“He is ‘too old’ for this job.” The HR manager said to
me after we interviewed John (not his real name). She continued saying,
"he will not fit into our culture." John had been laid off by his
previous employer due to restructuring at the age of 53 yrs.
Ageism in the workplace is
very real. It is the elephant in the room. I see uproars over every other “ism”
(sexism, racism…etc.) but everyone turns a blind eye to ageism. It is being
swept under the carpet; To the HR manager’s disappointment, I did hire John.
John brought a wealth of experience and taught me a lot that I never learned
from an MBA.
We live in a youth
oriented society. The hype about "out with the old, in with the new"
needs to stop. You can't Google experience. A person's age doesn't lessen their
ability to work hard or to make a valuable contribution to the organization or
society. When someone crosses 50+ doesn't mean they cannot function and should
just retire and sit in a corner. Common myths: "They can’t learn. They are
not creative. They are not as productive as younger employees. Customers do not
respond as well to older workers." These are all based on false premises
and assumptions.
Anna sent me this email:
"I would get
telephone interviews, which would go quite well, however, when I showed up to
the face-to-face interview. It never went further as they would classify
me as "overqualified." "Seasoned" is another word I was
routinely hearing. I feel like my 30 years’ experience has become a double-edge
sword. So I stopped putting the year I graduated from college on my resume. I
also left out years from my employment history and started dyeing my hair and I
finally got a job."
It's sad when someone has
to submit to this ideal to land a job.
It’s easy to drop the
years from the resume. It's more difficult to hide that required information
(DOB) on an online job application. A bigger majority of people don't even get
to an age discriminatory level. Keyword searches, ten second resume scans and
other high-volume candidate churning processes exclude many such candidates.
German researchers find
older people tend to be more productive than younger employees. Additionally,
verbal communication is critical in business relationships. Research confirms
verbal communication improves with age. Companies are looking for diversity to
foster innovation and growth...but which one? Only gender or ethnicity? Why not
age diversity? Older skilled workers add a level of diversity to a younger team
that helps create well-rounded solutions. Institutional knowledge and maturity
together make people 40 and over the perfect balance. We need to do more to
capitalize on the skills, talents and experience of a significant number of
"senior" workers who are usually overlooked and undervalued.
Subsequently, employee loyalty towards employer increases with age.
In the previous generations, age was something to be admired
and honored. However, in today's world it is looked upon with contempt. Only in
certain high level positions, being over 40+ is acceptable. We recognize it in
management and politics where we trust those with decades of experience. This
form of discrimination continues to make the workforce unhealthy for
individuals, and creates stagnation within our society as we are not open to
change. Many people over 40 have to stay in whatever job they are doing once
they reach that age because their opportunities are limited. We need to teach
our younger generations to respect our veterans instead of just throwing them
under the bus. This can only form part of the organization culture when it's
endorsed from the top.
Mark Zuckerberg once said "If you are over 30... Successful
companies should not employ you." This brought no outcry. Why? Because,
ageism is widely acceptable and silently encouraged. Just look at the job adverts;
we don't see persons over 40 in those settings. The majority do not view it as
discrimination. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) forbids age
discrimination against people who are age 40 or older. Yes there is legislation
but it is hard to prove. At the moment it seems the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has no interest in enforcing the law. Most
employers require application via ATS system which does require dates. If they
don't ask your age, they require employment dates for each position in your
work history, and the date of college graduation. There are too many ways to
break this law.
A person should not be afraid or feel embarrassed to state
their age. With age comes wisdom, experience, knowledge, resilience... and the list
goes on. Age and experience should be rewarded, not punished. It’s time to stop
discrimination on the grounds of a person's age. We need strong advocates to
stand up to businesses who embrace ageism. We can no longer sit idly by and
tolerate this type of discrimination. It has gone on for far too long. Age
diversity is just as important as any other type of diversity and should be
included in a company's diversity plan. The line “We are an equal opportunity
employer" should have a real meaning.
With the increased
life expectancy and with many countries opting to push back the retirement age,
ageism has become a critical issue.
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