Study confirms experience beats youthful enthusiasm
- Reference: 1770467413
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/07/boomers_vs_zoomers_workplace/
- Source link:
Annie Coleman, founder of consultancy RealiseLongevity, analyzed the data and highlighted a 2025 study finding peak performance occurs between the ages of 55-60.
Survey: Tech workers are terrified they will be sacked for being too old [1]READ MORE
Writing in the [2]Stanford Center on Longevity blog , she cited [3]research examining 16 cognitive markers that confirm that although processing speed declines after early adulthood, other dimensions improve, and overall cognition peaks near retirement age.
Studies from the past 15 years show that some qualities like vigilance may worsen with age alongside processing speed, but others improve, including the ability to avoid distractions and accumulated knowledge.
These factors matter more as AI starts to eliminate [4]jobs for grads and entry-level candidates , increasing the value of experienced workers who can mentor other employees.
[5]
A 2022 [6]meta-analysis concluded that professional teams tend to function better when they have company veterans among them, as did Bank of America's [7]findings [PDF] two years later.
[8]Why do younger coders struggle to break through the FOSS graybeard barrier?
[9]Your CV is not fit for the 21st century – time to get it up to scratch
[10]Bad news, older tech workers: Job advert language works against you
[11]Just 22% of techies in UK aged 50 or older, says Chartered Institute for IT
Likewise, a Boston Consulting Group [12]study in 2022 showed age-diverse teams outperformed homogeneous ones, with the best results coming when older workers' judgment combined with younger employees' digital skills.
So, in a working world that seemingly values youthful forward thinkers over experience – illustrated by the various [13]age [14]discrimination [15]lawsuits [16]across the [17]tech [18]industry – the current data shows organizations should be doing everything they can to keep their older staffers.
[19]
"In meeting their responsibility for long-term risk and growth, companies should begin with clarity. Map the age profile of the workforce by role and seniority," Coleman wrote. "Identify where people in their fifties and early sixties are exiting, and whether those exits reflect performance or design. Treat age as a strategic variable in the same way firms now treat gender, skills, or succession risk.
"Build roles and career paths that assume longer working lives. Invest in mid- and late-career reskilling, not as remediation but as renewal. Structure intergenerational teams deliberately, so experience and speed compound rather than collide. Align product, service, and brand strategy with the realities of an aging, wealthier customer base.
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"None of this is about altruism. It is about reclaiming value currently being left on the table." ®
Get our [21]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2017/10/19/tech_workers_terrified_theyll_age_out/
[2] https://longevity.stanford.edu/why-more-companies-are-recognizing-the-benefits-of-keeping-older-employees/
[3] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289625000649
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/ai_hurts_recent_college_grads_jobs/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aYdvsAAQanmuuJtwtrKTjwAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://academic.oup.com/workar/article/8/2/208/6574297?login=false
[7] https://business.bofa.com/content/dam/flagship/workplace-benefits/silver-economy/better-with-age.pdf
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/14/youngsters_in_foss/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/11/feature_tech_cv_updates/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/ageist_job_ads/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/01/just_one_in_five_techies/
[12] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/leveraging-power-of-cross-generational-teams
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/21/ibm_age_discrimination/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/04/ibm_canada_cant_duck_systematic/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/ibm_and_kyndryl_again_sued/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/27/hp_age_discrimination/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/21/aws_sued_for_alleged_discrimination/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2019/07/22/google_settles_discrimination/
[19] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYdvsAAQanmuuJtwtrKTjwAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[20] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYdvsAAQanmuuJtwtrKTjwAAAYw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
No s**t
People with experience are better than people without. F**k me sideways.
Re: No s**t
F**k me sideways.
You have experience with that ? You must be old and nearing retirement.
:-P
> a working world that seemingly values youthful forward thinkers over experience
No. Nobody gives a crap about forward thinking, but old workers have a lifetime of salary increases behind them. The working world values low wages over experience.
I already had this exact same snippet in my paste buffer, ready to make this point.
I can vouch for that. And especially low wages from offshoring older people's jobs, to those with a little domain experience, but zero knowledge of the history of why stuff is as it is.
See: Most FTSE100 businesses that still have any remnants of internal IT capability.
Experience includes institutional knowledge
In industries were everything is completely and properly documented, there is no reason why a younger employee could not match, or exceed, the productivity of a senior employee.
At least that's the theory. In over 40 years of contracting and working at Fortune 500 companies, I never saw it happen.
I have never worked at a company where everything was documented either completely or properly. Even companies which had exceptionally good documentation (and they do exist) were lucky if the documentation covered 80% of their processes. And if they did, then younger employees still had to absorb literally thousands of pages of process in addition to technical knowledge.
In companies without exceptional documentation, which was the norm, knowledge was usually gained only through experience. That only happened when the employee encountered a case that wasn't covered by the documentation, and discovered the process. And the more undocumented processes there were, the longer it would take to find all the cases. By the time they finally did learn them, they had become the senior employees themselves.
That's why it's a running joke in most corporations that management will say things like " as you all know ", and all the employees laugh or roll their eyes.
I've described the process at many of the companies I worked at as being " lore based development ", only to have management angrily tell me that was nonsense, their processes were fully documented. When I ask them to show me, this usually devolves into an hour of searching, usually terminating in " that's funny, I was sure it was in the wiki ", " wait, that's not right, that changed four years ago ", or it will just say something like " ensure DB is set up properly with correct permissions " with no explanation of what proper or correct means, or how to do it.
The problem many companies have is that senior employees don't know how much they know, and management assumes that knowledge is easily reproducible. It's not.
Re: Experience includes institutional knowledge
"....were everything is completely and properly documented, there is no reason why a younger employee could not match, or exceed, the productivity of a senior employee."
I don't think that can be entirely right. A totally new and totally inexperienced employee is never going to have the productivity potential of an experienced one, but with access to the complete documentation , an inexperienced employee can very probably become as productive as an experienced one much more quickly, and can then probably overtake the experienced employee due to a younger, more active brain, not already stuck in a rut, and having a new, fresh approach to the tasks in hand.
However, I don't think the ability to exceed the productivity of a very experienced employee is guaranteed, and most younger employees are not likely to become highly productive until they have become the experienced employee.
Documentation is also massively helped by the older experienced employees being willing to take the time and trouble to help show the inexperienced how the job is done - it seems to me that there are a significant number of older experienced people who are unwilling to help the younger inexperienced ones (and before anyone starts; I am one of the oldies :)).
Re: Experience includes institutional knowledge
The only thing I'd have to change to write that exact post is "In over 35 years of writing bespoke software..." One of the first things I'll ask is for any relevant procedures. Only once has the result anything but a blank look. And that's with more than a couple of accountancies/bookeepers over the years. By the time scope/spec is finished, they have procedures :)
> "ensure DB is set up properly with correct permissions"
Hey! Have you been reading my HowTos?
Is it really "decades after graduation" or is it "decades later regardless"?
experience ...
I think it was age and cunning, for the correct quote... (Fausto Coppi)
Well, I've never read a report like that before but it all seems wonderfully exciting. Go ahead, full speed.
But if it all goes wrong then none of it is my fault.