Orlaith Carmody explains how we have become a society that is a little too comfortable with edging older professionals out of the workplace and into retirement.
There aren’t many socially acceptable taboos still active in the workplace. DEI measures have been crucial in tackling offensive and demeaning behaviours targeting particular groups of people and it has made for a fairer, more equitable workplace.
Yet, in 2025, the workplace is still a little too comfortable with making jokes and policies at the expense of older employees, perhaps emboldened by the fact that many organisations operate under the assumption that older professionals have less value in the latter years of their career and effectively have one foot out of the door.
For Orlaith Carmody, a business consultant with coaching experience, who also acts as a principle business consultant for Age Friendly Ireland, one of the more damaging myths in the modern working landscape is that older employees are redundant and lacking in specific skills, particularly in digitalisation.
“We look at it differently,” Carmody told SiliconRepublic.com. The assumption that older employees are more likely to lack digital skills, “it’s just not the case”, as the level of ability, whether young or old, is specific to the person, not their demographic.
“Many older people have made it [their] business to keep up to date with technology and digital transformation”, using those skills every single day, she said.
The biggest challenge is not that older employees are unwilling to learn about new technologies or embrace change, but rather employers are failing to rise to the challenge of fully committing to an age-inclusive working culture.
She said, “Employers often do not offer the training to older people and it’s fundamentally wrong. So they’ll have a training and development programme and they’ll offer it to other people in the workforce, but they won’t offer it to the older person because they say ‘they will be leaving soon, what’s the point of training them up?’”
An issue she finds is occurring “every single day in Ireland as we speak”, impacting people’s upskilling efforts and even derailing their career ambitions, as they are overlooked for opportunities to lead or to be promoted, again with the excuse that they are in the process of winding down their careers, so why bother?
The bigger picture
But this is a fundamental mistake to make, according to Carmody, who is of the opinion that, by falling into the trap of believing the many myths that surround older employees, for example that they don’t contribute as much anymore, that they are digitally unaware or that they don’t have the willingness to embrace new ways of doing things, companies are essentially alienating a core asset.
They lose out on the expertise, wisdom and networks of people who may have been supporting the company for years, even decades. The very people who likely know more about the industry and its various pitfalls than a great deal of the younger, less experienced hires.
Moreover, the harm it can do to morale is considerable, as employees young and old get a sneak peek into how they are likely to be treated as they become older and therefore are considered more expendable. And as older employees, who have contributed much to their organisations, find themselves sidelined and disregarded, self-ageism can creep in.
“Self ageism is a killer,” said Carmody, who explained that ignored people frequently begin to doubt their own abilities as they are not included in interesting projects or offered opportunities to diversify through training, in what she called a “vicious circle”.
“They have huge and valuable institutional knowledge and if you allow those people to leave the workplace, all that knowledge walks out the door with them,” she said.
Policy in an ageing world
The reality is the world we are living in now bears very little resemblance to the one when policies impacting older employees were first created. Healthcare has advanced to a point where the average person is not only living longer, but can experience a higher quality of life, making them physically and mentally fit enough for the rigours of the workplace and a much longer career.
But for Carmody, many organisations and the employers running them are failing to recognise that arbitrary, mandatory retirement policies are no longer representative of how we live and work now.
With greater life expectancy, the consequences of forcing an older person out of the door, either through quiet firing methods or a straight-forward end to their contract, can be much more serious personally and economically, then it might have been when people didn’t have as many years after their retirement in which they needed to support themselves.
Carmody explained that many people are in a position where they need to stay on in their job to remain financially afloat.
Moreover, she is of the opinion that in enabling smart, resourceful hardworking employees to continue contributing to wider society via their work, pressure can be taken off the mental and physical health services, citing research that suggests a fulfilling social and personal life leads to improved health.
And this is where, according to Carmody, the Government should step in and create stronger, more inclusive policies that support older people who wish to stay on in the workplace, in some capacity, be that part-time, an advisory position or the role they currently have.
“If somebody reaches 65 and wants to claim their [state] pension, they can do so, but they should also be able to work for longer,” she explained. “They earned their pension, now they can earn a little bit more working or doing consultancy or mentoring or coaching, whatever they might do. They should be encouraged to do so without any loss of entitlement.”
We are all heading that way
But it’s not just on the Government to foster inclusivity, she said, organisations also need to create a culture where every employee feels valued, regardless of their age. They should prioritise sensitivity training around ageism, in the same way they have improved the working experience for other marginalised groups and promote opportunities for older people in-house, via training and career progression initiatives.
Companies need to take a closer look at alternatives to full-time employment, such as workshare schemes and reduced hours, local and nationwide enterprise offices should create policies aimed solely at supporting older employees in their careers and many businesses need to implement recruitment policies that don’t eliminate candidates based on age.
Because, when it comes down to it, Carmody stated, “every single one of us is going to age” and when we do and we are in a position where the choice is being taken out of our hands about how to spend the latter years of our lives, we are going to need a group committed to ensuring the rights of older employees. “You can’t say, well, that’s not going to apply to me.”
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