You’ve told me that you want me to write about ageism. I’m still struggling with what to say about that difficult topic. In the meantime, I wanted to reprint this piece I wrote back in July when I had almost no subscribers. I think it’s a great intro to ageism.
This is my grandmother, Pauline Zoerb Blust Montgomery, AKA Nana.
In the late 70s, she was a travel agent in Flagstaff, Arizona. At that time, the industry was transitioning to computers and away from the giant phonebook-sized flight guides printed once a month.
In the early days, those flight reservation computer systems were owned by the individual airlines themselves. American Airlines’ system was called SABRE. That was the one my grandmother, who grew up in the 20s and 30s, had to learn in order to keep doing her job.
So she went to a week-long “training camp” American set up to teach the travel agents the new system. Her fellow students were mostly half her age (or younger).
Everything points to this being a potential disaster. Up until then, the most complex technology she had used was a pushbutton corded phone. She was in her early 60s, an age when other people might be starting to consider retiring. And what did she have in common with all these young women she was studying with?
She crushed it.
She threw herself wholeheartedly into learning the new system. She was diligent with the homework every night. And she bonded with the other women over their shared status as newbies to the system and their frustrations when something didn’t work. She was open and friendly with everyone she met.
By the end of the training, she was the unofficial leader of the group, and the other young women were her charges, rather than her competitors.
What did I learn from her experience?
Attitude is everything. She didn’t grumble. She didn’t complain that she was too old. She barreled in and grabbed the challenge by the throat.
Everyone, at any age, can learn new things. Yes, it’s more challenging, and it can be slower. But motivation matters. And there are resources available to help you learn any technology out there.
You can always find common ground. Generation gaps are real, but they also can be bridged. Focus on what unites you with younger people, not what sets you apart.
My grandmother was so much more than the sweet old lady pictured above. As proof, here’s my favorite photo of her, playing bingo at the retirement home:
I’m finding a lot of challenges as I navigate the job market in my late 50s. But they are the same sorts of things she faced back then: motivation, technology, relating to younger people. And I get great inspiration from how she took on those challenges and turned them to her advantage.
I love you and miss you, Nana.
It's true that attitude makes a difference. I feel lucky to have worked in tech for 14+ years (though the whole time I kept thinking they'd realize how non-technical I was and fire me, in the end I couldn't even get them to lay me off lol!), as that helped to make me more comfortable with it. But I realized at my last job that my boss, who was two years younger than me, seemed a lot older because of his general attitude.
You speak so much truth in so few words. As a late-50s person in the workforce I can relate to what you say here. Attitude and a desire to learn are so essential. The majority of the people I work with are in their 20s and 30s and I feel like their peer. My parents definitely felt ostracized by their fear of all things computer and smart-phone. I hope in 20 years, whatever new technology exists I can approach with openness in determining its utility for me.