Where are the older people in technology?
- Layla Foord
- May 9
- 2 min read
A reflection on the quiet exit of experience, and what it costs us.
In almost every job I’ve had over the last decade, I’ve been one of the only people my age.
That hasn’t always bothered me.
I’ve stayed curious.
Learned fast.
Led change.
But lately, I’ve started noticing something.
Older people in tech are quietly disappearing from meaningful roles.
Taking positions beneath their capability.
Taking significant pay cuts.
Losing confidence.
Leaving altogether.
Not because they couldn’t keep up.
But because the system stopped seeing them.
These are people who didn’t grow up with technology.
They grew up into it.
They invented this stuff.
They remember life before mobile phones.
Before home internet.
Before email and apps and tabs.
They recorded songs from the radio.
Learned to type on typewriters, then word processors.
Pressed 2 three times to get a C in a text message, before predictive text existed.
They wrote DOS commands.
Navigated Flash.
Bridged the shift from print to digital.
Built platforms, invented cloud models, uncovered new revenue streams.
They weren’t handed AI tools. They helped lay the groundwork that made them possible.
And now they’re being told to “stay relevant,” “upskill,” “pivot.”
As if they haven’t been doing that their whole careers.
Not everyone has been pushed out.
Not yet.
But I can see the pattern.
And it worries me.
I see the quiet erosion of confidence when a 45-year-old is passed over for someone with less experience, lower cost, and more visible enthusiasm.
I see strategy mistaken for slowness.
Depth mistaken for resistance.
Calm mistaken for disinterest.
This isn’t about entitlement.
It’s about waste.
We are sidelining the very people who have lived through more waves of transformation than any other working generation.
People with long-range thinking, cultural memory, and systems wisdom you can’t fast-track.
This isn’t a rallying cry for pity. It’s a call to notice.
Who’s no longer in the room?
Who used to lead, but now shrinks back?
Who’s still building, but being overlooked?
And what are they doing now?
They are doubting their worth.
Their confidence is eroding.
They are trying to find a new sense of purpose.
Just as their kids become self-sufficient.
Just as they finally have time for their careers.
But their careers don’t have time for them.
-Layla
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