"Debi helps me a lot, she even played me a rap song that I didn't know before."
Debi Proosh and Ohad Bar-Eli (Photo: Hadas Proosh)
In the series of sketches "Hitex" in the satire program "Great Land", one of the employees who has crossed the age of 40 tries to hide his real age.
He pretends to be younger for fear of losing his job.
Indeed, the common perception is that high-tech companies prefer to accept only young people into their ranks, because supposedly older workers are not technologically up-to-date.
But reality shows otherwise.
In recent years, more and more senior citizens, including those who are already of retirement age, work in high-tech companies and even star in key roles.
For their part, high-tech companies are also not afraid to hire workers after retirement age, and for them, age is not a factor in hiring.
"The issue of occupational diversity is very rooted in our company and five percent of our employees are senior citizens," says Ornit Brands, Vice President of Human Resources at Verifon, which provides innovative solutions in the field of electronic payment systems. "We do not care about age, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.
When we check resumes, the age of the candidate for the position does not interest us."
What do you think are the advantages that senior citizens bring with them?
"The senior citizens who come to us have a lot of experience. Not only work experience but also experience working with different people and companies. We employ employees of all ages - from 20 to 70 and older, and they all work together in teams. The young employees learn from the veteran employees how to conduct themselves in a team and how to work properly . All our veteran employees are energetic people with diverse interests. No matter how old you are, if you are a talented employee with professional experience, you will be able to integrate into our company."
One of the senior citizens working at Veriphon is Lawrence Fisher, 63 years old (married + 1), who has been with the company for four years full-time as a senior programmer and systems analyst: "Before I was accepted to Veriphon, I worked in various high-tech companies. Veriphon approached me and offered me to join the company and I immediately agreed because I had heard Good things about her."
"A third of our employees in the company are senior citizens."
Yaron Gilboa (Photo: Ilan Bashor)
Weren't you worried that you wouldn't be able to fit in with the young employees in the company?
"No, quite the opposite. Because I have a lot of experience, the young guys here consult me and I'm always happy to help them. When they encounter a problem, I sometimes manage to bring them solutions outside the box. I really connect with them despite the age gap between us - we eat We have lunch together and laugh. I have no problem receiving instructions from someone who is younger than me and who could be my son."
According to Lawrence, he plans to stay at the company for many years to come: "Verifon makes it possible to create the right balance between home and work, so I would be very happy to work at the company even in retirement. I really like the work and the company, so there is no reason for me to stay at home in retirement."
Debi Proosh also decided not to retire, and at the age of 62 she works full-time as a technical reporter at the Israeli cyber company Safebreach, which simulates cyber attacks.
Debbie (married, mother of three children and grandmother of five grandchildren) is an Israeli-Canadian who was the CEO of Lahit - a consulting company specializing in user experience design and UX.UI design, training and documentation, which she founded together with her husband in 1997.
In 2003 she sold the company and moved to Canada where she worked in the high-tech field as well as in the nuclear safety committee for the Canadian government.
When she returned to Israel in 2013, through a client of the Hit company, she got to know the Saifbrich company.
"I started at Speybrich as a freelancer for six years and was involved in providing recommendations to improve the user experience. From there I continued with writing content for the product and wrote many explanatory versions for the product itself. A year ago I received an offer from the company to join as a full-time employee and I was very happy to be part of the company and the community it has," says Debbie.
"As part of my role, I am responsible for writing the "manual script" for the company's products, so that the customer knows how to use the product. I work in the product team with 10 other employees, women and men, who are all of different ages - from twenty to sixty, with me being the oldest ".
I plan to stay with the company for many years to come.
Lawrence Fisher (Photo: Public Relations)
"I wrote a talkback, and I was accepted."
Eli Barnea (Photo: Torbogan PR)
What is it like to work with people younger than you?
Doesn't the age gap between you make cooperation difficult?
"Everyone cooperates and learns from each other in a respectful, creative and innovative way. This is part of the company's agenda. There are advantages to working with people of different ages - the young team members have insights and ideas that are very interesting to me and I really enjoy learning from them, and on the other hand, they also learn from me . I have gained a lot of experience and knowledge and it is very satisfying to share my knowledge. Sometimes I am like a mother figure to the young workers, and they give me a glimpse into the world of my children. Working with the young also allows me to keep up to date with new technologies such as GPT chat. Gain new knowledge For me, it's like being a child in a playground. Despite my age, I don't feel at retirement age. I really enjoy working and work keeps me active and in a good and vital mood."
The youngest employee in Debi's team is Ohad Bar-Eli, 23 years old, who works as a product manager at Saifbreach: "Debi and I work together on how to describe the product to customers. I really enjoy working with Debi. She has a lot of experience and is more thorough and thoughtful than other employees Debbie helps me a lot. She talks to me at eye level and I also consult her about issues not only related to work. She even played me a rap song that I didn't know before. I think that senior citizens bring with them a lot of experience and a different point of view."
Racheli Baruch Haik, VP of Human Resources at Seipbrich, adds: "5 percent of the employees in our company are senior citizens.
We are in favor of occupational diversity and when we recruit employees we examine their passion for work, whether they are energetic, ready to work in a dynamic environment and whether they fit us culturally.
Debbie is like that and we are very proud of her that she works for us at Shipbrich.
Her rich experience and great energy greatly contribute to our company.
This concept that high-tech life ends at the age of 40 is not true. Senior citizens have many advantages such as job stability, experience and loyalty to the workplace.
The combination between older and younger workers contributes to better productivity and output."
Yaron Gilboa, CEO of Turbogen, which develops a multi-fuel micro-turbine for local electricity production, also agrees about the benefits of integrating senior citizens at work: "A third of our employees in the company are senior citizens.
There are not many people with vast experience in the energy field, and veteran employees who come with such experience are an asset to us.
In high-tech companies there is a huge turnover of young employees, while older employees are more stable.
The senior citizens serve as mentors to the young employees, and add a great deal to the cohesive atmosphere in the company.
The oldest employee at Turbojan is 84 years old, an aeronautical engineer who immigrated from Russia, and has vast knowledge.
The young guys bring the technological mastery and the older employees bring the practice and together a winning combination is created.
Age is not a barrier, but a great advantage."
One of the oldest employees at Turbogen is Eli Barnea, 75 years old (married, father of three children and grandfather of 13 grandchildren), who works part-time as an electrical and automation engineer: "After I graduated from the Technion, I was involved in the development of control and electrical systems. I had an independent business and I provided services to various institutions. I retired at the age of 67, but I continued to work as an external consultant on various projects. I started working at Torbogen 10 months ago following an article published about the company and the fact that it combines older and younger employees. Today, the younger generation is more inclined towards the cyber fields and in my eyes this is very It is important to take advantage of the knowledge that older people have in the field of electricity. I wrote a talkback in an article that I really liked the idea of Turbogen and added that I was available to work in the field. The technology manager at Turbogen came across my response, invited me for an interview and I was accepted to work for the company."
How does it feel to work in the company?
"I really enjoy the work, meeting people, imparting my accumulated knowledge in the field. I connect very much with the young employees and their joy of life. In my view, in old age, you have to find the combination between slowing down the pace of work and continuing to produce. Working part-time is ideal for me because it allows me Both to work and to find time for leisure and family. There are many elderly people who are at the peak of their abilities and these abilities should be utilized and integrated into high-tech companies."
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