Newsflash?: Older Workers Don't Suck

I always look forward to The New York Times Magazine special "Year in Ideas" issue. It's an eclectic mix of discoveries, designs, and research that bubbled up throughout the year. The 2009 lineup includes the hourglass surfboard, music for monkeys, a kitchen sink that puts out fires, and the Obama effect. It's all a great read.

One entry caught my Retirement Beat eye: The Myth of the Deficient Older Employee. I had my hopes up: some great new research that would cause a seismic shift in the attitude of H.R. departments across the nation.

Let's just say this great idea was a great disappointment.

A Narrow Skills Gap A couple of researchers pitted old fogies (workers over age 50) against young pips (employees under age 30) in three decision making tests: risk taking, competitiveness and cooperation. As reported in the American Economic Review, the researchers said old folks actually did better on risk taking and cooperation. The big takeaway idea was that overall, older workers were " very slightly less" competitive.

That's myth busting? That older workers on average are "very slightly less" competitive. I'm thinking more pyrrhic victory, if you can even quantify it as a victory.

Besides, it has long been well documented that management knows older workers bring plenty of value. Check out this tally of management's opinion of older workers:

Older Workers are More Expensive: That's no Myth What the Times didn't point out is that all skills being equal (or merely "very slightly less competitive") older workers are still at an employment disadvantage: they often command a higher salary and their fringe benefits cost employers more. According to the Urban Institute, median annual health insurance claims in 2004 for privately insured workers were nearly twice as high at ages 45 to 54 than at ages 35 to 44 and about three times as high at ages 55 to 64.

If you bring increased productivity or other special skills to the office to offset that cost, then you've got a good case for job security. But that's not a slam dunk for anyone. Quite often -- especially in a recession -- expensive employees are downsized employees. There's telling data that a growing percentage of workers older than 50 are not with the same job they had at age 50. Some of that movement is voluntary, but some is involuntary too. While it's good to know older workers have plenty of valuable skills (like that's news) and aren't highly deficient, they are still vulnerable. Taking the steps today to make yourself a catch in the post-50s job pool seems like a really good idea.

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