Bosses throw older people on computing scrapheap

I was delighted to see that Eileen Joly (pictured) won her case against the NHS for age discrimination (News, page 9, Issue 566). I was in a similar position about 20 years ago, working for an accountancy firm. The management were trying to force workers to learn a complicated new computer system that I thought was needlessly advanced. I seemed to be the only person bothered by this.

When I raised this with my boss, I was accused of being a ‘technophobe’. I pointed out that I had a subscription to Computeractive and loved computing, but this cut no ice with her.

Looking back, her attitude was disgusting, and I probably could have reported her to HR, but it was obvious I had little future at the company. At the time I was in my late-fifties, and was surrounded by people in their Twenties who would never include me in their discussions about what was then the exciting new world of the internet. I knew more than they did about other technical issues like engineering and motoring, but because these weren’t young and ‘sexy’ they were mockingly dismissed.

I suspect there are lots of people like Mrs Joly who are dumped on the scrapheap because their bosses assume they can’t handle new technology. Sometimes I wonder whether new systems are introduced just as a way to gently nudge older people out the door. It’s an incredibly patronising attitude. We must do more to instill older people with the confidence to use computers at work. They have decades of experience to offer, so let’s retrain them and make sure they’re not abandoned. Terry Ramsden