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Intolerance of ageism should be the hot corporate cause of 2018,

the baby-boomer generation

and even the younger ones are getting to an age when they are making plans for bowing out of work.

The boomers are the most successful, most confident and most individualistic generation that ever set foot on Earth.As a group, they are also about to become the longest-lived.

life expectancy has been rising by a couple of years a decade throughout most of the 20th and 21st centuries. 

on average

have enjoyed enviable lives,they are now running into a collective problem

older workers are often snubbed

have experienced or witnessed age discrimination.

are financially comfortable

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physically and mentally less vigorous,less good at working with new technology and more set in their ways.

resort to setting themselves up as

but they may not get as much work as they would like.

It is true that an older person will bring less physical strength to a job than a younger one, and may also be slower. 

Physical decline may be counteracted by technology, and slower reactions are frequently outweighed by knowledge and experience. 

Seasoned workers have skills that employers are finding hard to replace;

retain and recruit older engineers

Older workers are in many cases more conscientious than younger ones

is based on prejudice rather than rational argument

age discrimination

So what can be done to avoid wasting older workers’ potential

it needs to be fought on many fronts. 

It is not enough on its own, but it sets the tone. 

raising the minimum age for

But the biggest need is for a change in attitudes.

a more enlightened approach to

Employers often pass over older employees for courses because they think the effort would be wasted

update their skills

have recently introduced one-year programmes to prepare

It is now widely accepted that training and education need to be a lifelong endeavour, not a one-time sprint at the beginning of a career. 

Most importantly, there needs to be give and take on both sides.

People working past the age of retirement typically want more flexibility:

ditch their expectations of

In many walks of life older folk are already trusted to do a fine job.

The average age of FTSE 100 CEOs is 54