workplace dinosauresses

Audrey, 45, has reluctantly come to terms with why older women are seen as workplace 'dinosauresses' whereas older men are more likely to be seen as mature, experienced, wise and desirable employees.

"It has a lot to do with women, generally, being employed on looks," says Audrey. "Everyone accepts that a younger woman is more desirable than an older woman, but there’s far more to it than this."

“Adult children in their 20s mostly have mothers in their 40s, and when you put these two age groups together in a workplace with the young ones in positions of power – as they all are these days,” explains Audrey, "what the young people see is their mothers – old women (in their eyes) who potter around the house, wash clothes and dishes, nag them to death and are really, really uncool."

"Now, dads, on the other hand," says Audrey, "have always been remote figures who go to work, come home late at night and are often at conferences or other important functions at weekends.”

“No matter whether the mother works or not, dad's work is always seen as being far more important and as such dad remains the authority figure in the household. More importantly, children never see dad cleaning the toilet, or doing menial work around the house. Dad’s are cool!"

“I believe that older women get less respect than older men from the young things because children have been raised to see their mothers in menial nagging roles at home – their main function, attracting a man and raising children, being over, and that’s why they’re seen as dinosaurs,” explains Audrey. “When this lack of respect for their mothers is carried over to apply to all older women in the workplace, we get a particularly nasty form of ageism directed at women.”

“At 45 I don’t consider myself to be a dinosaur,” sighs Audrey, “but when everyone around you at work is a twenty-something, I guess that’s what I am and I either learn to live with it, or get out and start my own business or find a job in aged-care or something where 45 would be seen as being like a spring chicken.”

Read more by Audrey on this issue:

being old in a young workplace

an age old problem

a shafted mentor

Lorraine is angry that the time-honored practice of mentoring is being abused by toxic employers as a method of getting rid of older staff after sucking their brains.

“Mentoring was never intended to be abused in this way,” says Lorraine, “but I got shafted and once all of the older staff members have been given the push, who is left to do the mentoring?"

"Surely not the bright young things?"

"How long does management expect them to stay? And when the bright young things have moved on, they take the old mentor's brains with them without passing anything on to the latest recruits."

"Smart companies recognize the value of senior workers as mentors and do not make demands or cause senior workers to fear for their jobs," says Lorraine.

"A mentor's role is a lifetime role and smart companies recognize that experience cannot be replicated in a younger person."

"For one thing," says Lorraine, "young recruits actually appreciate being mentored by a senior worker. They feel uncomfortable being shown the ropes by someone not much older than themselves."

"And, frankly, when the mentor is young, there is not so much enthusiasm for the job because having sucked the brains out of a senior worker and caused the older woman to be sacked, the younger mentor is smart enough to know that it does not pay to share too much with a new recruit."

Read more about Lorraine:

mentoring leads to replacement

old vs young managers