Why Age Discrimination is Prevalent in the Workplace
An unfortunate and yet commonplace occurrence in the workplace is age discrimination. It occurs when a current or potential employee is not treated the same in the workforce simply because of their age. It may be that you were passed up for a promotion or a raise or that you did not get a job you may otherwise have achieved. Although there are laws that prohibit discrimination based on age, still it occurs in many different fields. There are many reasons for this, and understanding these may help you combat them.
Stereotypes about the elderly are powerful and frequent. Younger people may believe the stereotypes that older people are senile and therefore incapable of doing the job. In truth, older employees have more experience and may be able to do the job even better than their younger counterparts. Of course, people change substantially on the outside as they age, but in many cases, the inside remains much the same. Those who practice age discrimination may look at the outside appearance and make judgments based on that instead of the qualifications, skills and experience present on the inside.
Those who are younger may have trouble relating to someone who is older. They may be more friendly with someone who is their age, and they may feel a kinship. They may be drawn to giving them the raise or the position instead of someone who is older.
Sometimes age discrimination is based on feeling intimidated or threatened by those who are older. For instance, a young executive may feel hesitant about employing someone who is older who may actually have more experience than them. They may want to be at the top, and may feel like that person could affect their job or position. They may even be jealous.
Another facet of age discrimination is the expectations that employers have of older workers. Even if the older worker does not do something, the employer may think that they will if they generally associate that characteristic with an older worker. For instance, they may think that older workers need to take more sick days, even if that particular person takes very few.
In many cases of age discrimination, the perpetrator does not even realize that they are doing it. It is important for companies to educate and counsel employees with regards to this unsavory practice as it is bad for both the victims and the company. With work, the prevalence of age discrimination will hopefully decrease in the future.
Sources:
http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/careerresources/a/agediscriminat.htm
http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html