Age is one of those things I absolutely hate talking about at work.
As we were wrapping up a meeting this morning the woman we were talking to asked us our age. I sort of froze as the question came out of nowhere and looked around the room. A colleague answered that we were ‘in our twenties’. The woman than asked, “late 20’s?” To which he replied… some of us… Next thing I know this woman’s voice became high pitched, and she said “oh my God” and walked away sounding like she was crying.
This is honestly one situation I have never had to deal with. The individual we were working with went out of the room and came back a few minutes later saying everything was okay.
This is why I am not a fan of discussing age at work. It becomes a very sensitive topic when you are many years younger than the indivuals you may be evaluating or providing recommendations. A large amount of the time people correlate experiance with worth and value. Those things are not always correlated as well as people think they are. You can have a very old and experienced individual who just plain sucks, and a rather young but smart individual who can provide valid opinions and value.
Age should not be a topic discussed at work…