The recent £150,000 settlement involving an experienced employee in a professional services firm has made headlines.

It shouldn’t be dismissed as an isolated incident. At Brave Starts, we have over 1,000 members who are largely midlife and later-career professionals. Stories like this are not uncommon. The language varies, but the pattern is familiar:

• Questions about appetite for training “at your age”
• Comments about pensions or “working towards retirement”
• Assumptions about energy, ambition or technology capability
• Subtle signals that it may be time to step back

This is rarely overt hostility - more often, it’s framed as pragmatism or benevolence such as not giving someone “too much" - not stretching them. Sometimes, it is overt "older people have had it so good for so long - I want to give this opportunity to someone my age who really needs it"

Sidelining based on age is still sidelining.

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The Commercial Risk Is Rising

Employment lawyers are increasingly active in this space. They see how widespread these patterns are and they know organisations may be exposed to significant payouts. The scent of liability is real and we've had approaches from several employment lawyers to come and talk to our members about their experiences.....

Financial settlement is only the visible cost but the deeper cost is disengagement, reputational damage, and the premature loss of experienced professionals who still have years of valuable contribution ahead of them.

With workforces ageing across the UK and Ireland, this is not a marginal issue. It is a strategic one.

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The Structural Problem: We Talk About Age Instead of Orientation

Most career systems implicitly assume everyone should be progression-oriented.

Promotion is treated as the only positive outcome. Stepping back is framed as decline. Stability is misread as stagnation - so when someone reaches midlife, managers often incorrectly fill in the blanks with their assumptions.

Our research at Brave Starts shows something useful which is reflective of all ages.

Professionals over 50 naturally distribute across four distinct work-orientation archetypes:

1. Advancement-Oriented

Still ambitious. Seeking stretch, growth, progression.

2. Stability-Oriented

Wanting to stay, perform strongly, and be valued without being pushed.

3. Recalibration-Oriented

Wanting to continue contributing — but reshape pace, scope or intensity.

4. Transition-Oriented

Thinking about what comes next and wanting a dignified, well-planned shift.

These are states, not fixed identities.
People move between them and crucially, they are not determined by age.

Our member data (N=388) demonstrates that all four orientations coexist within a real workforce populations

Contnue to the end to download our archetypes research and guide on how to manage career based conversations based on these personas - not age based assumptions.

Please Don’t Rush to a Workshop

When cases like this hit the headlines, many organisations respond reactively.

They commission a training session or roll out an awareness programme. Some may buy an age bias audit or toolkit. Age bias is rarely solved by a single workshop.

Age bias is rarely an awreness issue - it's more of a structural one. For example - we know with an ageing workforce the likelikhood of being in the same job for 50+ years is a non starter. We have lots of graduate and apprenticeship schemes - but where are the career changer or transitioner schemes? You see - this is structural and instead of jumping to a solution - lets jump towards approaches that capture data and make a difference.

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A Better Approach to career conversations

Instead of assuming, ask.

A simple, age-neutral question transforms the conversation:

“When you think about work right now, which of these feels closest to where you are?”

This:

• Avoids age entirely
• Legitimises different orientations
• Reduces defensiveness
• Creates psychological safety

Followed by:

• “What would support you best in this phase?”
• “What would make this sustainable?”
• “What would success look like over the next year?”

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Free Framework: Start Here

We are making our research-led framework available as a free resource:

Using Work-Orientation Archetypes to Support Inclusive Career Dialogue

Inside, you’ll find:

• The four archetypes explained
• The psychological research underpinning them
• Managerial implications
• Practical prompts for career conversations
• Brave Starts member data insights

If you are serious about improving retention, reducing legal exposure and future-proofing your workforce, this is a practical place to start.

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For Senior HR and Leadership Teams

If this case makes you uneasy, it should. For too long, this has been a marginal issue at best - and I've had too many apathetic conversations with HR leaders that have gone no where fast. The time for passivity is over. HR leaders are in the best position to lead their organisations workforce strategy. There will be winners and losers. The population is ageing and it does affect 100% of people. The winners will be those who step up and take the lead - rather than waiting for the legal push. The leaders will:

• Redesign career frameworks across the lifespan
• Equip managers to handle recalibration and transition intelligently
• Embed age-neutral dialogue into performance systems
• Treat longevity as a strategic asset

Brave Starts partners with organisations ready to take this seriously. We work with boards, HR leaders and executive teams to move beyond reactive training and build career systems that work at every stage of working life. If you are reviewing your leadership standards, progression frameworks or retention strategy, now is the moment to act deliberately not defensively.

Download the framework. Share it with your leadership team.  If you’re ready to go further, start a conversation with us.

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