BERLIN (Reuters) - Too slow, inflexible, forgetful, always off sick. Those are some attitudes about older workers that carmaker Mercedes-Benz is trying to dispel as Germany grapples with the challenges of an aging society.
The luxury brand owned by Germany’s Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE) is waging a company-wide campaign to combat those mistaken impressions. “We wanted a paradigm shift in attitudes,” said Sylvia Huette-Ritterbusch, a Mercedes personnel expert whose job is to decide what skills the firm will need in future.
One initiative Daimler has developed is an exhibition to challenge stereotypes about aging. It has already been visited by 80,000 people, including 2,500 of its factory managers and has now been brought to Berlin and opened to the public.
Visitors are asked to choose between the “young” or “old” door to enter the exhibition. Many retired visitors, who obviously feel young at heart, come in through the “young” door.
Once inside, you can take tests to measure memory, balance, ability to work in a team, the tightness of your grip, how high you can jump and how easily you can relax.
It turns out that this correspondent, real age 45, has a biological age of 36, but 119 years of life experience.
The initiative has been championed by Mercedes production head Markus Schaefer, who says: “Many prejudices about aging are long out-of-date. Every age has potential... age diversity means diversity of experience, perspectives and new ideas.”
The average age of Daimler’s 136,000 employees in Germany is 44.7 years.
Rival carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE) expects workers aged over 50 to make up more than
