Anonymous wrote:
I'll be the lone voice of dissent here and say that this is a big deal in the workplace because of ageism.

OP, you should make sure to look as young and active as possible. Your coworker is trying to not get kicked out too early because of her age, and to achieve this, she's trying to muddy the waters about other people relatively close to her age range.

You don't need to correct her. All you need to do is express a youthful persona. Dye any greys/whites, take care of yourself, relate now you went skydiving on the weekend (kidding, but youthful activities), not espouse obviously aging traits, like not knowing how the new computer system works, etc...

Kind of ironic how dated this advice is!

Anonymous wrote:
I'll be the lone voice of dissent here and say that this is a big deal in the workplace because of ageism.

OP, you should make sure to look as young and active as possible. Your coworker is trying to not get kicked out too early because of her age, and to achieve this, she's trying to muddy the waters about other people relatively close to her age range.

You don't need to correct her. All you need to do is express a youthful persona. Dye any greys/whites, take care of yourself, relate now you went skydiving on the weekend (kidding, but youthful activities), not espouse obviously aging traits, like not knowing how the new computer system works, etc...

Is this just for women or do men have to do these things too?

I'll be the lone voice of dissent here and say that this is a big deal in the workplace because of ageism.

OP, you should make sure to look as young and active as possible. Your coworker is trying to not get kicked out too early because of her age, and to achieve this, she's trying to muddy the waters about other people relatively close to her age range.

You don't need to correct her. All you need to do is express a youthful persona. Dye any greys/whites, take care of yourself, relate now you went skydiving on the weekend (kidding, but youthful activities), not espouse obviously aging traits, like not knowing how the new computer system works, etc...

To be fair it’s somewhat relative. If the rest of op’s co-workers are all 40-43, op is 45 and the older co-worker is 50
then yes, this would be weird and a bit annoying. (Although not worth getting offended over)

If the majority of co-workers are in their 20s and 30s, op is 45 and older coworker is 50 then it’s completely normal for her to draw the comparison and op is being ridiculous.

LOL when I got married a woman at work told me that if I needed anyone to talk to about getting married at an advanced age, she would be there for me. She was 46 and I was 33. It wasn't a weird Boomer thing about being a spinster either, it was an attempt to claim me as her "going through the same things" work buddy.

She would make little comments all through my pregnancy about "us old moms" (she had her first at 48, I was 35) and honestly after the shock of the first conversation I couldn't take it too personally because it was so strange.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In conversations with others. "Oh, yeah- he's about the same age as me and Sarah."

"I love Sandra Bullock. She would have been in HS the same time as Sarah and me."

It's oddly annoying in a huge way.

Sandra Bullock is 59. Are you actually 59ish years old and getting worked up about this?!

+1. If you're both in your 50s, your coworker is totally reasonable and you are the problem.

Anonymous wrote:You're around the same age as my mom, OP, and I think this is crazy childish of you.

+1
I'm in your age group and am in a running group with women from 50-65 and think of us as all the same.
You are weird OP.

This is funny. I have a friend (who is the mom of one of my daughter's best friends) who is 7-8 years older (i'm not sure exactly how old she is) and she will say things like "well, you know, that's just how it was growing up in the 80s" which I have very little reference for since I was born at the end of the 80s and have no memories of being alive in the 80s but I'll just smile and nod and carry on. If she actually references a specific thing that I'm too young for, I'll remind her of my age and she'll always act surprised 'oh right! I forgot you are so young!" I don't expect she's doing it to annoy me or that she actually thinks we're the same age. Probably your co-worker isn't trying to annoy you either. She probably just thinks of you as about the same age because....you are.

How often does your co-worker reference her age (and yours)? If you say something to her, you will look petty. One of my co-workers (and a good friend) is 7 years older than me but I say (to her only and rarely) that we are about the same age. We have similar points of reference and our kids are close in age. We are both over 50 so maybe that is why it doesn’t matter. I don’t need to make people think I am younger (or better) than anyone else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In conversations with others. "Oh, yeah- he's about the same age as me and Sarah."

"I love Sandra Bullock. She would have been in HS the same time as Sarah and me."

It's oddly annoying in a huge way.

Sandra Bullock is 59. Are you actually 59ish years old and getting worked up about this?!

OP will have you know she’s 54, which is very different! She’s barely eligible to join AARP and has a whole year until she qualifies for a Verizon discount. Sandy is ancient in comparison!

Anonymous wrote:In conversations with others. "Oh, yeah- he's about the same age as me and Sarah."

"I love Sandra Bullock. She would have been in HS the same time as Sarah and me."

It's oddly annoying in a huge way.

In all likelihood, you probably look very similar in age as your coworker. That’s why, your coworker is getting your age confused.

You're around the same age as my mom, OP, and I think this is crazy childish of you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In conversations with others. "Oh, yeah- he's about the same age as me and Sarah."

"I love Sandra Bullock. She would have been in HS the same time as Sarah and me."

It's oddly annoying in a huge way.

Yeah, this is your issue. Once you’re old enough to drink, 5 years is close enough that you two are essentially the same age.

Sorry!

All this.

Anonymous wrote:In conversations with others. "Oh, yeah- he's about the same age as me and Sarah."

"I love Sandra Bullock. She would have been in HS the same time as Sarah and me."

It's oddly annoying in a huge way.

Sandra Bullock is 59. Are you actually 59ish years old and getting worked up about this?!

If you’re the same age as Sandra Bullock (or five years younger), you’re old enough that five years is nothing. Get over your insecurity.