Are You Losing Your Workplace Value?
Here you sit at the age of 50 or 60 and contemplate whether you can even compete anymore in your industry. Perhaps you are considering early retirement because you don’t feel valued anymore. How is it possible that you could have any more to offer than the thirty-year-old with boundless energy and tech savvy? Let me assure you that you have more value than any younger counterpart.
Trinkets Of Wisdom
Your years of working provided you with not only knowledge, but vast experience. Think about all the skills you acquired and experiences you had through both failures and successes. Those trinkets of wisdom don’t occur overnight.
There are an abundance of situations, professional “fires”, and experiences that cannot be taught to that thirty-year-old with boundless energy. There is a seasoning that comes with age and time spent in your industry. The wisdom you’ve learned from your years on the job cannot be poured into someone’s mind. They have to be lived through.
Building Customer Relationships
My husband often questions his value at his age working for a Fortune 500 company. He will state, “all of these young hires have so much computer knowledge that I don’t have.” But guess what? He happens to be one of the top performers in his sales group. Perhaps he lacks certain technical or internet skills, but he has the most experience in customer relationships. Talking with people, building trust, and learning what a customer needs are skills that some of our younger generation don’t have.
The wide scope of situations that occur when you work in any customer service job are often unpredictable. Over your time in your field, you will see more and more scenarios that will help you react to the situations that come up in the future. The young hire may have been taught an abundance of “knowledge” but you can’t be taught sincerity in customer service and this is what can make an employee valuable and irreplaceable to management.
Give Yourself A High Five, Wise Old Man
Take a moment to think about all you have accomplished in the years of your career. Write it down. Pat yourself on the back. You are full of value that can be shared with other people. Congratulate yourself on the workplace value you now have.
Perhaps you are familiar with the archetype “wise old man.” A wise old man is typically known for the wisdom he accumulated throughout his life. In many stories and movies, the wise old man is there to teach something! He is typically thought of as kind, gentle, and very knowledgeable, and he is considered a mentor to a younger generation.
I consider myself to be a “wise old woman.” I took a few years to write down all the expertise I gained in the plastic surgery industry and wrote a book about it, called The Successful Surgeon. My goal is to help others in my line of business with my previous experiences, insight, as well as mistakes.
My guess is you have enough to write a book too. Perhaps writing isn’t your thing, but you could join a networking group and offer your advice or consider starting a podcast about it. There are many ways to share what you know and to showcase it. This in turn will give you a sense of empowerment and pride about your lifetime in the workplace.
Remind others (and especially yourself) that as you age, you are more valuable than ever.
