In March I shared an article with 10 reasons older-workers may be of benefit to your small business, especially in these tough economic times. Today, I'd like to focus on the fact that older-workers are more likely to understand recessions - such as we currently are experiencing.
Older workers have been through recessions before - specifically the oil crisis of the 1970, the recession of the early 80s and the tech bubble burst of the late 1990s, to mention but a few of the worst. We have seen how businesses bounce back and move forward better than before. We mostly remember our parents and grandparents talk of the Great Depression... even though we did not always act on that information, then. Older-workers bring a steady perspective to a jumpy workplace, and are a good balance to a lot of the younger workers hired in recent years.
Finally for today, older-workers tend to be more reliable and loyal. Contrary to common belief, with careful screening, older-workers are often much less prone to sick leave and time away from work for any reason. The work ethic of the past years still exists... if you look carefully at their past work records. In all things, past performance is still the best predictor of future performance.
Give it some thought. Check it out. I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
Dr. Bill - I love to share, I hope you do to! ;-)
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I recently heard a story about a young graduate (2008) who had used all their vacation and sick time. She was mad and couldn't understand her bosses negative reaction when she asked for time off to visit a sick relative... "well, you don't have any leave time left, you would have to take it as unpaid." Does she realize there are probably 100 people waiting to take her job?
ReplyDeleteMaybe THIS recession will fix the entitlement problem that many young workers (the millennials) seem to have these days. I guess it will take the experiences of today, to make them the seasoned employees of tomorrow!
Good observation! Yes, it will be interesting to see. That entitlement problem you mention does exist today, across the age spectrum, more than in the past. Union and union-like work environments have added to the problem, as well. I really hope this is not the last generation of "seasoned employee" considerations discussed above - but it does bear watching. ;-)
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