Is it age that makes you senior? 42% of 16-25 year olds perceive older people as a burden on society, 30% of young people think that seniors are not an important resource for the future of society, but, paradoxically, for 83% of them , they are also a source of inspiration (“2nd Barometer of Intergenerational Relations”, Service Civique Solidarité Seniors, 04/29/2024). A chilling study which reflects the rejection of one population by another. However, this evolution inevitably affects us all, in the mode “we are born, we live, we die” (Audiard, Uncle gunslingers). The more pessimistic version will retain the fifty-year-old thriller Green Sun.
We have to get used to it: in 2050, more than a third of the population will be over 60 years old, compared to 20% in 2000. The feeling is less heavy in sport: a rhythmic gymnastics athlete becomes a senior at 18, while at the same age some people have still not started their medical studies. At 35, some become surgeons when footballers hang up their boots. What about seniors in business? “There is a difference between the feelings of recruiters and those they recruit,” indicates Aude Boudaud, director at the recruitment firm Robert Walters.
“Once they are over their forties, employees often think that they are becoming seniors and put a lot of pressure on themselves. They believe that their career peak occurs before the age of 45.” However, according to Aude Boudaud, “it’s more between the ages of 45 and 55 that this happens.” However, 23% of companies reveal that they have already rejected an application based on age criteria, or even do so regularly, indicates a survey by Robert Walters (first quarter 2024).
Working on age-related preconceptions
The “old”, the senior, would only be good for increasing the cost of the company’s mutual insurance, for having a high salary, for being inflexible with outdated methods and he is called in to talk to him about tutoring or retirement. Agility of young people versus osteoarthritis of seniors? It is discrimination in the legal sense: “no person can be excluded from a recruitment or appointment procedure… no employee can be sanctioned, dismissed or be the subject of a discriminatory measure, direct or indirect… in because of his age” (article L 1132-1 of the labor code).
Other studies point in the same direction: “Companies remain reluctant to recruit senior managers [55 ans et plus]… Executives with twenty years of experience or more are still the least favored category in recruitment intentions: they represent around 5% of the total… The obstacles to their return to employment have been widely documented, including certain rejections from recruiters, based on global and negative stereotypes of a discriminatory nature” (“Professional projections of senior executives. A protean commitment but a common desire to transmit”, Apec, April 2024). However, 78% of companies say they worried about the shortage of talent What about the inclusion of seniors with an increase in the retirement age and an age limit of 70 in the private sector and 67 in the public sector? , “working on preconceived ideas linked to age could help attract new profiles”. “As a recruitment firm, our role is to encourage companies to think about their recruitment practices, and to offer them solutions. profiles towards which they would not turn spontaneously”, insists Aude Boudaud.
Will younger generations help headhunters? According to Elodie Gentina, doctor of management sciences and professor at the IESEG School of Management, if 79% of adults place the age of senior at 70 years old while 40% of 13-15 year olds put it around 40 years old, 92% of those under 30 in business believe that intergenerational rapprochement is important. Young people who respond “OK boomer” to their parents having sometimes sacrificed their lives at work, when they do not place it at the center of their lives, recalls the author of Managing Generation Z in business (Dunod, 2023).
Young people anchored in the present but also involved by “generativity” (concern for a commitment to future generations, notably defined by Erickson in 1963). “Z”s eager for transmission, ascending and descending.
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