Improving Working Lives - except for older workers?

Hi Anna,

I think this is both an age and gender problem. It still seem that women are ‘past it’ at an earlier age than men. Men in their late-50’s are employable; women less so.

Agreed, Teresa. Where women take time out of work for caring or hold their careers back during that period they're often hit with the 'double whammy' of being too old to fit into traditional career structures.
This is one of the things we have to change, isn't it, as we embrace both longer working lives and older workers.

Yes. At some point, the world of work drifted away from ‘experience’ towards ‘qualifications’. I know I’m generalising, but experience now seems to count for little and the bit-of-paper is king. I have met (and, unfortunately, employed) several who had bits-of-paper coming out of their ears, but once on the job just couldn’t relate academic learning to the real world. The older a person is the greater the experience, but also the less likely they are to have the latest bits-of-paper.

I suppose it’s the old problem of wanting to quantify the qualitative.

The huge number of people who post about getting into HR and have CIPD 5/7 but no experience don’t seem to agree things have drifted that way ...

The huge number of people who post about getting into HR and have CIPD 5/7 but no experience don’t seem to agree things have drifted that way ...