Young employers think we’re slow, unable to adapt and don’t get new tech. Our columnist has a few home truths for them.
At 74 years old, I am way past retirement age, but I’d go mad if I didn’t have work to do. I’m sure some of us enjoy a more relaxed later life, but I doubt I’m alone in wanting to keep going.
I presented Woman’s Hour until I turned 70, took on writing this column and another for the Daily Mail, and am currently broadcasting a series of programmes for BBC Radio 3.
I’m as tech savvy as ever. I have no trouble with a computer; my iPhone is my constant companion for calls, texts, WhatsApp, emails, music, banking and more.
So, what’s all this nonsense about the older generation being unemployable because we’re slow, unable to adapt and don’t get new tech?
A survey by the Age Without Limits Campaign found high numbers of people, especially the young and well-educated who are likely to be hiring and firing in the workplace, believe the ageist myths that it’s not worth employing over-50s. They believe we won’t be a long-term asset; there’d be no point training us.
Don’t these young people realise that one day they too will be old, longing to be occupied with work, the friendships the workplace offers, and the chance to have more money in their pocket than a pension provides? Do they not know we are more reliable as we get older?
There are no young kids about to distract us. We tend not to go out partying, getting too drunk to perform well the next day. We keep ourselves fit and reserve our energy for the job in hand. We love to learn new things and prove ourselves to be resourceful.
We value the technology that enables us to stay in touch and we know perfectly well how to use it. We also know how to protect it.
It feels quite wondrous to have a bank account on the phone. Out it comes and click, click it’s done. No cards, no cheques, no faffing about in the handbag for cash. I’ve resisted advice to put cards into my phone’s wallet. I’ve seen lots of young people do it and have always felt nervous for them. Are they putting too much trust in one tiny machine?
I had an interesting ride recently in an Uber. The driver and I got chatting about phones and how careless people are with such a precious gadget.
He drives around London every day and said he sees two or three phones stolen daily. He’s seen pickpockets slide one from the back pocket of someone’s jeans or from an unzipped handbag.
Most of the thefts, he said, occur at bus stops. The victim will be checking for times or chatting when someone on a scooter slows down, snatches it and drives off. He’d had his own phone taken from the table in a restaurant; he’d been too engaged in conversation to notice.
It made me think what I would lose if I was relieved of my phone. There’s the banking app, of course, but there’s much more of great value that would be gone. I book tickets for the theatre. They’re emailed to me and I store them in my notes. My agents send me details of my earnings; I save them online to send to my accountant – all vital for the Inland Revenue. I’ve even got the policy documents for my pet insurance on there.
If the phone is gone, so is half my life.
And now it’s being proposed that the driving licence should be kept on a phone along with the TV licence. Nothing is real any more.
Yes, it is easier and much tidier to have these things hanging about in the ether rather than on cards or bits of paper, but is it as safe as we think?
I read recently that the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has accused the tech giants of ‘enabling a phone theft epidemic’ that gangsters have turned into a ‘global criminal business’. They are apparently making a fortune out of the reusability and resaleability of stolen phones.
Tech firms haven’t introduced sufficient security measures to permanently disable devices, so stolen phones end up anywhere in the world. Phones are not only being stolen for their resale value – these clever criminals are also harvesting personal details from the devices and breaking into victims’ bank accounts. I’ve done my best to protect my account with face recognition. Putting my face into the phone is a bit of a pain, but it should help protect my money.
Meanwhile, I’ll try to keep it safe in a zipped bag and never take it out in the street. So, here I am: old, a worker, competent, wise, quick, modern, reliable and careful.
Enough of the ageism. I, and those like me, have more value for an employer than any fly-by-night youth.
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