An Age Old Concern
I was reading BRW Magazine this week and noticed a quote from Scott Farquhar, co-founder of Atlassian
Hire young people. Staff enjoy working in a young company. No one says, “Wow, I work in a company with lots of old people”. Young people are flexible and have no baggage or pre-conceived ideas - they are cheaper and they grow with the business.
Scott Farquhar, BRW July - September 2007
Now if you’ve read some of my previous articles you’ll know I’m a fan of what Atlassian is doing, both with their software and for Australian IT. I’ve met their team on a few occasions and their company culture is something to be envied. But, while I know quotes can often be taken out of context, I couldn’t help but get a little upset at Scott’s quote.
At only 26 I’m a fully fledged, card carrying member of Gen Y. Yet, I’ve had the invaluable opportunity of working with many older (I won’t call anyone old) people, at Ephox, Ephox’s partner organizations, other business connections and through my MBA. Those older people have excellent ideas, are definitely flexible and can bring a wealth of experience to many situations. Conversely I’ve met many younger people who can be stubborn, close minded and naive.
While it may sound cliched, I believe the kind of age that Scott is talking about is truly only a state of mind. I don’t think anyone ever wants to be perceived as “old” and certainly not the kind of “old” that carries around baggage and a wealth of preconceptions. However, I think there are many organizations out there who artificially “age” their employees. Organizations whose culture kills innovation with processes and cost efficiencies. Organizations who don’t support their employees and cannot see the value in suggestions from those at the coal face.
If you want innovative people, if you want your people to be unafraid of baggage and to discard their pre-conceived ideas then you need to support them, whether they are young or old, through the culture of your company. If you think I’m crazy then check out the work of Ricardo Semler at Semco and see what a huge difference a supportive company culture can make. Whether the people in your organization are young or not-so-young, if your culture enables them to think freely and is supportive of continuous innovation and improvement then to me that is more of a recipe for success then hiring any number of young people.
Hire the best people, independent of their age. Support those people and their ideas throughout your organization. Listen to them and appreciate the perspectives and experience they bring whether they are young or old. Encourage them to be flexible and to challenge preconceptions. In return provide your staff with flexibility, understanding and challenge your own preconceptions. Your business and it’s people will grow together.
Damien Fitzpatrick, Conceptual Clarity - August 2007
August 5th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I also got a bit annoyed at what Scott said - not just because its particularly bone-headed and myopic of him, but because it seems so un-Atlassian.
Instead of judging people based on their individual merits, he judges them based on some external grouping that they have no control over - it sounds a bit like bigotry. Think about how his quote would sound if you changed “young” to “white” and “old” to “Indian”.
I much prefer to judge people based on whether they can do the damn job, rather than they’re too young, too old, went to QUT instead of UQ, or some other arbitrary discriminator that isn’t directly based on their performance.
Anyway, I applaud your more enlightened view - Ephox just got bumped up a notch in my opinion.
August 5th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I know many who would agree with you (including myself obviously). I’ve met several people in the course of my studies who have had to confront the same kind of discrimination and I know them all to be intelligent and capable people. I cannot help but think that the discrimination is not just to their detriment, but also to the detriment of those employers who turn them away. When you turn away someone based on their age you are turning away years of experience that offers invaluable perspective.
Thanks for the comment and the applause.
August 11th, 2007 at 8:03 am
I agree with Damien and Wayne wholeheartedly so there is no need to reiterate these great arguments for inclusively. People’s attitudes change when they are motivated to change and this depends heavily on their experience and how reflective they are. What Scott said was discriminatory and short-sighted but he is voicing what a lot of people think. This usually hidden discrimination affects us all as mentioned earlier. I would like to postulate that those with this strong “anti-age” attitude perhaps have a problematic relationship with their parents? Perhaps they project these feelings onto others of their parent’s generation?
When I was in my twenties I worked well with all decent people regardless of their age – to me a jerk is a jerk even if he/she is 20 or 50. Likewise great people come in all shapes, sizes, colours, cultures, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and ages…
So my advice for what it is worth is for those with strong beliefs that could be limiting their full experience of what the earth has to offer, to start reflecting and perhaps by using some creative problem solving techniques they may discover what is really going on in their own psyche.