So it is Spring again, the astrological new year. My new year. Well, technically, my new year begins in two weeks.
And then I will be a lot closer to 60 than 50. (How did this happen?!?)
This should be a renaissance period: my children are grown, two are living elsewhere and the third is very low maintenance; I’m newly single, so there is no needy partner clamoring for my attention. I have time to myself.
If businesses were smart, they would look to hire people over 50 to run important projects. Women, specifically. By that time, we’ve raised a family, supported a spouse, run a household, coordinated doctor’s appointments and sports schedules, navigated school systems and most likely, worked full time while doing it. If anyone knows how to juggle, it’s a mom. And women over 50 now have a lot of time on their hands.
We might be a wee bit slower and a tad more tired, but we are for sure more calm in the face of chaos and have the benefit of experience to know what to do and how it may work out.
Because – newsflash – there isn’t a whole lotta stuff that happens in the business world that hasn’t happened in some form before. We’ve seen a lot. We’ve done a lot.
What actually happens is people who are just a little older than our oldest child look at us and see their parents. It makes them uncomfortable. It is kind of icky to think that this person you’re counting on to grow your online digital presence is someone who, at their age, didn’t have social media or – dare I say it out loud – the internet – as a business platform. They don’t mean to judge you based on their parents’ relationship to or understanding of the digital universe. But it happens.
The truth is that people – women, specifically – over 50 have a lot of great transferable experience that can actually grow your business. The fact that they don’t have a lot of distractions is a good thing. Despite us all saying we’d love to retire early, virtually none of us have that luxury. Get all the good you can while you can, I say!
A little less than a decade ago, I was a newly minted VP in a fledgling department, and I needed a strong right-hand staffer as my first hire. I was told to find someone that could quickly hit the ground running and pick up the slack. So, I hired a woman who was in her 60s at the time, who had strengths in the places that I was weak, and a long, successful career unmercifully cut short by people who either didn’t know or couldn’t see her value.
You know what? It was the best hire I have ever made. She is still at that employer and finally getting ready to retire. That employer got her undivided attention because she didn’t have the distractions of children, sports, school and the like. And the added bonus of gratitude because she wasn’t judged by her age – only her contribution, which is considerable, still.
The moral of the story is this: if you have the opportunity to work with someone who’s been around the block a few times, take full advantage of it. Especially if that person has raised kids or is the parent of a special needs child. Everything they have had to do in service of their families is a transferable skill and much needed in the business world today.
I’m ready for my renaissance.