Queenager Careers: Redundancy hurts, particularly this close to Xmas, but help is at hand in the Noon Jobs Board

I've talked to five midlife women who have been 'let go' this week - ouch!

This is me outside Downing Street where I had gone to interview the then Prime Minister Theresa May in my old incarnation as a newspaper hackette. It’s horrid being whacked, it happened to me and it happened to Theresa May. There is however good life after redundancy in midlife. I have never been happier than I am now

Dear Queenagers,

I do hope you are enjoying your Christmas countdown. Unfortunately it’s not all joy for some. I’ve met five lovely #queenagers in Noon groups and my immediate circle in the last week who have been made redundant. All of whom were doing a great job. It’s never nice to get whacked – it’s happened to the best of us, including me (see pic above) – but it is particularly horrid for it to happen just before Christmas. Inevitably it makes us feel terrible – being let go always feels like a massive rejection and can be a huge identity challenge too, particularly if you have been working somewhere for a long time. When it happened to me I didn’t know who I was without that title, the job, the comraderie… it had been my life for decades!

On top of those usual feelings of ‘ouch’, redundancy often hits women in midlife as part of what we call at Noon the Midlife Collision. That is it often coincides with other PinchPoints in midlife including caring for children (one of the women is a single mother in her 50s of primary school age kids) or for elderly parents (eldercare is a burden that is still mostly shouldered by women), divorce (this is the age of the Silver Splitter)  teenagers needing maximum attention either because of exams or anxiety (we’ve got an epidemic of mental health problems in Gen z) and then there is bereavement or our own health issues.

I get so many messages from women saying how hard it is to reinvent at this point, wanting help and support. Many are unconfident or anxious about trying something new. I suggested to one #queenager last week that she should just see her next step as an experiment – you can’t fail at an experiment, it’s just about giving it a try.

The good news is that three years on from being whacked I am loving my midlife reinvention; I have never been happier or professionally more fulfilled. But the way there was hard and for #queenagers trying to get re-hired there are all sorts of gendered-ageist obstacles in the recruitment process. So that is where the Noon Jobs Board comes in. Every month we send you a list of employers who are actively recruiting employees who are 50 plus. With our partners 55 Redefined we are trying to change ageist attitudes and it is starting to work. I particularly loved this quote from Diane Rysdale, Head of Human Resources at Hastings Direct who explained how they, as part of this initiative, have shifted their hiring processes. 

“We decided to target over-50s because we had a look at our contact centre age demographics, and no surprise, it was a high proportion of 30 and under – almost 65 to 70%. We felt we were missing those life skills, that understanding of how much a great conversation helps, the value it brings…we can show that having a better balance of age demographic in our contact centre is hugely valuable to our customers.”  

“What was most important in all of this is that we were not CV-led, so bias was removed from the process very early on. It’s very hard in normal processes to do that, because when you’re hiring in volume, you’ve got to be led by something tangible. This was an opportunity to say: “Let’s talk about the CV later, let’s talk about you.”” 

“We had a really diverse list of applicants. There was a painter and decorator, a salsa teacher, a swimming teacher; there was a huge variety. If we had had their CVs, I don’t know if they would have made it through the process, but as soon as we connected with them, they were looking for purpose… and they absolutely had all the values and behaviours we want to connect with our customers. It really opened up our minds how much we potentially lose in our traditional process. This is  a big change… but seeing this group come through and the quality, plus the fact that they are so motivated to be there has opened hearts and minds  for sure.”  

I love that quote and the shift that is going on out there around the value of older workers. Around 500,000 over 50s left work during the pandemic. Now 129,000 have gone back into harness. If you want to be one of them then do check out our Noon Jobs Board here.

And another company who is enthusiastic about hiring older workers is Nat West. They offer a comeback programme for people who have been away from work and want to return.A graduate programme for people of any age. They have family friendly policies which are flexible around family demands (good for Queenagers, we found they value flexibility 16 times more than status). Nat West also offer fair pay and multi-generational team mentoring. For more information about the Nat West scheme click HERE More information is on their inclusion charter click HERE

 They are currently focused on recruiting in Manchester. They have 31 open positions on our jobs board HERE

Good luck and do let us know how it going for you! Remember there are lots of other age-inclusive employers featured on the Noon Jobs Board.

All the best and chin up if this is you. Change is difficult, I know. But there are options out there. Believe me, I’ve been there and had to reinvent. You can too! There is also lots of content on noon.org.uk about how to start a new chapter in midlife, including our current cover story about rethinking retirement and our Transformation section which is all about how to go about a big change.

Eleanor

xx