Received wisdom has it that wine and whiskey get better with age — but do employees?
There’s a strong argument to say they often do.
Those aged 50 and older usually bring many years of experience to the workplace but they can also bring a level-headedness, maturity and sanguinity — simply from having lived longer — that is difficult for those in the early phase of their careers to match.
Jeffrey Elkinson, who has practised law for 47 years and litigated all over the globe, puts it like this: “Real experience over several decades brings an irreplaceable depth of understanding which cannot be rushed or artificially acquired.
“Accumulated wisdom, ideally in conjunction with good health and physical ability, can give one the ability to see patterns across situations, relationships and challenges where youth would not yet have experienced this.”
Older workers know things don’t always go according to plan, but that problems can be solved and hurdles overcome.
Corey Butterfield, a strategic consultant/adviser, is proof of that. The work path he has travelled isn’t the one he expected, but he has no regrets.
“Notwithstanding my career bumps, I am much better for them and would not change a single event as they each brought about deeper life lessons and greater faith,” he said.
Life experience
Mr Butterfield, 54, has had a varied career, starting in the hospitality industry as a teen, and encompassing the political arena, as well as the public and private sectors.
As a young man he temporarily dropped out of the University of Western Ontario for a year and worked at Bermuda’s Supreme Court, before his mother briskly sent him back to complete his studies.
He graduated with a political science degree and returned home, gaining valuable management experience at Bermuda Forwarders before heading to law school in Britain in 1994.
Mr Butterfield completed his law degree but failed the Bermuda Bar exams twice. He dusted himself down and came up with a different plan.
“It’s weird but I have come to understand that I get involved in things or things happen to me and what I do is to take the essence of the lesson and move on,” he said.
There have been dramatic moments in his working life.
He was the Progressive Labour Party’s press officer before its 1998 historic election win; less than a decade later, he found himself under arrest alongside his boss, businessman Harold Darrell, and Auditor-General Larry Dennis, in connection with leaked records about the Bermuda Housing Corporation scandal (no charges were brought).
He said the highs and lows, and everything in between, made him who he is today: a “fairly open communicator who can articulate what I mean, have a sense of mission in the workplace, as well as my role in the mission, and will act accordingly”.
Mr Butterfield said: “Some younger employees do not have their own identity or moral compass, so react to a trend, a word or their own world view and lose out on valuable connections.
“You must have an unshakeable sense of self-worth; not self-confidence … worth. You must have a value of yourself that is only for you.”
Emotional resilience
Mr Elkinson, who gained four law degrees in Ireland before working in Hong Kong and eventually coming to Bermuda to join Conyers in 1988, described the “emotional resilience built through weathering life’s inevitable storms, having the confidence to trust one’s judgment and the perspective to distinguish between what truly matters as opposed to what appears to be urgent”.
He said age brought with it a “valuable clarity about human nature and the cyclical nature of problems and solutions. It can bring a sense of peace which comes from having navigated uncertainty many times before.
“As importantly, a wealth of lived experience allows for mentoring others with authentic insight, particularly when one has personally walked through the complexities of career, relationships, loss and personal growth.”
Mr Elkinson, who left Conyers in March and is consulting with Carey Olsen law firm at the time of writing, urged those who find that their age becomes an issue in the workplace to boldly seek pastures new and use their experience to mentor new and younger colleagues.
Sharing knowledge
Mr Butterfield said much of what he does now involves sharing knowledge and life lessons. “I use my experiences to support and advise anyone I can,” he said.
He suggested that island employers looking to hire workers aged 50-plus should expect them to be “adaptable and diverse” and a product of their upbringings in neighbourhoods that were “racially and wealth-wise diverse”.
He said: “Just know that when you hire us, particularly in an advisory or supervisory role, our values mean we are going to be unvarnished.
“Your feelings will be secondary but you will get the best of our experience, principles, wisdom and empathy.”
Bermuda recruiter Steph Brown said it was often in employers’ interests to hire older people.
“I strongly favour building teams with a mix of age groups,” she said.
“However, in my experience, employees who are more ‘seasoned’ can offer a wider knowledge base, they usually show more maturity and good work ethics, and they can also provide excellent mentorships.”
Ms Brown added: “It is my personal view that within an ageing population in Bermuda, employers who aren’t ageist when it comes to their applicant screening process will be more successful longer term.”
Mr Butterfield said he continued to find work through his many connections, noting that “people find me based on what they have heard or experienced of me and not a title or job description”.
He said: “Something that still fascinates me is I do not have a website, Facebook page, business card or active LinkedIn profile.
“The biggest change for me today than when I began working is when people ask: ‘What do you do?’ I don’t have a ready answer and I love that I don’t.”
He added “My career life is anything but planned, boring or traditional.”
