With about 11 million employees in the US 65 years old or older, or about 7% of all workers, the workforce in this country has a wider age span than ever before.
This trend shows signs of increasing, due to financial needs of people who are living longer than ever before.
What does it mean for the workplace?
It means two important things.
First, younger workers can benefit from the acquired wisdom of life and work that older workers exhibit. They may know a thing or two about work life balance. They may know about managing stress due to their earned understanding of what really matters. They may be a surprising contingent of support for family medical leave and paid leave for new mothers. They just may add a lot of rich textures including balance, equanimity, and quiet confidence, to work teams and enrich the culture of any organization.
Second, they may bring younger workers face to face with serious illness, death and grief, since the rate of illness and death is comparatively higher amongst people who are 65 and older, than people who are younger.
The workplace still has a long way to go to be truly accepting and comfortable with the reality of employees or their loved ones living and dying with terminal illness; with the impact of death and dying of a staff person or their loved ones on the workplace; and with the way grief settles in the workplace like a dewy cloak of sorrow.
We can become more comfortable with sickness and death and its impact at work, just like we have made cultural shifts about health and wellness, addiction, harassment and mental health awareness. It is the next frontier. We can get better at embracing its presence and sitting with each other in and through it. We can learn to listen more deeply and kindly. We can find our way through the uncomfortable feelings.
Let's take the first step. What do you think helps?
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