I think employers discriminate against older people to their own detriment. We have a couple of people in their 50s in our tech team, as well as a broad spread

I think employers discriminate against older people to their own detriment. We have a couple of people in their 50s in our tech team, as well as a broad spread in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. We very fortunate to have a fantastic team across the board, which very much includes our most experienced members. Granted they tend to be more expensive, but older people have numerous advantages that deliver value which more than offsets the direct costs of salary and benefits: - More experience (obviously!): not just in terms of work, but in terms of life - This often means better social skills, and also greater resilience - Experience means they're often just better at what they do than less experienced staff - They tend to have family commitments, which means they want to work sane hours, which to me helps set a healthy cultural precedent - They tend to know themselves well, and are often more settled/content; this can mean less political game playing and jockeying for position/trying to prove themselves. This isn't to suggest they lack ambition, although their priorities are often different, but they tend to be more graceful in trying to achieve their ambitions - They seem less likely to burdened by an overdeveloped sense of entitlement All of these are generalisations and there will, of course, be exceptions, but I think it's hard to argue against these characteristics as being more prevalent amongst older workers. When it comes to tricky pastoral and technical situations, I often find myself leaning quite heavily on the wisdom of my older team members. I really wouldn't be without them[1]. [1] N.B., at 43 I'm no spring chicken myself.