Older workers are turning to Botox and plastic surgery to keep their jobs: ‘What a depressing thought’

“Am I going to have to start dyeing my hair just to get a job?”

Sam, a 44-year-old freelance communications professional, has had a challenging time looking for work in recent months despite her years of experience. She says she is considering selling her flat and retraining in another industry to find a more stable income.

And she has also contemplated dyeing her hair. Sam, whose name has been changed, has been naturally grey since she was in her early 20s. She dyed it at first but embraced her silver locks a decade ago.

Read more:

• Get rich and die trying: Typical Brit must save entire lifetime of earnings to become wealthy
• Is AI pushing jobless young graduates to the far right?
• DWP job advisers will soon be in GP surgeries and mental health services

“I wonder if people see that on a Zoom call and find it confronting. Are they judging me? Probably subconsciously, maybe they are. A part of me wanted to dye my hair as an experiment. If I suddenly had brown hair, would I start doing better? Surely not,” Sam says.

“I want to be clear: I’m not going to do that. If I dyed it, it would be a right pain. I’ve come too far to go back now. I really can’t believe the future of my employment hinges on whether I have brown hair. What a depressing thought. It makes me feel quite sad that anyone would feel the need to chemically alter their appearance.”

But older workers are increasingly considering changing their appearance to sustain employment, new research has found. 

More than two in five people (41%) aged 45 and over would consider dyeing their hair to look younger if it helped them get a job or promotion, according to polling from the Centre for Ageing Better and its campaign Age Without Limits.

One in five people in this age group said they would consider Botox or fillers (20%). 

“If people want to get treatments like Botox because it will make them feel better, I’ve no judgment about that. I think that’s a completely personal decision,” Sam says. “What worries me is that it can be so regressive.”

People aged 35 to 49 are 20% more likely to be employed than those aged 50 to 64, the latest labour market statistics showed. There are a multitude of contributing factors for this, including long-term sickness, caring responsibilities and the fact that older people may be more likely to afford to quit work. 

But the Centre for Ageing Better believes that “ageism” may have a role to play too.

Dr Carole Easton, its chief executive, says it is “dispiriting” but “understandable” that older people are considering “drastic steps” to “level the playing field in the workplace”. She claims “age and experience is so often viewed negatively and held against employees and job applicants”.

One in six people aged 45 and above said they had been on the receiving end of inappropriate comments about their age from fellow employees (16%), the polling revealed. Of these people, two in five (39%) said this has occurred on a frequent basis.

Rose-Marie, whose name has also been changed, recently left a job after receiving ageist comments. She claims: “I was monitored and singled-out on several occasions, told to style my hair in a different way because it ‘looked better’, told to ‘stand in the corner and look pretty’.

“The environment was unfavourable for older people, not just among colleagues but also at a management level. There was little done to educate people on a corporate level about ageism and supporting older workers.”

Just under one in six (15%) of workers aged 45 and above have doubted their own abilities or value to an employer as a result of comments related to age in the workplace.

Eaton says: “Many people assume that in this day and age we have the legislation and the HR policies that put an end to ageism in the workplace. But the data, and the experiences we hear from people, tell a different story.

“We’ve heard from jobseekers who are inexplicably passed over for hundreds of job applications despite extensive skills and experience and who say they can feel prospective employers go cold on them the moment they realise their age.”

Sam fears women may be particularly vulnerable to ageism in the workplace because of the impact of menopause and perimenopause. Government research has previously found that more than one in six (17%) workers who feel unsupported by their employer or colleagues around menopausal symptoms have considered leaving the workplace.

Women are also significantly more likely to be carers than men, with TUC research showing that women are seven times more likely to be out of work because of caring responsibilities. 

Those in their 30s are hardest hit, but there were more than 900,000 women in their 40s, 50s and 60s who were out of work due to caring responsibilities in 2023. By comparison, this affected fewer than 200,000 men.

But ageism in the workplace impacts men too. Paul, a senior marketing specialist from Surrey, says he applied for around 650 jobs in the last year alone and he believes age is counting against his applications.

He claims that in his early 50s, he was told in a third stage interview at a large and renowned technology company: “Paul, we are not looking for someone to come in and tell us to ‘fire up the fax machine’.”

Paul says the comment was “hurtful” and that he believes “older people are perceived as not being digitally savvy enough for the modern workplace”.

“But this isn’t true, and I have plenty examples of where my experience has enabled me to assess and then very successfully change the way companies execute their marketing and email campaigns,” he says. “I’ve also heard the ‘too much experience’ line far too often after job applications and interviews.”

It comes at a time of vulnerability for workers across age groups and industries, as the cost of living crisis and financial pressures have forced companies to make cuts. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a growing threat to jobs. 

Sam believes that this could be impacting her employment prospects, as businesses increasingly turn to AI instead of hiring communications professionals.

There are institutional and policy steps which employers and the government could take to ensure “safeguard flexible working and inclusive policies”, not only for older people but also those with health conditions, disabled people and other marginalised groups.

Age Without Limits is also calling on employees to take action within their workplaces – to challenge ageism, ensure that work-based events are inclusive, and engage with employees of all ages to break down intergenerational barriers. 

Eaton says: “The persistent and unfounded stereotypes around older workers are consigning too many people to the employment scrapheap with a third of their working lives still to go. 

“The reality is older workers are an asset and help an organisation to be more productive and innovative. We need an age-friendly employment revolution to ensure that every employer in the country recognises that reality.”

The Centre for Ageing Better has a nationwide programme for employers to show they recognise the importance and value of older workers. Employers can sign up to the Age-friendly Employer Pledge here.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

Reader-funded since 1991 – Big Issue brings you trustworthy journalism that drives real change.

Every day, our journalists dig deeper, speaking up for those society overlooks.

Could you help us keep doing this vital work?Support our journalism from £5 a month.