ROCK OF AGEISM
The government's 'Age Positive' campaign
sounds good, says David Lovibond, but if
you're over 50, forget about finding a job
THERE were four of us on the shortlist: three women in their twenties and me. We sat in a row while a Home Office cheerleader told us what a great life awaited one of us in the press office. The jolly-along lasted for perhaps ten minutes, and not once did the beaver pause in his smiling and giggling, or for a single heartbeat remove his gaze from the girlies in skirts to glance in my direction. I didn't get the job.
Not that I'm bitter. It is entirely reasonable that nice Mr Blair should wish to fill his ministries with the young and personable, rather than middle-aged candidates for new-face transplants. But it is irksome that the government expects to be congratulated for its 'Age Positive' campaign, including the snappily titled Code of Practice on Age Diversity in Employment, while its understrappers continue to send out the same old message: if you're over 50, forget it. 'The job specifications we take on do not mention age, but it is very evident from the language used in the ads, "up and coming. . go getting. . . ability to grow", that we are circumscribed in the kind of people we can go for,' says Glen Prince of recruitment consultants Ouantica. 'It is a sad state of the market, but 50year-aids will have a lot of rejection.' Research carried out by MORI on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions confirms that ageism is the only prejudice that dares speak its name. The report, published in early December to coincide with the launch of 'Age Positive Week', found that of the one in five people who experience 'discrimination in the workplace' almost 40 per cent claim their age as the cause. I think this means that, according to the government-sponsored poll, age prejudice is unknown to 92 per cent of the working population, which must count as a brilliant success for both the voluntary Code and Secretary of State Andrew Smith's campaign.
I find this very odd. As I approached 50 a year or so ago, it seemed timely to surrender the pleasures and vicissitudes of the freelance life (viz, black panic at the total absence of any property, savings or pension provision) and get a proper job. Nothing fancy. I didn't picture myself in a big office with a cowering staff, but not in a road gang or on a production line either. In this spirit of humility I applied for dozens of lowly posts on magazines, in local council offices, estate agencies, PR and press offices, and have the single unsuccessful interview to show for it. In an attempt to benefit from
an explanation, I rang a couple of recent turndowns. The recruitment officer at estate agents Knight Frank said 'the culture of the (PR) department is fairly young; someone older would find it frustrating and difficult to fit in'. The human resources manager for IPC Magazines, where I had hoped to join TVTimes, told me the editor was 'looking for someone who was eager to progress', something, apparently, a 51-year-old hack could not hope to do.
Research conducted by Age Concern suggests that my experience may be more typical than Mr Smith and his MORI poll think. The charity has found that almost a third of 55to 64-year-olds say they have been discriminated against because of age, and that in the past 20 years the proportion of men between 50 and state retirement age who are not working has doubled (Age Concern, ICM 2001). 'Age discrimination is a huge factor,' says a spokesman. 'If you're over 50 and lose your job, getting back into the labour market can be very difficult, and even then you're more likely to be overlooked for promotion or training.'
The perception among too many employers is that older workers are resistant to change, lack energy and technological skills. Not that the real reason for rejection is usually given. The majority of my applications went unacknowledged or I was palmed off with a placebo 'all applicants were of high calibre ... not quite what we're looking for ... keep details on file'. The problem might be me, of course — my ex-wife thinks I'm unemployable — but it could also be in the eye of the beholder.
John Gordon-Saker runs TiftyOn', a recruitment website for people over 50, and in a survey of his 15,000 members he found that nearly three-quarters of respondents had experienced ageism. 'The executives responsible for 64 per cent of these ageism incidents were in their twenties with 30 per cent in their thirties,' says Mr Gordon-Saker. 'There is a fear among younger managers of recruiting staff who may prove to be more experienced than them.'
David Whittaker, 55, has almost given up trying to get human resources departments to treat him seriously. Mr Whittaker was a senior manager with an Internet company in Cheltenham when he was made redundant last February, and initially his frantic job search went well. 'I would get to final interviews and just miss. But then things rather died down. I was told I was too experienced or didn't quite fit the criteria, and the more I was rejected the more I felt age had to do with it. I still whack off job applications but I've lowered my sights, and I find it difficult to accept that I'm unlikely to be a manager again. I've not done what I've done for the last 30 years just to be dumped on, and it makes me extremely angry that my age should even be an issue.'
Strange, really, that the Secretary of State should be quite so pleased with himself: 'The Code of Practice and the Age Positive campaign have been instrumental in halving the number of employers who use age when hiring staff.' The campaign is in truth little more than an annual beano in the Chancellor's drawing room for 'employer champions' nominated by regional newspapers, and the Code is a toothless sop 'to age diversity policies'. Alan Walker, who is professor of social policy at Sheffield University, and who pioneered research into employers' attitudes to age, says the Code of Practice has scarcely affected recruitment decisions. 'The Code is not deeply embedded in the British labour market. Nearly three-fifths of major employers say age is a significant factor in appointments; the glossy brochure may be extremely positive on equal opportunities but those line managers with day-to-day responsibility for employment may nonetheless exercise age discrimination.'
The arrival in 2006 of an EU directive on age equality will oblige the government to enact anti-ageist laws with the same powers as those outlawing discrimination on the grounds of race or sex. But Professor Walker says legislation will be largely symbolic: 'A new law is not the answer. We need an education process within companies to raise age awareness among those with responsibilities for hiring and firing, and we have to have lifelong training, which employers and employees should be contractually obliged to provide and to take up.'
My instincts tell me an employer should be entitled not to hire me on the grounds that my nose is too big or because I can remember sweet rationing. But, in the spirit of the times, as a middle-aged, middleclass, able-bodied, heterosexual, white male, and as such a member of one of the last minorities not to have a special interest group or protective law in its favour, I am free to revel in a heart-warming sense of outrage.
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