Rob Rattenbury: Our changing demographics

Rob Rattenbury says times are changing. Photo / 123RF

Comment

Recently there has been an outpouring of angst and hurt from some fairly successful and powerful older guys bemoaning the fact that no one loves them anymore.

Now last time I looked I was happily male, pale and stale, cruising through my little life trying to cause as few ripples as possible.

I have mostly operated under the maxim "happy wife, happy life" from the early days of our marriage.

When I was younger and sillier than I am now, I tried rebelling and being assertive but gradually learned over some years that it was a waste of my time.

Time better spent just doing something else.

Now some of my demographic are very used to having their own way and have been all their lives.

They have succeeded in the business world, politics or whatever venture they have entered.

They have been highly ambitious and focussed, sometimes even with a certain amount of ability thrown in.

I stumbled across these people often in my working life, sometimes to my detriment due to my inability to genuflect to anyone and my healthy disdain for pomposity and incompetence in others.

Mind you, for balance I also worked for some wonderful old guys. Men who were natural managers and leaders.

The females I worked for were, almost without exception, better managers and leaders, easier to get along with, more understanding of staff, just better because they had to be so much better and brighter than the old boys to get their jobs in the first place.

At some stage in a young guy's life, he may look in the mirror, into his eyes to see if there is a fire of burning ambition there.

An ambition to reach high office, to lead the industry, to be a big deal.

I do not know if I did that but at some stage, I decided that it was just all too much faff.

This boy will lead a quiet, ordinary life of little or no ambition despite having a modest ability at some stuff.

It's worked out fine so far. I still have the family I started out with which in my world is the most important thing to me.

That's what these old guys miss, they are not that important despite what they may feel about themselves.

Times have changed guys.

I actually do not believe totally in the "male, pale and stale" thing. This is obviously self-evident.

I did not begin writing until retirement and I was offered this column at 67.

I believe it is all about attitude.

It is not about politics, gender or even race, just attitude.

The ability to never take oneself too seriously. The ability to not expect respect just because you happen to be old.

Try just being a fair, balanced and pleasant person. You may find you will also be a lot happier.

I have given some old guys are real bagging here. Remember though that most old guys really are not that bad, we can be set in our ways, raised in a different time.

We may get things wrong by today's standards. We may even have some wisdom after a lifetime of work.