I’m a CEO at 57 – this is how women should handle ageism at work

Caroline Hirons, 57, founder of SkinRocks, is the outspoken queen of skincare, dubbed “the most powerful voice in the British beauty industry”. Born in Liverpool, she trained as an aesthetician in Paris and went on to found her eponymous beauty blog in 2010, at the age of 40. In her latest column for The i Paper, Caroline shares her thoughts on ageism in the workplace, being a 57-year-old boss, and why she hires a certain kind of Gen Z. I would hire someone who is 50 over a Gen Z any day of the week. Especially if they’re a woman who has multitasked her whole adult life. There’s nothing that you can’t give a busy woman in our office that won’t get done well, and efficiently. It’s a cliche, but it’s a cliche for a reason. Legally, of course, someone doesn’t have to list their age on their application form, and you can’t ask them, and I’ve never hired anyone based on age – but when someone’s been in the working world for a while, and they just come across as someone who can get stuff done, you can really tell. Shorts Someone in their fifties is likely to be better at communicating, and they’ll pick up the phone with no qualms. This is obviously a sweeping generalisation but I do also find that older people are better at taking responsibility and going, “Yep, that’s on me, that’s my bad”, because there’s not the same fear of messing up. When you’ve lived a life, your fears are honed in on the really important things. Taking responsibility immediately is something that someone slightly older tends to do. If you call someone young into the office, they assume they’re going to be told off. We have to explain that we want to talk to them and help them with feedback. I feel like I have to parent some of them so that they don’t take offense and get upset. All I’m trying to do is make you better at your job. Your job is safe, but I do have to give you this feedback. It is my job. It’s natural that people are more sensitive to criticism and less confident when young. But Gen Z do seem to find negative feedback especially hard. I think we were forced to be tougher because the people that raised people my age just didn’t give a shit about our feelings that much. People think it’s a joke, but my generation really were kicked out of the house by 9.30am and your mum would tell you to come back for your tea, and that was it. You were gone all day. I don’t remember how we fed each other, we weren’t told to drink water, we were just out until eventually someone would go, “Caroline, your mum’s calling you”, and then you’d have to go home. As we grew up and got jobs, we knew we had to fend for ourselves and that our bosses weren’t going to really care about our feelings. In my early days of retail, if someone was taking a mental health day, people wouldn’t have even known what you meant. They’d have literally said, “Oh, are you mental?” I’m not in any way saying those were the good old days, that’s just how things were. It’s sometimes harder for older people in offices to be soft and caring towards younger people because they didn’t tend to have that themselves. We’ve also screwed the younger generation in the workplace with zero hours contracts. No one’s got a job for life anymore, so they can’t afford to leave home. If you can’t afford to leave home, you don’t need to have job security, you don’t have bills or a mortgage, so you’re less motivated to get ahead. A lot of young people still live at home for that reason, and that’s the fault of people my age and older. Having said all that, lots of people on our team are Gen Z, and we’ve lucked out with them. When we find good ones, we cling onto them. I find that the Gen Zs who work hardest and best in our team are proper grafters, but generally raised by hard-working Gen Xers. When they talk about their parents, I think, “God, yeah, your mum’s just like me”, mainly in their attitude to work, to being off sick, to being late. You can tell someone who’s had a similar upbringing to the way I raise my kids – say please and thank you, respect your elders, communicate well and have a good work ethic. So, there are plenty of grafter Gen Zs, and I’d keep everyone on my team – I absolutely love them. ‘One piece of advice I’d give people as they age in the workplace is that there’s certainly no room for letting yourself use your brain less,’ says Caroline But there is a certain work ethic in a woman who has raised children, who came out of the workplace and went back into it, who really don’t take it for granted, and goes for it at full pelt. And it’s outrageous that women have lost their jobs or cannot find work because they’re simply older. Age is meant to be a protected characteristic, but it’s not that easy to enforce. I’m 57, and I’m sure I would have experienced much more ageism if I’d been an employee at this point rather than an employer. When I had my kids and was in my last corporate jobs, I wasn’t dismissed but I also wasn’t seen as someone who was young and had energy. I’d be like, “Guys, I’m 40!” Nowadays, the ageism shows itself in other ways. I don’t work with stylists – and some people might laugh and say you can really tell – because as soon as as stylists see my age then they bring me clothes I wouldn’t be seen dead in, frankly. I say politely that I’m sure they’re excellent but they’re not for me. It’s immediately all elasticated pants, matching trouser sets and skirts. I don’t wear skirts, or dresses in general. When we were building the SkinRocks website, our developers would put age groups and the last age said “50 plus”. I just looked at them and said, “Are you serious? Are you telling me that me at 53, (that’s roughly what I was at the time) thinks exactly the same way as a 75-year-old? Over 50 does not mean dead!” If you can stay healthy, you can be around a very long time. Over 50 is just an insult. One piece of advice I’d give people as they age in the workplace is that there’s certainly no room for letting yourself use your brain less. You must keep on top of everything. You must keep up with the latest tech. You don’t need to know how to work it all, but you need to know what it is. If you’re a secretary and you don’t know the latest software, you’re going to come unstuck in an interview. If you’re a graphic designer and you don’t know the latest software, it’s an issue. But you see, I imagine mostly people are up to speed and they’re being rejected for jobs at an earlier stage by AI in the application process, which maybe weeds out anyone over a certain age. I certainly wouldn’t turn away someone with experience, and we don’t use AI when we’re hiring. I like us to be very hands on. It can be hard to know how to handle ageism in the workplace, and in life generally, because it can be very overwhelming. You just have to remember at all times that you’ve earned your place.