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Laura Fay: From Judgment to Appreciation

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After making an assumption about a former colleague, Laura Fay learned to appreciate working with people of different ages.

It was 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon and my older employee had just left the office. “Hmmm, slacking,” I thought. Never mind that he’d been there since 7 a.m., a full two hours before me, and would be online again later in the evening. “Slow!” I thought when he didn’t jump straight into action when I proposed a project. Even though he’d complete the assignment ahead of the deadline, and improve our process to boot. “Tired?” was my thought when he declined to join the company game night.

As I matured, I was the one arriving at the office before everyone else, leaving around 5 p.m., but working again after the kids were asleep, and only occasionally joining the happy hour. With the benefit of my experience, I was working smarter and more productively, so I was shocked to find myself on the receiving end of the ‘older worker’ stereotype, by young bosses who quietly questioned my commitment. I became aware of how invisible I had become in a society that idolizes youth.

So, you’d think I’d know better when I recently teamed up with some post-career people at a non-profit. I found myself being impatient with their availability and work methods. I’d fallen for the same biases I once held in my relative youth— assuming that simply because they were older, they were less likely to be committed, less tuned-in, and ultimately, less valuable to our mission.

But as I got to know them, I came to appreciate their approach, advised by their career achievements in fields of medicine, high-tech, education, and the arts – with many of their biggest accomplishments happening, not in their youth, but in their 50s and 60s. It became a joy to watch these folks team their experience, wisdom, and creativity to achieve great results – results that were often elusive to those decades younger.

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It’s a lesson that society, and younger people, could do well to take to heart.

With a Perspective, I am Laura Fay.

Laura Fay is a technology business advisor. She lives in Los Altos.

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