The last time I blogged about aging it was in the context of allowing your writing to cool and gel (https://wp.me/pT2tC-6rL).
Backstory: It was last summer when we happened upon a farmer’s market in Vermont and a whiskey distiller was offering samples, so of course we obliged him, and with it he gave us a bar coaster with his logo and tagline, “Aging makes all the difference.”
As we all age, or I should say mature, our perspectives and earned wrinkles make all the difference. We see things differently, with thicker but better focused lenses, and we draw upon our experiences in our past to attack and vanquish problems of the present.
But aging came at me last evening in a different way. In a webinar I co-presented, I handled a question about best ways to handle age discrimination in the hiring marketplace.
Drawing on almost 9 years pro bono teaching experience to displaced baby boomers, I advised the 100+ people in the webinar to listen carefully for age discrimination or any part that sounds discriminatory and then honorably depart the hiring process with them.
Yes, walk away.
- Ageism’s illegal, but never stopped anyone from harboring such opinions, EXPRESSED overtly or between the lines.
- If the company practices any form of ageism, you don’t want to work there anyway. Find the exit now before you become a pariah.
Find an employer who values your age, history, wrinkles, and wise perspective. Period.
There you will make your age make all the difference.
