Behavioral psychologist Chantal van der Leest examines our behavior in the workplace: who or what determines our daily decisions? Today: the older employee
I have long dreamed of one day working for a fast young dog company. That as a hip twenty-something I sit with my peers in a business space with pancake plants drinking matcha tea, while we dream about world-changing plans. Unfortunately, in the eyes of twenty-somethings, I am stone-old. Pretty bad. Or not?
In our society that focuses so much on being and staying young, we completely overlook the benefits of old age. We all want to grow old, but we don’t want to be. Worse still: we start to believe the negative stereotypes ourselves and act accordingly. Older people who think negatively about aging score worse on memory tests, research shows.
Not so impulsive
While there is every reason to be positive about getting older. Sure, some of your brain functions really decline as you get older. Your memory gets worse, but that decline starts already in your twenties and is quite small. Thinking speed also declines, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. When you have a team full of young dogs, it is sometimes wise to ask a wise fox who is not so impulsive and takes less risk.
As we get older, we gain more and more wisdom. If you ask people to come up with a punishment for a student who has committed plagiarism, young people are quick to judge. The student must be punished, period. Older people are less confident and want to know more. Did the student really know she was plagiarizing? How will this punishment affect her career? When a long-term vision has to be devised, the elderly often do better because of this.
Older people more often live in the here and now. They are not in the business of making a career
At the same time, older people more often live in the here and now. They are not pursuing a career and are not going to work in a boring job because it is good for their career. They want to have a good time now.
We often think that the elderly are moody and grumpy, but in reality people in their 60s feel happier than in their twenties or forties. Valuable in your team, because they can empathize better and like to do something for the other. I think it’s all right: let me become such a friendly, gray mentor.
Want to know more about psychology and work? Read Chantal’s books Why Perfectionists Are Rarely Happy, 13 Tips Against Perfectionism (2021) and Our Fallible Thinking at Work (2018).
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