You can teach an old dog new tricks

and other ageist b*ll*cks

I keep seeing those ‘forty under 40’ or ‘thirty under 30’ clickbait lists in media of young dynamic business people, or top movers and shakers. And as one social media post said in retaliation, “give me a 60 year old who had changed career, started a degree or had a business fail and gone right back to the beginning and started again!” Life is all about learning, you don’t stop learning from the moment you are born, and I believe the minute you think you have nothing left to learn, then you are either stupid or arrogant or both.

I started a new job last month, in an industry I haven’t worked in before, the hospitality, luxury and destination wedding industry. The overlaps are massive with former roles so it doesn’t feel big and scary, but being ‘slightly’ more mature than many of my work colleagues, I am very conscious of what I bring to the table, and how I am perceived.

It’s interesting as I look around the office and see familiar work personality types, even myself twenty years ago. But now I have the added benefit of wisdom, of knowing what needs doing and having different tricks up my sleeve to achieve success.

But how is a fifty year old woman perceived? Well one friend I know has recently been moved aside, having reached the pinnacle of her career, the industry has shifted perspectives and she has been replaced by someone much younger!

It’s a harsh and vulnerable time in the workplace when you age and there are sweeping assumptions that you might not know about new innovations or keep up. I have worked in marketing and communications for over 25 years, I have worked my way up from starting as a volunteer in the wildlife charity industry. I had to work so hard to convince colleagues and a board of trustees that social media was the future in 2000, when they were so skeptical. In any business you have to learn and adapt, change is always happening and if you don’t you’ll be left behind.

I learned my craft by making mistakes! I learned I am rubbish at radio interviews, after listening to myself say “um” a record number of times on live radio! I learned how to write press releases by doing work experience in a news office of the local rag. I also learned honesty and integrity, by holding my hand up when I sent a brochure to print with a spelling mistake. I achieved respect by earning it the old fashioned way, by rolling my sleeves up and putting in the hard graft, nothing was handed to me. In fact quite the opposite, in that I’ve always been underestimated, so have remained humble and lack the same confidence as my male peers for example.

Over the past 25 years marketing and PR in particular has changed beyond all recognition, last year for example I got magazine editors to attend a London opening, not by sending info or a press release, but by talking to them by DM on Instagram!

I’m never afraid of admitting what I’m not so great at and am more open and honest than most to my own personal detriment, or the joy of the office rival who wants to take their pound of flesh! But never underestimate a 50 year old woman told they can’t do something, oh I would stay up all night to learn something just to prove you wrong, such is my pride and determination. And I know ‘stuff’ random shit, places, people, all sorts of stuff! I have a thirst, not necessarily for knowledge, as I can forget the basic of things, but for finding things out, looking things up. Looking on Google Maps if I hear of a place I’ve never been, if we book a holiday I will look for things to do locally by street view, I can also track people down better than a GCHQ spy!

I bring a calm to the table, a can-do attitude, wisdom and warmth and reliability. I value kindness and will always help and support colleagues, I will research and learn things I don’t know. I was brought up that if I didn’t know something that I should ‘look it up’ which in those days meant getting out the old musty smelling encyclopaedias, bought on the doorstep one by one from a travelling salesman, every month by my grandad. Yes kids, before the World Wide Web, we looked things up in books!

I believe everyone needs a 50+ year old woman on their team, they’ve lived through the 80’s with scary playground equipment, no mobile phones and Internet, and no water bottles. They survived partying through the 90’s, in nightclubs and raves in the middle of nowhere. They’ve transitioned from vinyl to cassette to CD to MP3 to digital. They built, careers, juggled parenthood, looked after aging parents and are still doing that. They understand tiredness like no other generational demographic as they are perceived to ‘have it all’.

So never write a mature female work colleague off, they have a lot to give and are a steady, wise influence that is sometimes overlooked in a team dynamic. Even the most ambitious, young team needs that voice of reason and experience to challenge, to shape and guide them to greatness.

I am excited at what the future holds, I’m enthusiastic about my new role and ambitious to improve the marketing and success of the business. It’s a great opportunity and a great business to work for and am blessed to be a valued and appreciated member of the team. I have lots to learn and I am getting stuck right in.

Thank you for reading!

Emma x

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