**Kerry Dennis was thriving.** At 55, she managed a 200-person team at Fidelity Investments. Then the emails started taking an hour to write.
"There’s nothing wrong," she told herself. Until the day her mind went blank during a campaign review with her boss, and she broke down in tears.
*"I'm sorry. My memory is not working."*
That confession changed everything. Dennis went on short-term disability and received a diagnosis that shocked her: **mild cognitive impairment**, a condition that can lead to dementia. Despite a family history of Alzheimer's—her mother, uncle, and grandmother had all battled the disease—she'd pushed those fears aside and worked for four more years after symptoms first appeared.
She seemed too young. *We all think we're too young.*
The Myth of "Later"
Here's what most of us get wrong: **cognitive decline isn't just for the elderly.**
Many people assume dementia strikes only the oldest of the old, that memory problems don't "count" until your 70s or 80s. But age-related diseases are already reshaping our workplaces, says Katie Evans of the Alzheimer's Association.
The numbers tell the story:
- **62%** of older adults now work full-time (up from 47% in 1987)
- An aging workforce means more people navigating careers alongside memory lapses
- Many are in their **50s**—decades away from traditional retirement
Yet this reality remains largely invisible. A joint study by the Alzheimer's Association and Bank of America found that **half of workers with dementia hide their condition from their employers**. The fear is crushing: supporting families, too young for Social Security and Medicare, terrified of losing everything.
The Choice to Stay
The story doesn't always end with a diagnosis and departure.
**Jean Moore**, a clinical researcher, began struggling to recall words in her late 50s. Stress, she thought. Medical leave confirmed otherwise: mild cognitive impairment.
Her doctor advised quitting. Her boss had a different response: *"We don't want to lose you."*
With medical approval, Moore returned—first 20 hours weekly, then 30, working remotely. She kept multiple screens to track research, took exhaustive notes, reand viewed them obsessively before meetings. She never told colleagues, wary of stigma.
*"The hard part is knowing who to tell and how much to tell."*
Five years later, she retired on her own terms, benefits secured.
When the Work Changes You
Not every profession allows for accommodation. Some carry stakes too high to risk.
**Dr. David Compton** knew this. The 71-year-old family physician left practice a decade ago after concentration became impossible. A year of frustrating testing finally yielded answers: mild cognitive impairment.
He couldn't practice medicine. But he refused to stop working.
Volunteering at a food bank led to a new role at a homeless mission—managing hospital discharges, collecting medical histories, teaching self-care, and treating wounds. The work fills him completely.
*"It fills me spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, and they pay me to do it,"* says Compton, now a member of the National Council of Dementia Minds. *"We're taking a lot of people off the bench who need to stay in the game."*
Taking Yourself Out
Sometimes the bravest choice is walking away.
**Andrea Lucas** built strategies for consumer products her entire career. After a layoff, she landed a marketing director role at a food chain—a faster-paced world of constant restaurant openings.
Normally quick to adapt, Lucas couldn't catch on. She blamed the industry learning curve, but deep down, she sensed something darker. Her doctor dismissed her concerns. She kept working.
Then her boss requested a team meeting. Lucas panicked.
*"I thought I was going to be found out about struggling with my memory."*
Rather than face failure after decades of success, she took short-term disability. (Her boss, she later learned, had wanted to discuss business opportunities—not performance problems.)
Diagnosis: mild cognitive impairment. *"I left on my own,"* she says, grateful for a supportive company that helped secure benefits.
The Small Signs We Miss
For **Arthena Caston**, the warning signs accumulated quietly during 17 years at Geico. Monthly performance numbers grew erratic. Basic insurance definitions vanished from her mind. Her husband suggested Post-it Notes covering her computer. At home, she forgot to add meat to spaghetti sauce.
Testing confirmed mild cognitive impairment. Her manager suggested leave; Caston declined, fearing the stress of unmet expectations more than the work itself.
Today, at 61, she works four days weekly at a furniture store where her husband works—customer support, filing, and manageable stress.
The New Beginning
Kerry Dennis found her second act, too.
Gone are the days of managing 200 people. Now she serves on her regional Alzheimer's Association board, delivering speeches and presentations. AI tools help craft emails and correspondence.
The woman who once broke down in her boss's office now advocates publicly for others facing the same journey.
What This Means for All of Us
**The encouraging truth:** Many people continue working through early-stage dementia, which typically lasts two to four years. Flexible schedules, technology reminders, modified roles, and—crucially—supportive managers make this possible.
But first, we must abandon the myth that memory problems belong only to the very old. We must create workplaces where people feel safe disclosing struggles before a crisis hits. Where "too young" doesn't mean "not me."
Because ,as Kerry Dennis, Jean Moore, David Compton, Andrea Lucas, and Arthena Caston all discovered: **cognitive decline doesn't check your birth year before arriving.** It comes for high performers, for doctors and marketers and insurance professionals, for people in their 50s who still have mortgages and children and careers they love.
The question isn't whether our workplaces will confront this reality.
The question is whether we'll confront it with compassion—or continue forcing people to suffer in silence until they break down in their boss's office, convinced they're the only one.