5 Myths About Older Workers Busted (You’ll Be Happy to Learn They’re Not Grumpy)

Generational stereotypes, like reheated pizza, burn quickest at the edges. For the first time in history, the labor force is made up of five generations of employees. Never before has such a wide range of perspectives and experiences been represented in the workplace. 

But rather than celebrate our diversity, we deride our differences. Generational stereotypes have seeped into the fabric of worklife, spawning a cottage industry supported by countless books, podcasts, and consultancies aimed at amplifying our disparities. How effortlessly we dismiss entire cohorts of workers as “lazy,” “disloyal,” or “entitled” based on little more than a birth year. 

And which group bears the brunt of our bias? 

According to a recent survey conducted by AARP, a U.S. nonprofit for Americans 50 or older, more than 40 percent of workers over the age of 40 say they’ve experienced age discrimination at their job in the last three years. That’s an alarming number when you consider the rate at which the older workforce is growing.  

“Ageism is the last acceptable ‘ism,’” says Carly Roszkowski, VP of financial resilience programming at AARP. More damaging than the missed happy hour invites or “OK Boomer” memes are the effects that generational labels can have on a company’s policies. 

“We’re basing a lot of approaches in the workplace on pretty shaky science,” Cort Rudolph, an industrial and organizational psychologist whose research focuses on work and aging, told the Harvard Business Review.    

Cort cites the popular narrative that younger workers demand more flexibility. “As a manager,” Cort says, “I’m going to read that and then afford different levels of flexibility to people based on their age. . . . [W]hen in reality, everybody values flexibility.” 

And everybody values fairness. Removing age bias from the hiring process should be a top priority for talent acquisition professionals in every industry. Zooming in on a candidate’s skills, experience, and personality, and not which generational bucket they belong in, is a first step in building a more equitable workforce. 

Here are five common myths about older workers that simply don’t hold water. Their debunking should convince you to put stereotypes back where they belong: in the trash can.

Myth No. 1: They lack creativity 

As much as we love to worship the wunderkinds of the world, history is full of late bloomers whose creative juices have brought us everything from Renaissance paintings to jazz masterpieces to the theory of evolution. 

“Many people believe that creativity is exclusively associated with youth, but it really depends on what kind of creativity you’re talking about,” says Bruce Weinberg, professor of economics at Ohio State University and a lead author on a 2019 study that analyzed 31 Nobel Prize laureates as well as famous painters, novelists, poets, and scientists. 

The study found that there are two types of creativity that can blossom at different stages in a person’s career. The kind that comes on fast and fizzles out quickly and the kind that relies on a slower process of observation and refinement. The latter group of innovators, termed experimentalists, usually do their best work in their 50s.  

Chances are you’re not currently hiring a full-time haikuist, but the point is this for recruiters: Don’t get lost chasing lightning bolts when a smoldering fire can provide you with a steady source of heat.

Myth No. 2: They’re grumpy

Paul Giamatti’s performance in The Holdovers notwithstanding, older people are not inherently crankier than any other group of people. It’s a tired argh-ument and one that’s unsupported by science. 

In fact, “older people tend to be happier than the general population,” says Heidi Kay White, a professor of medicine in the geriatrics division of Duke University School of Medicine. 

Research shows that the more candles on your birthday cake, the sunnier your disposition is likely to be; it’s a phenomenon known as the Positivity Effect, in which good memories crowd out the negative ones that bias younger people.

Turns out those positive vibes float straight over to the workplace. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, older workers are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs than younger ones. Some 55 percent of workers ages 50 to 64 and 67 percent of workers 65 years and older say they are very or extremely satisfied with their jobs. That number dips to 44 percent for workers ages 18 to 29.

Myth No. 3: They’re less productive

Beware of hiring managers looking to pluck the grays from their applicant pool by citing fear of declining productivity. They’re flying a false flag. 

A new report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College revealed that older workers are just as productive as younger workers and play a critical role in the ongoing success of many companies.

That makes sense once you stop calculating birth years and start adding up all the things older employees do bring to a job, like experience, useful social networks, and organizational citizenship.  

It’s been shown that older workers even outshine their younger colleagues in many key performance areas. One famous international study found that adults ages 65 to 80 performed more consistently in tests of cognitive abilities, perceptual speed, and episodic memory than did adults ages 20 to 31. 

“Every aspect of job performance gets better as we age,” Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton School of Business, told Vox. “The juxtaposition between the superior performance of older workers and the discrimination against them in the workplace just really makes no sense.”

Myth No. 4: They can’t handle technology

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That’s what you’ll get when you search for evidence of older workers resisting new tech on the job. In reality, veteran employees are often quicker to learn, and faster to adapt to, rapidly changing technology.

A study by North Carolina State State University found that older software programmers, like many veteran NFL quarterbacks, have an advantage over their younger counterparts because of their ability to absorb new information into an existing knowledge base. 

"We think that if you’re familiar with older technology, you’re better able to understand new technology," said study coauthor Emerson Murphy-Hill. 

This stereotype is particularly harmful in training environments. One experiment found that trainers assigned to teach employees a computer-related task had lower expectations and provided worse training when they believed the person was older. 

Myth No. 5: They’re too expensive

It’s true, going gray can cost your company more green, especially if you’re hiring hard-to-fill leadership roles. But researchers say staffing workers over 50 results in a minimal increase in labor costs. 

One reason: More and more companies now base compensation in part on performance rather than exclusively on seniority. Another: Retention. Older workers tend to stay at a job longer than younger counterparts, sparing their company the piles of cash it costs to recruit and train new hires. 

But perhaps the most compelling business case for courting 50+ talent is that they’re the most engaged cohort in the workforce. A landmark AARP study found that 65% of employees 55 and older are considered “engaged” in their job, while 58% to 60% of younger employees are engaged.

Seems like crumbs on the carpet until you do the math. The study states that a mere 5% increase in employee engagement can account for a 3% spike in revenue. Meaning that a company with, say, $5 billion in revenue could grow their earnings by $150 million with just a 5% bump in engagement.

Of course, those are just numbers. They don’t tell the whole story. The same can be said about age.