen Y
reader responses…….

Older workers have trouble
with computers. A lack of
general skills makes it harder
for them to learn new
software, and many seem to
resent having to learn.

They’re more
likely to call
the IT
department,
and to lean on
younger
workers for
help.

There’s no easy way to gain
general tech skills that young
people have but to be young -
play video games, update your
FaceBook daily, text message
your friends
Matt

I rationalized that
sometimes a
company must
sacrifice the older
workers to make
way for younger
ones
— and now I am
realizing that even
the younger ones
are dispensable.
Smidely

Companies don’t want older workers
and they don’t want skill. They want
work that can be easily managed and
transferred.
Jim C

Both of my 50-something
parents have more sophisticated
IT skills than nearly all of my
friends and 20-something
coworkers.
Rebecca

Every workplace needs old and
young employees. To completely
generalize, the old lend their
experience while the young
contribute energy. Wacky new
ideas are vetted while stale
procedures are overhauled.
Katinka

The Boomer’s have some rejoinder’s
to offer …
Older workers don’t fit in as well and don’t
take shit (directions or corrections well)

There is no intention of lowering
pay or reducing hours so that
everyone make it through an
economic crisis with good health.
High pay justifies firing people.
SWP

I resist the
temptation to admit
I’m screwed.
Perhaps that’s the
essential difference
between me and a
younger worker.
Tony

The perception that
younger workers are more
malleable somehow fits into
the attitude that older
workers can’t manage
change.

Would I come across as more
technologically competent if I
sat through an interview,
sending text messages every
time the interviewer turned his
or her head?
Mike

Hiring managers prefer
applicants who don’t
look, sound, or act old.
(They also prefer applicants who aren’t fat, disabled,
poor, and basically aren’t different.)

I am an older worker at age 60 and even
though I cannot run a 100yd dash as
quickly as I did at 40 years, I can still
run.
Paul Alleyne

Rarely, do young workers get a job and
stay with it over the long term, older
workers do because they know pretty
much what they want and go directly to
it rather that move from one job to
another.

Is it any surprise
that any expensive
source of workers
should have
difficulty in finding
employment in a
nation that believes
in the virtues of a
cheap supply of
workers?
Bob Sallamack

The environment is pretty abusive,
although that’s carefully hidden
from the newer kids. There is a
constant stream of verbal abuse,
veiled threats and high decibel
activity behind the curtains.
SWP

No company can be run well without a
good, knowledgeably , experienced
workforce. The best people in any
workforce are the older workers.

When you are an experienced
worker with good skills, you are
more productive in terms of
quality work, as your experience
teaches you how to do things
more efficiently and how to avoid
errors which can be costly to the
company.
Dan Kuhn

Finding some common
ground….

Despite the immediate “shortage” of
jobs,
there is an ongoing gap of skilled labor
that will be a need to “infilled” from all
generations.

When times are tough, we must resist
the temptation to indulge stereotypes,
assumptions, and bias about age
- from both directions!

As a 22 year old college graduate
with a pile of student loans to pay off,
many employers seem unwilling to
hire without extensive experience.
Perhaps the frustrations of finding
work at any age should cause us to
support each other instead of
seeking blame.
Colleen

Young people who
are hired and put to
work with older
experienced people
learn faster.
They also learn
things about
working for the
company they can
learn no other way.

No one wants to run computer
applications for an older co-
worker constantly, but at the same
time, no one wants to waste time
repeating mistakes due to the
naiveté of younger workers.
Katinka

Collaboration
between those
with experience
and those with
chutzpah is likely
to result in more
sustainable
success than the
current system
yields.

A vision of an emerging
&
not-so-future workplace

The notion of “job”
will so fundamentally
change in the next
decade (replaced by
“independent value
creator” — or some
such buzz word) that
whether you are 21
or 81 will become
irrelevant.

As we move ever more quickly
into the fullness of the 21st
century, jobs will be less and less
about employers, and more and
more about “value creation.”
There is a real and distinct
difference, and this difference
involves a paradigm change that
is enormous.

The issue will be intellectual
(and sometimes physical)
suitability for “things to do,”
rather than a job.

Most “jobs” or “things to do”
will be very temporary and
subject to rapid change, issues
such as tenure, pension, and
health care will migrate out of
the “corporate environment” into
the individual and government-
sponsored worlds.

Not everyone or every “job” will
change overnight — or this year.
But the change in how one earns
a livelihood will be so
dramatically different in the
future as to be unrecognizable.
Henry Doss

Photo credits courtesy of the
amazing work of :
1.Marta Kagan @ slideshare.net
2.Lee Hecht Harrison@ slideshare.net
3.ABCnews.com
4.AARP.com
5.SeniorJournal.com
6.Flickr.creativecommons.com
Rob Crawford, 2009
http://www.slideshare.net/ldiinariz