'I was flying high in the corporate world - then I turned fifty'

Metro

02-05-2025

Sally Wilse was an executive in a global corporation, leading teams and holding her own in the boardroom. She helped the company grow into a successful multinational with 50 offices across the world, and was certainly a force to be reckoned with.
But then, as Sally entered her fifties and the menopausal hot flashes and sweats descended, her career took an unexpected turn.
'I absolutely adored my job. I launched some fantastic careers with young people, but when I started my menopause, I had no idea what was going on with me,' Sally tells Metro.
'I was having hot flushes in the boardroom and looking back, I can imagine there might have been a lot of scepticism around the things I was saying because my face was flushing.'
Sally, now 63, had been working at home in Canterbury when she was asked to prepare an internal presentation about her recent business wins. Smartly dressed, she came into the office excited to see her team and share her achievements, only to learn her day would go very differently.
Instead of heading to the boardroom, a 40-year-old male colleague took her into an office and told her they wouldn't be talking about her successes after all.
'My heart was racing,' remembers Sally. 'He told me that it would be my last day with the company and that he would take my job. I asked: 'What are you talking about? I've been here for ten years. I'm doing so well. On what grounds?' And he replied: 'We just feel you don't fit anymore.'
'I was beside myself. I had pride, so I held back the tears until I got on the train home.'
Sally decided to accept her contractual package and try to move on. 'I felt terrible, and for some reason, ashamed. My whole life was turned upside down because I wasn't going to work the next day,' she explains. 'The stigma around that and the fact that it felt like it was handled so poorly affected my mental health.'
Sally spoke to a lawyer who advised against an ageism case because 'there would be no public appetite', and with her confidence broken, she backed down.
Being told someone over 50 isn't 'the right fit' is a familiar line trotted out in corporate Britain, according to recent research which has found that a 'worryingly high' proportion of the country believes ageist myths around older workers' competency and value.
An Age Without Limits campaign survey revealed that assumptions around older workers' ability persist, with many of those in the 50-plus bracket feeling patronised, ignored and dismissed. It found that one in four people believe it does not make business sense to employ someone over 50 because they will be slow and unable to adapt. Meanwhile, over 20% think it is a waste of resources to give on-the-job training to someone 50-plus, according to the survey commissioned by national charity the Centre for Ageing Better.
'The proportion of people who fail to see the value and benefits of employing people in their 50s and 60s is worryingly high, but sadly also not surprising,' Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, tells Metro. 'It is so dispiriting that these attitudes persist when older workers have such potential to tackle skills shortages, help businesses thrive and grow our national economy.
'It is also concerning that the prevalence of ageist attitudes is higher among people with the highest educational qualifications, who are most likely to make decisions around hiring, promoting and developing workers who are in their 50s and 60s. Little wonder that older workers are less likely to receive in-work training, are more likely to be made redundant and experience greater difficulties finding work.'
Ralph Fergusson-Kelly sent out around 250 applications and went to countless first and second interviews after his job was made redundant at the age of 57. Ralph had been general manager of an engineering business in Yorkshire on a salary just shy of six figures. He had an MBA, nearly 40 years of experience working his way up the ranks and a packed CV when the division he'd been working for shut down.
Having planned on working until his mid-sixties, Ralph embarked on a job hunt.
'I knew I wouldn't walk into one, but I felt confident. My company did offer me a job in the existing company, but in a different division, at a level very similar to the one I joined 15 years previously. So it was a sort of non-offer offer with a pay cut of 40%,' he tells Metro.
However, Ralph, from Monmouth, remained open-minded about taking a role further down the ladder and was willing to relocate for the right role, but as the months – and then years – went by, he had no luck.
Soon, there were glaring gaps and no dates on his CV, while one recruiter even told him he was too old for the job when they met face to face.
'He said: 'I know they're looking for someone younger.' I asked him if he was allowed to say that. But what can you do about it? It was demoralising,' remembers Ralph. 'It feels like age discrimination legislation is only of value for people who are applying for another job in the same organisation, so you know the other people who are applying.
'It was letter after letter, application after application. After a few months, I started to feel quite down about it, and I couldn't enjoy my spare time. I spent three years looking – you get tremendous highs and lows, often very close to one another.
'I'd get a second interview for a job, having ticked every box on the advert, and I would think I had got it, then I'd go for the interview and have to chase them to get a reply, which would be: 'Another candidate more closely matched our client's requirements'. After that, you can't help but feel down and dispirited.
'It was starting to get to me,' adds Ralph. 'It's all you can think about: Can I face another trawl online through the advertisements? You can't concentrate on anything else.'
After three fruitless years, Ralph gave up and took early retirement. Now at 67, he is happily enjoying not working, focusing instead on motorbiking, the odd holiday and acting as a 'house husband' while his wife works – but he says many of his friends from university were 'thrown on the scrap heap' before they were ready.
'It was a frustrating experience and it was only after drawing the line under the job search that I realised the weight I was carrying around,' he admits. 'But I've dumped that now and can get on with the rest of my life. It was quite a relief not to be looking for jobs. Although my retirement finances were impacted by being laid off, I had enough savings that I could eke out. I'm far luckier than many people.'
Sally, meanwhile, is grateful for her humiliating and unceremonious rejection from a job she'd loved, because without that experience, she wouldn't have gone on to set up a company that supports older people in the workplace.
After spotting an article about an American company called 'Seniors Helping Seniors', she set up a franchise in the UK in 2011 and now recruits workers to provide in-home care to keep old people independent and in their homes. The average age of her carers is 59, but they hire younger support workers as well as one who is 80. The programme is popular with former police officers, firefighters and business owners, among others, says Sally.
'The idea is that a client will relate well to a carer of similar age, because they've got a lot in common and plenty to talk about,' she explains. 'My husband and I started to hire older people as carers to run the domiciliary care company in Canterbury, and then we rolled that out as a franchise in the UK, and we've now got ten offices, employing people who are at the end of their careers and are looking for local jobs.' More Trending
Sally recently met with a potential franchise partner who had taken early retirement from a hugely successful corporate position.
'I told him about my experience and he said: 'Why do you think I'm here?' He saw the writing on the wall in his role and noticed how he was he was told 'the ideal person would have been younger than you' when promoted, so he negotiated his exit before he was pushed out. He has fifteen years left of management in him and is now looking forward to using his skills to do something good.
'I never saw what was on the cards when I was made redundant at 50, but how I can relate to other people as a result now is fantastic,' Sally adds. 'So I'm very grateful it happened to me because I am so proud of what I am doing now.
'Everybody wants to be purposeful, and older people can use their experience to help others. Especially as they bring life experience to the table and a work ethic that is second to none.'