What Role does Ageism play in the Workplace?:
Articles/Readings:
https://www.aarp.org/work/age-discrimination/still-thrives-in-america/
https://projectwhen.org/resources/combating-ageism-in-the-workplace/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnp3T4Yzaws
Discussion:
Talk amongst yourselves and:
-Explain to each other how you would define Ageism.
-If you have ever had an experience you would describe as Ageism.
-If anyone you know has experienced Ageism.
Share allowed as a whole class.
Activity:
As we all age and become older there will be times we will face ageism and the purpose of this activity is to see if we can identify some times in our own career paths that we will experience ageism. So the question is, in your career path do you see yourself facing ageism at all in the workplace, through the hiring process, or just in projects you will work on in your job or in any other way?
So either on a piece of paper or on your computer, outline your career path from now until retirement and see if you can find anywhere that you think you will face ageism, and it can be as a young person getting hired or as you age having to get a new job or being assigned projects or anything to do with pay raises. There is no wrong way to do this, just do it to the best of your ability and if you don’t know exactly what your career path is, just pick a random career path.
Then can anyone share what career you have decided to do this activity with and the areas within the career you can see ageism affecting one in this field?
Reading like a reader:
As we read and watched these articles and videos we were given a lot of information. So let’s synthesize what we learned.
Ageism is when any person is discriminated against based on their age. When someone is treated poorly because of their age. The more common and more belligerent problem faced is the age group of older people, but ageism can exist in younger age groups. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act specifically focus on 40 years or older. This is a federal act and does protect people under the age of 40 years old from age discrimination, although some states have adopted laws that will protect younger age groups of workers.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act forbids employers from discriminating against workers’ age if they are 40 years or older. But age discrimination is hard to prove so this Act does not fix age discrimination completely. As well as it doesn’t protect workers under the age of 40 from being discriminated against based upon their age.
Being informed about age discrimination is the first step. If you are aware of and understand the issue that is when you can start to see it happening and speak out against it when you see it. As well as just getting people to talk about it so more people know what it is.
Something everyone can do to combat age discrimination is to advocate for it. Speaking up about age discrimination in the workplace does a lot more than you think it does. Everything starts at an individual level, so if you see age discrimination happening speak up and speak out. Call out age discrimination and advocate for age discrimination to end.
Companies are also responsible for preventing age decimation. If you ever find yourself in a senior or manager position, it is your responsibility as well to not stand or implement age discrimination.
We see ageism in all areas of the process. We see it in the hiring and termination process as well in the day-to-day basis life of working.
A personal example I have is mine about my Father. My dad is 58 years old and a mechanical engineer. He has been working as an engineer since he was in high school. He was hired as a temporary hire at a company, and it was only supposed to be temporary for three months, but now he’s been working as a temporary hire for ten months. And right after he was hired, a younger man in his 30s was hired for the same position as a permanent hire. And yes this could be for different reasons but one of the only applicable ones is ageism. And this is why it’s hard to prove.
Another example of Ageism is the man we see in the video shown. He is in his 50s and can not find a job no matter what he does. And this seems to be entirely based on his age. And he is afraid he will be homeless because of this. Ageism is something that can change a person’s life for the worst just as we see in the video.
Quiz
1. What is Ageism?
2. What is an example of Ageism?
3. Who is affected by Ageism?
4. List ways to combat ageism.
5. In your own opinion, how big of a problem is ageism in the workplace?
