Today’s menu
🍽️ In this week’s issue:
The Problem: The Top 10 Stereotypes Your 50+ Ass Is Labelled With When They See Your Graduation Date
The Evidence: It’s Not Your Imagination, They Really Do Think You’re Too Lazy, Sick, and Slow in the Head to Do the Job
Why It’s All Bullshit: Don’t Let Them Fool You - It’s All Bullshit and the Numbers Prove It.
The Solutions: There Are FAR Better Ways to Spend the Best Decades of Your Life Than Working for the Man
The Problem
👎🏻😡The Top 10 Stereotypes Your 50+ Ass Is Labelled With When They See Your Graduation Date
There was a time when I was being head-hunted.
Back when I wanted to be a software developer in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Hiring managers were literally lining up and offering bribes just to get in front of me and my computer science graduation class of 1999.
Fast forward to 2020, and I have reinvented myself as a freelance writer.
Finding contract work online was easy enough, and I was going from strength to strength, but I’d never had an in-house job as a writer, and I figured it would be great to get that experience.
But when I looked at all my accumulated life-experience, honestly, I felt embarrassed to be looking for an entry-level job.
Should I be?
Considering all the replies I got were AI-generated refusals, my feelings are irrelevant, but it was so universal that it felt like something had changed, and it wasn’t my ability to crank out high-quality work.
It was how the world sees me, and probably you, too.
Here are the top ten stereotypes about men (and women) over 50, held by those responsible for hiring us, with sources below the list:
You’re shite with technology and can’t learn any new stuff
You’re sick all the time and always taking days off
You have no energy, drive, or hunger for the job
You’re stuck in your ways and resist all change and innovation
You don’t have new ideas because 'Boomer’ (even if you’re Gen X)
You’re so close to retirement (50) there’s no point in hiring you
You’re too expensive (as well as dumb, slow, feeling unwell)
You are in greater physical and mental decline than a US president
You’re killing the dreams of younger workers and should retire
It’s better to hide you in the back like ‘Sloth’ of the Goonies
Don’t let the clients see him!
Sources:
Viewed as bad with tech
Seen as resistant to change
Considered less productive
Sick a lot of the time
Seen as too expensive
Training over 50s is a waste of time
They won’t stay in the job
Seen as in terminal cognitive decline
Lacking in motivation and ambition
Keep them out of sight like ‘Sloth’
They block jobs for younger people
These are the real stereotypes we face as men and women over 50. But how widespread are they?
Read on.
The Evidence
🤔💭 It’s Not Your Imagination
They really do think you’re too lazy, sick, and slow in the head to do the job.
The UK Age Without Limits Campaign survey, which polled over 2000 participants, shows the following ugly stats:
One in four men and one in five women in the UK think it’s not worth hiring someone over age 50.
One in five people thinks it’s a waste of time to give job training to people over 50 because they won’t stay in the job long enough to make it worthwhile.
One in three people thinks that the older you get, the less capable you are of managing technology.
We are up against it, and the stats are there to prove it.
Add to that this 2023 article on diversity hiring in a major UK insurance company, and your prospects are even bleaker.
Amanda Blanc, current CEO of the Aviva insurance company, has been leading the company extremely well.
However, her hiring practices have been under scrutiny since 2023, when she controversially said that there is “no non-diverse hire at Aviva without it being signed off by me and the chief People Officer.”
‘People Officer’ already sounds creepy to me…
I fully understand where Amanda is coming from and 100% agree that all forms of sexism, racism, harassment, and bullying should be stamped out across every workplace on planet earth.
But when you are given extra scrutiny because of your age, gender, and in this case, race, there’s something off about that.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Amanda is quite sensible in her approach to making sure that ‘mates’ don’t get hired where more capable people could do the job.
But the slippery slope is that others in positions of power will begin to see one specific racial, gender, and age group as the enemy.
Simply because you are old and male, you’re the bad guy, whether you belong to an ‘old boys club’ or not.
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing that you’re not.
It’s no better stateside either.
The 2024 AARP Age Discrimination Survey of over 2000 participants in the US, updated in 2025, comes to pretty much the same conclusions.
One in three people agree that older workers are less tech-savvy
One in four believes that older workers are resistant to change
One in five prefer to train younger workers in job roles
As much as 60% of workers report having seen or experienced subtle age discrimination in the workplace
One in five older workers believes they have been pushed out of roles or employment because of age
But who cares if it’s all just a few jokes here and there about ‘boomers’ and other harmless banter, right?
If it were only words, it’d be fine, but here’s how it plays out in reality.
Neumark, Burn Button (2019). Older job applicants received 35-50% fewer callbacks.
Oesch & Veit (2020) 55-58 year old job applicants have a callback rate 30-40% lower than 35-37 year olds.
Riach & Rich (2006, 2010) 52-year-old job applicants receive 25-41% fewer callbacks than younger job seekers
Carlsson & Eriksson (2019) Callbacks drop sharply from early 40s on, with extremely low rates (50% drop) for over 60s
This is just a sample, and there are many nuances here.
Outcomes are for specific job types, seniority, salary levels, etc., but with all that taken into account, it’s pretty safe to say that if you’re over 40, male or female, this problem affects you.
Even worse, as many as 1 in 3 people don’t see it as a problem - they see you as the problem and will laugh it off or dismiss it if you bring it up.
But no matter what they tell you, it’s not your imagination.
Honestly speaking? I can remember thinking along those lines when I was young and dumb, too.
So let’s ask ourselves an honest question or two,
Are any of these pervasive attitudes true?
Are the young ‘uns correct to quietly filter us out from positions and fill them up with their ‘mates’ from college as long as all their friends happen to be diverse?
Let’s find out.
Why it’s all bullshit
🪄🧙🏻♀️ Reality Vs Perception - Or Put Another Way: Why It’s All Bullshit
Read through this table. Clip and save it somewhere to re-read if, for any reason, you begin to doubt yourself or if anyone has hinted something about you being too old for the job.
Myth Based on Gut Feeling (aka prejudice) | Younger Workers (18-35) | Older Workers (50+) | Reality Based on Studies (aka evidence) |
|---|---|---|---|
Low Productivity | Often faster with new tech; 31% of studies show an edge in speed tasks (69% of studies don’t) | Equal or better overall productivity (41% no difference, 28% older superior); higher output quality | Viviani et al. (2021) review: Older performed better in 58% of performance metrics |
Can’t learn new things | Quicker AI/tech adoption; outperform in efficiency metrics Newsweek | Stronger adaptability with training; benefit more from feedback and support (performance boost starts at age 43) Vlerick | Vlerick study (2025): Older people gain more from peer support and feedback Vlerick |
Always sick | Lower rates of illness in younger workers in 43% of studies (no difference in the other 57%) PubMed | Slightly higher absenteeism but equal presenteeism (61% no difference) PubMed | Viviani meta-review: Addressable via health programs PubMed |
Quit sooner | 57.4% satisfied; declining amid poor culture fit Ehs Today | 72.4% satisfied (15-point gap); improvements in leadership/workload Ehs Today | Conference Board (2025): Historic high for older workers Conference Board |
Work less | 59% stick to business hours; higher efficiency despite less overtime Newsweek | 82% work overtime, but lower sales targets met, Newsweek | Pipedrive (2025): Hours ≠ output Newsweek |
Cost more | Lower initial wages; growing wage rank early CEPR | Higher wages but stable retention; lower turnover costs Pew Research. | Pew (2023): Full-time share rose to 62% Pew Research CEPR Italy: Older workers hold top pay but harm youth promotion |
If you’re a man, or one of our Plan 50’XX’ over 50 sisters, tell yourself these truths.
They are real, and they are your mantra until you stop believing any of the bullshit that’s been hinted to you by those who want your job without having your experience.
I am more productive than my younger peers
I learn better from constructive feedback than my younger peers
I take more days off per year than my younger peers, but I more than make up for it in productivity
I’m less likely to quit than a younger employee
I work more overtime than younger employees
I cost more in salary, but less overall, because I’ll stay in the job longer
I learn better in teams and from mentorship than my younger peers
I make better autonomous decisions than younger employees
In short, my 50+ legends, you are pure gold, and you can back it up without ego in any work environment.
Feel free to forward the above table to any hiring manager who needs a reality shot.
Now that we’ve established that there are real prejudices against older people in the workforce, and that the vast majority of these prejudices are garbage and don’t stand up to scrutiny, where do we go from here?
What can you do to protect yourself and to live as fulfilled a life as you can into your 90s, despite prejudice, AI, creepy island-based ‘financiers’ and their weirdo politician friends?
Read on…
The Solutions
🛡️🤔 How to Protect Yourself From Hiring Prejudice & Quit Working for the Man
If you’re serious about getting the most out of your best years, read all the way through this section.
There are two ways to look at this.
Either you can do magic tricks to convince a hiring manager you aren’t too lazy, sick, and slow in the head to do the job, or you can do the thing that you are statistically wildly more likely to succeed in than anyone else.
Let’s look at both:
Getting hired over 50
Nowhere did I see this mentioned while researching this, but it’s my top piece of advice.
Look for work that you really love.
Your genuine love, knowledge, and enthusiasm will shine through, and even better, when you get the job, you’ll really love it and be happy to do it forever.
Here’s what the more formal types recommend.
I have no doubt that they work too.
Don’t rely on publicly posted job openings. You excel with your maturity and in-person social skills. Use your warm network of connections to put out the feelers for work. Go to in-person job fairs or live online events. Impress the hell out of everyone with your people skills and presence.
Target companies that have older demographics. Do your research. They won’t be horrified by your existence and consider you a potentially racist, sexist dinosaur just because you remember the 70s and 80s.
Don’t focus only on big corporations. While they have a lot of talk about inclusivity, they also tend to be ruthless when it comes to profits, talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, have much younger demographics, and will treat you as a number, not a human.
SMEs will be more transparent, ‘what you see is what you get’, and probably want real results, not identity quotas that may well exclude everyone except you.
Get connected with national agencies that help older people find age-friendly companies.
Stick to the last 15 years of experience on your CV/resumé unless directly related. Leave out graduation dates. Emphasize every bit of up-to-date training you’ve done in the last 5 years. Leave out your date of birth.
In interviews, keep it short, especially if you were buying your first car before the hiring manager had learned to walk. Modern attention spans are short, phobic (‘too much information’ + face of disgust), and looking for any reason to dismiss you.
Keep it to what you did, how it helped, and how it can be applied to their company.
They need to know you’ve got the skills and experience they need, with no ego bullshit about how you were buying your first car while they were still in diapers.
Bonus tip, from the internet, but so great I need to put it here. When they ask you, ‘Do you have any questions for us?’ Instead of coming up with some boring crap they know is fake, or wasting the opportunity and saying ‘duh… no’.
Try this: ‘If I get hired here, what would I need to do in the next 3 months and 6 months to be considered a success and in line for a raise?’
If they can successfully answer, it gives you a roadmap for success if you do get hired. If they can’t answer, do you really want to work there?
Starting your own business (my preferred option)
I’m not going to tell you how to do it, but I’ll leave this list of stats here just to let you know that not only are you capable, but you’re the best at it by a mile.
Men and women over 50 destroy the competition when it comes to entrepreneurship, and men account for about three-quarters of the entrepreneur population.
How common is it for over-50s to be self-employed?
About 1 in 5 workers over 50 are self‑employed, and the share climbs steeply with age; roughly half of workers over 80 who are still working do so for themselves.
Workers 50+ are the age group most likely to be self‑employed; older men are more likely to be self‑employed than older women.
How is our success rate compared to younger founders?
JPMorgan Chase Institute data on 138,000 small firms show that businesses with 55+ owners survive better:
For a 60‑year‑old founder, first‑year failure probability is 8.2%.
For a 30‑year‑old founder, it is 11.1%.
For a 45‑year‑old founder, it is 9.6%.
Older founders also maintain a larger cash buffer (17 days of expenses for 55+ vs 12 days for under 35 and 13 days for 35–54)
Source: AARP
A large US study of high‑growth firms found the typical 50‑year‑old founder is about 1.8 times more likely to build a high‑growth company than the typical 30‑year‑old founder.
Source: US Chamber of Commerce
Self‑employment rates rise dramatically with age: about 3 in 10 workers in their 70s and around 4 in 10 workers over 80 are self‑employed.
An MIT study analyzing 2.7 million people who started companies between 2007 and 2014 found that a 50-year-old is twice as likely to have a massive success (defined as a company that performs in the top 0.1 percent) than a 30-year-old.
Source: Executive Career Brand
A 50-year-old startup founder is 2.8 times more likely to found a successful startup than a 25-year-old founder. A 60-year-old startup founder is 3 times as likely to found a successful startup than a 30-year-old startup founder and is 1.7 times as likely to found a startup that winds up in the top 0.1 percent of all companies.
Source: TopResume
The highest rate of entrepreneurship worldwide has shifted to the 55-64 age group, and entrepreneurial activity among those over 50 has increased by more than 50% since 2008.
Source: Executive Career Brand.
Hmm, I wonder what happened in 2008?
More than half (54%) of America's small business owners are over 50, with men accounting for three-fourths of them.
Source: FlexJobs.
How does our entrepreneurial financial success compare to younger founders?
First-Year Earnings: Baby Boomers using the Gusto HRIS platform take home $60,000, on average, in their first year of operation. That's six times as much as the $10,000 that Gen Z founders are able to pay themselves in year one.
Source: The Diversity Movement
Profitability: 67% of business owners over 50 report their companies are making a profit, and 76% say that on a scale of 1 to 10, their happiness level is 8 or above
Source: FlexJobs
Why you’re more likely to succeed over 50 at entrepreneurship
1. Deep Networks: You've spent decades building professional relationships that younger entrepreneurs simply don't have access to yet.
2. Industry Expertise: Older entrepreneurs' deep experience in their industry allows them to better identify unfulfilled market needs, with 44% of founders in a recent Gusto survey saying they started a business because they saw a new opportunity.
Source: The Diversity Movement.
3. Access to Capital: Older people have better credit and may have retirement savings they can leverage through options like ROBS (Rollovers for Business Start-ups) financing.
4. Confidence and Wisdom: Years of overcoming business challenges breed the confidence needed to navigate entrepreneurship successfully.
5. Motivation Beyond Money: The majority (42%) of entrepreneurs over 50 say they launched their businesses because they wanted to pursue their passion, not because they needed the money.
Source: Executive Career Brand.
Gentlemen, it’s in our blood.
It’s what we do.
Is it time for you to go for it and make that big project happen?
If nobody else will open the door for you, maybe you just need to get out your tools and build your own door like generations of men have done before you.
In the meantime, sign up for my free 5 Weeks to Radical Change email course.
You’d be helping me out as it’s the first iteration, and I need more feedback.
The link is here: https://plan50x.kit.com/
🙏🏻 Final Thought
My Year of Small Changes project took a beating last week and this week, too, due to a bunch of unforeseen circumstances.
The worst of which were two bouts of illness, car issues, and the finale of a significant online challenge I took on last month.
I’ve been hanging on by a thread and haven’t even looked at the new habit I was supposed to stack this week.
None of it matters.
It was Chinese New Year on Tuesday, and that’s always my reset point at this time of year.
Checking it now, I see that 5 am rising was the challenge.
No way that would have been possible this week, but I see Cloud Hands was for next week. It’s way easier; I’ve been doing it anyway, so I’ll do a switcheroo on that one.
Until next week, men, let’s be careful out there.
PS.
Find me on LinkedIn, and also on TikTok, where I embrace cringe and try to overcome my over 50 phobia of appearing on social media.
