At the workplace, though, the way we perceive age is more complicated
than adding up the number of birthdays we’ve celebrated. At work, if we
think about how old we are, we consider our energy level (“By 2 p.m., I’m
beat”); where we are on our career trajectory (“I feel like I’m just getting
going, because I have so much to learn”); or the number of years we’ve
been with our employers (“Feel free to ask me for advice, because I’ve
been around this block a few times”). As a result, people can be “young”
in some ways and “old” in others.