Ageless Wonders
The idea that older works are slower and less productive than their younger competitors is a myth; in fact they often make fewer errors than younger employees.
Older employees move to slow, forget to do things and are inflexible around the workplace. They don’t work well in a team atmosphere and can’t adapt quickly to new technologies or changing times. Many people describe their older colleagues in these terms and these blanket statements are often the reasons personnel managers cite for hiring younger employees over their older competitors.
But are these opinions warranted? Do older workers in truth perform as poorly as their younger counterparts claim? If so, at what specific functions or tasks do they perform at a lower lever than younger employees? Neuroscientists and psychologists active in the field of “cognitive gerontology” are currently examining these questions in laboratories around the world. The answers found to date are eye-popping: although older workers maybe slower at specific jobs or functions, they are actually faster at others and in most cases less prone to reoccurring mistakes. In fact research shows that only certain brain functions are affected by possible age-related deficits and that basic change in the work environment can compensate for any deficits.
In the fast pace, shifting, business world of today a lot of importance is placed on the ability to operate at a high rate of speed in the business environment. And the skill to adapt to changes in the work environment, to be flexible to changing business needs and demands. Even workers, who for years followed the same routine during their daily jobs, now find the requirements of business have changed and continue to change constantly. Coping with a constantly shifting environment requires “fluid intelligence”-the focus to switch quickly between different functions, redirect ones attention, and screen out irrelevant or distracting information.
It has been shown in studies by psychologist Jutta Kray of Saarland University in Germany that older people tend to find difficulty coordinating competing tasks. She found that individuals over 50, on average, did not do as well on tasks calculated to test an individual’s ability to switch quickly between mental tasks. For the individual over 50 the studies found the mental effort required for task switching was greater.
The study wasn’t all bad news for the average 5o-plus Joe or Mary; the old participants did far better after they rehearsed ways to improve their responses. The scientists concluded that age related performance deficits can be overcome if work environments are constructed in the appropriate way.
Studies conducted by Michael Falkenstein and Sascha Sommer in collaboration with Juliana Yordanova and Vasil Kolev of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. Indicate older subjects take a moment longer to respond to stimulus and yet the results indicate they commit far less mistakes than younger individuals. Detailed analysis indicates that older people process visual and auditory stimuli just as quickly as younger people did. Their brains also thought, made decisions and choices as well as their younger counterparts. The only lag occurred during the final phase-the brain signal that prepares the finger to move. In older subjects the threshold to initiate a motor response was higher which seems to indicate older subjects operate according to the motto: “Better to be slow but right.” And numerous other studies over the years seem to indicate this same conclusion.
For the everyday workplace this has numerous implications as certain jobs require frequent choices, and categorization – for example, any quality control position with a manufacturer. Since studies indicate the processes of choice and categorization is not significantly affected in older employees, there is no reason to deny them employment in these industries. Yes the actual motor response is slower in older workers, but this can be an advantage in an industry where a low error rate is the goal.
Studies indicate older workers make fewer mistakes mainly because they are aren’t as easily distracted from a task. A surprising finding if you hold to traditional wisdom that older workers are easier to distract from function. Studies indicate that older workers have a delayed reaction before making a decision, kind of like a mental stop sign to check everything, before proceeding to the next light. Research has shown that this ability means that older workers commit far less errors, that this slowness gave them a decided advantage in performance. This check-stop can be very useful for older people in many jobs, such as guiding a car through the busy, constantly moving and changing traffic at the busy intersection.
While studies do show that our older fellow-humans do not perform as well when under severe time constraints, especially if they must use visual acuity to find a target. In this situation older employees had longer reaction times and higher error rates then younger competitors. These situations older workers also found more stressful, but this can be compensated for in the workplace. Older drivers could be given on board navigation systems to provide the spoken directions instead of a map on a small screen. Many present workplace situations could be altered in small ways to provide the older employee with the ability to complete the tasks they are better suited to.
Since older employees have tasks and functions they perform better than their younger competitors, it is wrong to categorize older people as on the whole less valuable in the workplace. And any small differences can certainly be compensated for by small adjustments in workplace environment and attitude toward older employees. In the coming years with additional studies and understanding we will be able to isolate the causes of poor performance and redesign the work environment to mitigate these causes.
Additionally it should be noted that in the real business world, speed and accuracy are not the only criteria determining success. The older employee has spent years collecting experience and knowledge about the world and business, the younger employee has not gained yet. Older workers are generally more socially competent, making them more suited for customer relations.
Furthermore, even though an older worker might be initially slower at a certain mental task, neural networks have been shown to rewire themselves given the opportunity. For example, cognitive neuroscience professor Roberto Cabeza of Duke University has shown that older people who performed poorly on a memory test activate the same memory areas of the human brain as their younger competitors, yet seniors who did well had a different activation pattern. Scientists say these results make it clear that neuronal restructuring can help compensate for deficits – although not every older brain is capable of carrying this out.
With the employment crush in the workplace in recent years and the call to bring older workers back into the workplace to compensate for the lack of workers. A restructuring of workplaces and brain networks will be necessary if older workers are to be the solution to the problems of the labour market. The call to rise retirement ages is part of this crush; low birth rates mean fewer people entering the workforce and a need for more skilled, experienced, workers. Personnel managers equating the age 45 with “over the hill” in coming years will be ignoring a prime source of needed skill and experience if they continue to listen to the assumptions. Something tells me the over-the-hill-gang, of which apparently I quality for, will be having a thing or two to say about this, because I for one have a lot left to learn, give and teach my fellow human.
