Opinion: Push 'blatant age bashing' aside and rearchitect jobs for older workers
I’m responding to Kathleen Parker’s column (May 22) about the need for baby boomers to move on. I generally agree with Parker, and I’m a huge fan of David Gergen, but I think they are off base on their premise that baby boomers are incapable of performing their jobs and need to move on.
I find it amazing that blatant age bashing seems to be perfectly acceptable in this country. It seems to be the last acceptable form of discrimination. The very notion that all people of a certain age have diminished capacity is discriminatory and short-sighted. It results in people leaving the workforce based on their age, not their capability or desires.
That said, I’d fully support mental acuity testing for people making important decisions that impact others, much the same as people renewing their driver’s licenses should have their vision and reflexes tested. These are objective, quantifiable tests that directly relate to the task. As for the presidency, rigorous, regular testing (not done by some lackey personal doctor) would greatly reduce the career-threatening prospect of trying to rally support to invoke the 25th Amendment.
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Some of us spend our careers speeding down the work highway in the fast lane. At some point, we realize we’d prefer to go a bit slower and spend more time enjoying the passing scenery. Cultural norms tell us to find an exit and get off the highway. We careen over a couple of lanes. If we’re lucky, we safely get off the exit — it may be an unmarked exit leading to an unnamed road, but at least we’re out of the speeding traffic. If we’re not lucky we end up in the breakdown lane.
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While many of us look forward to a life with less stress and more time for hobbies and family, some of us want to meaningfully contribute in our later years. I think we need to take a good look at how we architect jobs. The pandemic forced many of us to figure out how to work from home. We shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that you didn’t need to have a line of sight to people to know if they were doing a good job, and to learn that many tasks could be done on different work schedules and in different time zones.
Many people are at the top of their earning potential at the end of their careers. But it’s all or nothing. It’s very rare for people to have the opportunity to slow down and do less, and — very important for employers — get paid less.
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With a little creativity and foresight, many jobs could be compartmentalized and people looking to drive in a slower lane would have more options. Why would employers do this? Well, if they think that experience results in wisdom and efficiency, this could be a great deal. They’d get an employee who feels valued and is working an optimum schedule. Everybody wins.
If only some of our politicians, judges and others had the self-awareness to put the turn signal on and move to a slower lane.
Scott Kania, Centerville
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod: Age bashing could spur qualified employees to exit workforce
