I've worked at three different small (<10 people) startups, every time with most employees 18-26 and one older at 35-48, all three times in three different roles. Never did it come up. Never did it ever cross my mind, nor seem to be a problem, to me or anyone, that this person was older than the rest of us. We got along great.
Age is only a cultural issue if you make it one. As it turns out, when you evaluate people on less superficial things than age, skin color or gender, this simply doesn't come up.
I've talked about this before and I've heard crazy shit like "what if the person in question has to go back to wife&kids rather than go out for drinks - it's a cultural misfit" and honestly... what the fuck. Not going out, not participating in out-of-office activities, who cares? I avoid most parties (or only go to show up) because I intensely dislike them. That doesn't make me older than the rest of my team, and if someone thinks it's an issue they're probably someone I don't want to work with.
There's extremes (such as extremely antisocial people) you can't always accomodate, but that usually has nothing to do with age.
Age is only a cultural issue if you make it one. As it turns out, when you evaluate people on less superficial things than age, skin color or gender, this simply doesn't come up.
I've talked about this before and I've heard crazy shit like "what if the person in question has to go back to wife&kids rather than go out for drinks - it's a cultural misfit" and honestly... what the fuck. Not going out, not participating in out-of-office activities, who cares? I avoid most parties (or only go to show up) because I intensely dislike them. That doesn't make me older than the rest of my team, and if someone thinks it's an issue they're probably someone I don't want to work with.
There's extremes (such as extremely antisocial people) you can't always accomodate, but that usually has nothing to do with age.