• The federal Dept of Employment and Workplace Relations have advisers visiting employers to highlight the need for retention and retraining of older workers and Centrelink has the Welfare to Work initiative to support Over 55s.
  
  
• The State Government in Qld has the Experience Pays strategy to highlight mature age skills and encourage older workers to retrain. You can secure a mature age apprenticeship through them. They also have Skilling Solutions Qld that enable people to discover what prior learning skills can be recognised if you want to retrain or take a course to upgrade. You need to know the whole picture so you can make informed choices and this is not happening at the moment.
  
  
• I believe quite strongly that we need to think as the young ones do and look at a new career in our fifties and sixties and not just focus on benefits and pensions. It is not productive for you or the country to spend 40 years in retirement without a steady income.
  
  
• We also need employers to think mature age policy. Involve your workers in planning for their future roles in your workplace and think outside of the box. I did not feel valued in my previous roles at Centrelink even though I was given National and State Awards. Micro management is the order of the day there and the stress is unimaginable. My anxiety is a product of that part of my life.
  
  
• Feedback to this site also outlines discrimination by co-workers (often in a humorous sense) in their workplace, bosses who fear the skills of the older workers and frustration in not being listened to. You are asked to do the most menial tasks even though you have decades of people skills and you are not treated with respect.
  
  
• Anyone over 50 in the workplace should be in a mentor role and not treated as a candidate for the old aged home. The employer should be highlighting their value to their workplace and recognising that value by allowing them freedom of choice on what hours they want to work. The younger ones will understand in time that this is the privilege of growing older and their turn will come. Advocate now for a Mature Age policy in your workplace.
  
  
• Aged care and health requirements will be covered in future months but we can not all go into aged care because there are too many of us so best we start negotiating with our kids to swap roles. We go to the back of the house and they move (with their new family) into the front. This will help them by having a home and not renting and they can keep an eye on us.
  
  
• It is time we embraced Eastern culture by respecting and involving senior family members in our daily lives.
  
  
• We will also need to participate in some way to stay healthy so don’t sit back and retire or you will not be around too long to enjoy this wonderful world we live in.

Cheers

Brian Murphy

Editor/ Life Coach/Employment Counsellor/Educator

bvmurphy@bigpond.net.au


Let's have a bonza time!!!! And in the spirit of the Baby boomers remain creative, innovative and positive at all times and make growing older fun!