Leader: Too old for IT

Recently a top exec at a big IT services company explained to silicon.com how to deliver a successful IT project. His advice: use more old people.

Most mistakes are made by younger staff, he said, whereas the old grey hairs have seen it all before and tend to avoid the obvious pitfalls.

It's a shame that this view is very much in the minority. An industry obsessed with innovation might benefit from tapping into experience, rather than ditching workers as soon as they get a few wrinkles.

The IT industry might be fascinated by the latest gizmo and the greatest new start-up - but that doesn't mean that everybody working in the industry has to be young enough to audition for a boy band. It's not Pop Idol, after all.

So where does this obsession with youth come from? Is the industry so short-sighted that it will ignore workers with experience because they might cost a bit more? Are managers so weak-kneed that they fear hiring older staff will undermine them? Do they really think staff over the age of 40 won't be able to cope?

Unrealistic dreams about early retirement are making the situation even worse. A new study shows three-quarters of IT workers are hanging on to the expectation that they will retire by the age of 65 - even though they believe that the age of retirement for the average person in 10 years' time will be 66 or older.

For most the dream of logging off and sailing the world, safe in the knowledge that their final salary pension will foot the bill is just that - a dream. Most people are living longer and will be fit enough to work well beyond 65. And will probably need the money, too.

Perhaps if managers were more honest about their own retirement prospects they would be fairer in the way they treat older workers.

If managers expect to retire at 45 then they may well look down on those poor old dodderers that are still slogging away at 50.

But if they accept that they are going to be working until 65 or even later themselves then perhaps they will reassess their attitudes - because they could end up as victims of age discrimination as well. Some unkind souls might say that is a fitting fate.