{"id":39045,"date":"2023-10-20T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/eighty-nine-year-old-dying-of-boredom-scores-new-job-is-there-room-for-older-workers-at-your-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:00:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:00:27","slug":"eighty-nine-year-old-dying-of-boredom-scores-new-job-is-there-room-for-older-workers-at-your-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/eighty-nine-year-old-dying-of-boredom-scores-new-job-is-there-room-for-older-workers-at-your-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Eighty-nine-year-old “dying of boredom” scores new job: Is there room for older workers at your startup? – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Employers have been encouraged to consider older job candidates, after an 89-year-old man\u00a0in the UK who claimed he was \u201cdying from boredom\u201d successfully found a job.<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/em> reports<\/a> Joe Bartley, an elderly resident of Devon, England, posted a job advert in the local newspaper last month seeking 20 hours of work a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenior citizen 89 seeks employment in Paignton area. 20hrs+ per week. Still able to clean, light gardening, DIY and anything. I have references. Old soldier, airborne forces. Save me from dying of boredom!\u201d Bartley wrote.<\/p>\n

Read more: One in four older Australians experience age discrimination at work: Study<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Just two days after The Guardian\u2019s<\/em> article, Bartley received two offers of part-time work and has accepted a hospitality role with a local family-run caf\u00e9.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The caf\u00e9\u2019s owner Sarah Martin told the Guardian,<\/em> \u201cno matter what your age or your background, you deserve a chance\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people who come here don\u2019t just come for coffee, they come for a chat, so Joe is perfect,\u201d Martin told The Guardian.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHow often do you get an 89-year-old person approaching you and saying he wants to work? Usually, we have to go out and find people, and when we get them, sometimes they don\u2019t even want to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartley also received a job offer from a bakery in a nearby town, but reportedly turned it down, as he could not easily travel to the business.<\/p>\n

Psychologist Eve Ash believes\u00a0businesses everywhere should consider hiring older workers, saying many of them a \u201cdefying expectations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe typically don\u2019t associate working with older people, we typically associate them with sitting around and taking it easy,\u201d Ash says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to see fewer age judgements. There\u2019s a perception once you hit 70, it\u2019s time on from then on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA whole new workforce\u201d<\/h3>\n

Ash believes a whole new workforce exists in people over the age of 70, with older workers having \u201ca different type of determination and stamina\u201d. Ash\u2019s own father still works as a land surveyor at the age of 92, with no plans to retire until he hits 100.<\/p>\n

Some concessions do need to be made when considering older workers, Ash says, as \u201c40 hour, nine to five jobs\u201d are generally not suitable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt any age over 70 there are certain things need to be tested, like driving skills. Older workers are also more suited to shorter weeks and irregular working hours,\u201d Ash says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a wide range of things older people could be doing, like customer service or minding things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to remove these concepts of age [limiting] employability potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ash says more evidence is needed to see exactly what sort of jobs are suitable for older workers, but firmly believes they are more likely to \u201chave the time and the care to do things\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might discover they have amazing positive mood characteristics, and in the workplace, this is extremely important,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It was not reported how many hours Bartley would be working at the caf\u00e9, but on Sundays, he will catch a lift with his boss to work, while catching the bus the rest of the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think about these things all the time. We are never going to be rich, but we like to give something back, so when we saw the advert there was no question \u2013 the minute we saw it we knew we\u2019d give him a job,\u201d Martin told The Guardian.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published in SmartCompany<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Employers have been encouraged to consider older job candidates, after an 89-year-old man\u00a0in the UK who claimed he was \u201cdying<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39045"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}