Cloaks of invisibility

Harry Potter has a cloak of invisibility – and I am getting one too. His arrived in the post, complete and ready to use. Mine has been entering my life piece by piece. There’s no assembly required, because it’s putting itself together furtively when I am not looking. As soon as I realised what was happening, I began to dread the day the cloak was finished.

This might sound strange when you think of all the larks Harry has got up to with his cloak. It’s even big enough for friends to pop under it with him and we all know how much mischief loves company.

They are sneaky things, these cloaks of invisibility. Sometimes you don’t know when you are wearing them. I have experienced this phenomenon at places like supermarkets or job interviews. Queues and crowds of teenagers are good places to pass unseen as well.

By now you should have guessed what I am getting at and what constitutes my cloak of invisibility – age.

I have been on this earth for more than seven decades now and there’s rather a lot of me. You’d think it hard for me to pass unseen, but, not so. All those years are settling around me and making me invisible.

Perhaps my first indication of what was happening came several years ago when, as a mere lad of 50-something, I attempted to rejoin the job market.

For the 20 years prior I had been self-employed, but my chosen field went through a sudden recession.

No problem, I thought. I’ll get a job for a while. I’ve got bags of experience and it will make me a shoo-in.

That was mistake No 1. For the first time in my life, I didn’t even make the shortlists.

‘‘How could this be?’’ I wondered. ‘‘Surely there must be some mistake? Maybe my application went astray in the mail? Next time I will be luckier.’’

That was my second mistake.

By now, I had guessed what was happening. I started fudging my resumes by blurring my age and downplaying my experience.

Bingo. I was back on the shortlists. I’d get a job in no time.

Mistake No 3. As soon as the interviewer saw this grey-haired fellow beaming back across the desk, his or her eyes would glaze over and they’d start shuffling papers nervously.

After all, what would you do? This job applicant is not what you expected. You can hear them talking, but you can’t really ‘‘see’’ them.

Sometimes, I felt sorry for the interviewer. I could hear the cogs whirring as they searched desperately for a polite way to say no to me.

One confused bloke turned me down, but asked if he could keep some of my ‘‘interesting work samples to study’’.

Another who was less polite and openly insecure said I had more experience than he did and could probably do his job with ease.

‘‘I don’t want your job,’’ I said. ‘‘I just want a job.’’

That was yet another mistake.

So I pulled my cloak around me for the extra warmth and headed off home. Stuff this lark. I was able to work. I wanted to work and I was qualified for the work I was seeking. I decided to tough out the recession and went back to being selfemployed.

A few years have passed since then and I am now living in a world that is changing with increasing rapidity.

It is no longer possible to ignore older people because there are now so many of them that there is talk of raising the pension age.

According to figures gleaned from a Government website, more than 20 per cent of people aged over 65 are still working. Every employer knows it is usually illegal to discriminate against a potential worker on the grounds of age – there are some occupations where the age range is set by law – so a few engage in mental gymnastics to get around the rules.

A popular one is ‘‘insufficient experience’’, but this usually shows they haven’t even bothered to read the resume.

Some common examples of age discrimination include an employer thinking someone:

Can’t manage technology or learn new skills because they’re older

Is likely to take parental leave

Won’t fit in with the company culture because they aren’t the same age as other staff

Can’t be included in staff schemes, such as insurance or healthcare, because of their age.

However, a survey by district health board and Crown research institute employers and workers shows there are many positive attributes shown by older workers. These include being:

As, or more productive than younger workers Good mentors

Better at staying calm in a crisis.

I’m sure most of us can think of one or two more.

This is just as well because by 2035 it is estimated that no-longer invisible oldies will make up almost a quarter of the population.

I don’t know what Harry Potter will be up to with his cloak by then, but if I am still around, my cloak will have become highly visible.

Mervyn Dykes is a Manawatu¯ journalist and author