Although women lead healthier, longer lives, the cruel perception that they reach their sell-by date and become "old" sooner than men is widespread in the workplace, research shows. A survey of more than 2,600 managers and personnel professionals showed that age discrimination is not only rife in the workplace, but is shot through with inconsistencies. Six in ten managers reported being a victim of age discrimination - usually because they were turned down for a job for being too old (25 per cent) or too young (23 per cent). Yet more than a fifth (22 per cent) admitted that they used age as a recruitment criterion. 

Although the survey found widespread agreement that older workers were better than younger colleagues when it came to reliability, commitment, loyalty and customer service, these qualities were not necessarily considered to be deserving of advancement. More than half of respondents (63 per cent) believed that workers between 30 and 39 had the best promotion prospects, with only 2 per cent citing 50-year-olds or above. Dianah Worman, of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development which, with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), commissioned the survey, said that there was anecdotal evidence that people were considered old at different ages in different sectors. 

"We heard of one man working in IT who said he was considered too old by the age of 28," she said. There was no evidence to suggest that older workers were less valuable to companies than younger workers, in fact the opposite was often true because older workers often brought experience, she added. Petra Cook, of the CMI, said that individual perceptions also suggested that employees are not in touch with reality about their futures. 

"Eighty per cent reported that they expect to retire by the age of 65, despite believing that the age of retirement for the 'average person' in ten years' time will be 66 or older," she said. The findings also suggested that the Government's ideas on age in the workforce may also be out of step with reality. Proposed new rules designed to prevent age discrimination will ban forced retirement before the age of 65. But the survey found that a third of companies have no mandatory retirement age and a further 10 per cent intend to abolish forced retirement within two years. 

"The evidence suggests that the current proposal to set a default retirement age of 65 is a useless bureaucratic barrier, which needs to be either finessed or scrapped," Ms Worman said. " As the research shows, the Government would do far better to focus their attention on extending flexible working arrangements." Perhaps the best news in the survey is that, as the population ages, our perceptions of age are becoming more generous: we are now seen as younger for longer. 

Ten years ago 48 was considered old for a woman at work, while for men the age was 51. Not only have these ages increased, to 55 and 57 respectively but the gap between women and men is closing. During the summer, the Government announced draft regulations to outlaw job advertisements seeking "young" or "newly qualified" workers. The Department of Trade and Industry proposals will make it illegal for employers to specify age when recruiting, promoting or training staff. The Government is currently reviewing responses to the proposed regulations.