People try to put us down

It started about the time Dean Moriarty first arrived in New York. Described as "…simply a youth tremendously excited with life", the central character of Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel On the Road, represented what became known as the Beat Generation.

In the words of Kerouac, the Beats were "…mad to live, mad to talk, and the ones who never yawned". More than that, they were the ones who put youth culture on the map.

Youth culture spread from the USA like a series of firecrackers: a James Dean movie here, an Elvis Presley record there. Treated as a rebellion at first, the movement slowly gained credence until, eventually, society became obsessed with youth and youth became obsessed with itself. "Hope I die before I get old" sang a whole generation in the 1960s.

Things may have calmed down since those heady days, but the legacy lives on, particularly in hospitality where the virtues of youth still hold sway and a growing number of over-50s find it hard to remain employed. It's probably no coincidence that the senior managers who grew up listening to The Who now look at their ageing contemporaries and say "Why don't you just fade away?"

Unfortunately, a culture that worships youth can succeed only in situations where experience and knowledge play no part. In hospitality, that is rare.

The best operations exist where there is a good team spirit. And, as any sports manager will say, the best teams are those that blend youthful enthusiasm with the steadiness of experience. In other words, where there is a mixture of young and old.

There are many instances where this is proven - the best football, rugby and cricket teams, for example, or the boards of the most successful blue-chip companies. In hospitality, George Goring of London's Goring hotel is proud of his staffs' longevity, saying that their stability, coupled with a mix of ages, is one of the reasons why customers return year after year. There must be many other hotels and businesses similar to the Goring in this respect.

But there are also many more that are not, and older employees are being increasingly removed from the front line. According to the Government, more than one-third of the population in their 50s and 60s are not working. This is bad enough in human terms (who wants to feel washed up by the time they're 50?) but it's also costing the national economy an estimated £20b in lost productivity and taxes.

This should sound out a warning. When the Government becomes interested in a problem, as sure as pension books are pension books, legislation can only be a parliamentary session away.

If there is one thing hospitality can do without right now it's another "ism". We already have evidence that racism (Caterer, 29 October 1998) and sexism (see next week's issue) exist in the industry. Failure to tackle ageism, as the first two issues have proved, will lead directly to more legislative "bureaucratism".

At a time of such a serious skills shortage, it is ridiculous to ignore the potential of older employees. Surely it is time to answer "yes" to the Beatles' 1967 question "Will you still need me… when I'm 64?"

Forbes Mutch

Editor

Caterer & Hotelkeeper