The 'career decline' myth

As recruitment firm Indeed is forced to pull an ad labelling workers over 50 as past their prime, Grant Feller looks at ageism in the workplace and how to smash stereotypes

Look up the word “decline” in the thesaurus and you get alternatives such as slump, failure, weakening, enfeeblement and – here’s the important one – “on the skids”. Because if you were born before 1969 and are still foolish enough to be in employment, that’s where your career is right now. On the skids.

At least it is if you listen to the world’s biggest recruitment company, Indeed. A few days ago it launched a new advertising campaign on LinkedIn, with an incredibly “useful” guide as to what career stage you’re in according to your age.

You go from “exploration” (aged 21-25) to “establishment” (2535) then “mid-career” (35-45) and “late career” (45-55) and then it’s all downhill from there. Because 55-65 year-olds – according to the company whose CEO is 56 – are in decline. And heaven forbid you even think of working beyond the age of 65 because, according to Indeed, there is no stage for you. Scrap heap era, maybe?

The company removed the ad pretty sharpish after an outcry from still-functioning “old” people able to navigate the comment button on social media. But it’s just another example of the way older people are relentlessly stigmatised when it comes to work and their position in the workplace.

I am, officially anyway, about to begin my long, inexorable decline towards Indeed recruitment obscurity. That I am working my socks off, with a self-created business that operates on four continents, employing a handful of freelancers, paying more income tax than I’ve ever done and collaborating with the kinds of companies and – yes, older! – CEOs – is beside the point. The real indicator of who I am is my age, and not my mid-career success apparently.