Patti Temple Rocks is Far From Done

For Patti Temple Rocks, the word “invisible” used to imply a superpower from a Marvel movie. But after four decades as a high-level executive in the competitive fields of PR and advertising, she learned that in the professional world, invisibility is a quiet, career-stifling symptom of ageism.

Rocks calls ageism “the last acceptable form of bias.” Today, she is on a mission to ensure it is seen, named, and dismantled, proving that a wealth of experience is an asset, not a reason to be sidelined.

The journey into advocacy didn’t start with Rocks’ own career, but with the observation of a mentor. She watched a brilliant, high-achieving “Energizer Bunny,” who balanced a global career with a busy family—suddenly find herself  excluded from important decisions and meetings. When Rocks asked the CEO why her mentor was being marginalized, his response was a gut-punch: “Maybe she’s tired.”

“I just knew it was a false narrative,” Rocks recalls. “She was anything but tired. She was traveling the world, helping lead the company, and raising a family. But what I didn’t fully understand then was that ‘tired’ was a euphemism for an ageist narrative.”

Years later, that same narrative eventually came for Rocks. Despite delivering high results and receiving top ratings, she was offered a new role that felt like a “sidestep” rather than a step forward. When she challenged the move, her boss asked the question that would spark a movement: “How much longer do you want to work anyway?”

While not an avid poster to LinkedIn, Rocks expressed her frustration on the networking platform. She wrote about the “abyss of assumptions” that employers make about older workers and ended with the defiant hashtag: #ImNotDone. The post exploded, garnering over 10,000 likes and thousands of comments from people sharing their own versions of being marginalized.

That viral moment transformed into her new chapter as an author and speaker. Rocks has since published two editions of her book that focus on how ageism impacts the workplace, the latest titled I’m Still Not Done. 

In her research, she identified “gendered ageism” as a unique hurdle for women. This impediment is often exacerbated by lookism, the pressure to dye hair or hide one’s age to remain relevant, as well as the professional “catch-up” many women play after taking time off to raise families.

“The worst time of your career shouldn’t be the end of your career,” she says. “But for a lot of people, it is because they start to question themselves and feel invisible.”

As a business-minded pragmatist looking for solutions, Rocks isn’t just highlighting the problem. She understands that leadership often worries about high salaries and succession planning. Her advocacy focuses on finding the “win-win,” which entails honest career development conversations that don’t stop once an employee hits 50.

She suggests companies think differently about veteran talent. For example, instead of sending a young “high-potential” employee on a disruptive, expensive international assignment, why not send an “empty nester” with decades of cultural knowledge to Dubai or Shanghai to teach and train? “It’s just smart business,” she notes.

Now a snowbird who splits her time between Chicago and Florida, Rocks is living the flexibility she advocates for. While she has no desire to return to a traditional 9-to-5 schedule, she is far from retired. She currently serves on a board and continues to speak to business leaders about building cross-generational teams.

“I’ve succeeded if somebody says, ‘I didn’t fully understand that ageism is a problem, and now I see it,'” Rocks says. “If people start making decisions differently because they’re thinking about it, that’s a huge win.”

Listen to an episode of the podcast I’m Not Fired from our partner Melinda Malecki and James Abruzzo. In this episode, “I’m Neither Done Nor Fired!” Patti Temple Rocks joins the hosts as they delve into ageism in the workplace.