The Upside of Aging: How Long Life Is Changing the World of Health, Work, Innovation, Policy and Purpose

Chapter 8 The Mature Workforce: Profiting from All Abilities

Jody Heymann

Dean, UCLA Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health; Founding Director, WORLD Policy Analysis Center

Companies can benefit from the expertise of older workers; fellow employees reap the advantages of mentorship, and enjoy better working conditions as employers improve training, workplace flexibility, and career opportunities across the life course.

Barbara Rosenkrantz was a brilliant Harvard professor, and I was extraordinarily fortunate to have her as one of my PhD thesis advisors. She brought an unmatched depth of knowledge about the history of public health, insights into decisions on how to address tuberculosis—based on her years of immersion in the field—and a highly honed ability to be both demanding of and patient with her doctoral students.

She was 69 years old when she served as my advisor. The next year, students weren’t so lucky—not because her abilities were any less sharp, her commitment less deep, or her inquiry less energetic—but because at that time Harvard still had a mandatory retirement age. At 70, Professor Rosenkrantz saw the options vaporize needlessly for her and her graduate students.

Many people value work for more than what they earn and, no matter what their age, continue to contribute to the community through unpaid work. Like Dr. Rosenkrantz, my grandfather, Sydney Heymann, was not ready to stop working at an arbitrarily designated age. He’d worked since his teen ...