Re:Too Much Experience to Be Hired? Some Older Americans Fac...
by madphrodite on Sunday March 26, 2017 @04:59PM
(#13963263)
The common culture/perspective point is the most important single factor in the old vs young workplace decision.
It's the 'Hey nineteen' phenomena.
At almost 50 the desire to spend 8 hours a day with 20-30 year olds, encouraging enthusiasms, persevering in mentoring and then learning/acceptance of new ideas/tools, being persuasive about experiences in project scope/direction and contributing as part of a growing creative team effort is exhausting.
Not to mention the older you get in this industry you see a lot of reinvention/progress the 'wrong way' (or blatant ripoffs done for profit) which you just become opinionated about.
When there are big age differences, there are natural tendencies towards aggressive prove-yourself competition or slightly compliant deference. These are probably built into the primate minds that we all have.
True peer relationships of any kind are much rarer across decades than between people of similar ages. And there are good reasons for that - not least the way that different decades tend to have different life challenges.
So I think discussions about the merits - or not - of older people are beside the point. If most people in an office are in their 20s, hiring someone in their 50s as a peer is going to be pretty awkward for everyone.
Of course this isn't how it should be. But - no matter what the law says - it's not very realistic to pretend it isn't an issue.
The solution, if there is one, is to deliberately create a polyculture of diversity of all kinds. Hire people of all ages, cultures, genders, and backgrounds. Dammit. Then everyone gets to be different, and the culture has the potential to be a lot less linear.
But SV isn't so interested in that. Until mostly white/asian bright shiny people in their 20s stop beaming enthusiastically out of "About us" pages - extra points for a group shot - SV will continue to be a monoculture, and a lot of practical talent and experience from outside the bubble will continue to be wasted.