Lucy standing is the founder of Brave Starts and lead author of an important new book entitled Age Against The Machine. In conversation here with Rob Feltham, Lucy highlights the need for the world of work to wake up to the fundamental demographic and economic shift caused by people living longer whilst birth rates fall. The notion of ‘retirement’ is an increasingly unhelpful lens through which to view later life. And older workers face serious and ingrained age discrimination in the job market. Employers and recruiters need to recognise the huge business opportunity represented by an underutilised older workforce. At the same time older workers themselves need to become more skilled in navigating the employment/volunteering landscape in order to continue purposeful activity into later life. Flexibility and realism are key, both for employers and for older workers. Whilst the current employment landscape can be characterised as ageist, Lucy sees signs of hope and sets out an agenda for positive change.

Lucy Standing is a Chartered psychologist specialising in midlife career development. She leads Brave Starts CIC which supports between 200-300 people a year typically between the ages of 45-65 to consider what roles they may want (or need) to do next. Brave Starts recently won the International Longevity Centre (ILC) community award for their work helping hundreds of people. Lucy has been called to British Parliament to give evidence for the select committee inquiry into older workers and has provided research, articles and insight to the OECD. She’s been interviewed and written about by the BBC, the FT, Telegraph, Times, Guardian and Forbes. Prior to her work with Brave Starts, for nearly 10 years, she was Vice Chair of the Association for Business Psychology: a professional body helping certify and raise standards of the business psychology profession for which she’s also been awarded Honorary Membership. The HR field has also recognised her as one of the top ’influential thinkers’.

Reference: Standing, L., Hyde, M., & Evans M. (2026). Age against the machine: New rules for working in an ageist world. De Gruyter.

Rob Feltham is Podcast Editor of The ABP.