Are you dealing with ageism at work?

In a world where modern medicine is allowing people to live longer and longer, massive changes are occurring to global demographics. In Japan, for example, people older than 60 years of age now comprise nearly a third of the population; many other countries will be the same as we near 2050.

This, of course, has vast amounts of implications, particularly in the workplace. As the age of the world’s population grows, so will the average age of the workforce. More and more people over the age of 60 will work alongside those who are generations younger than them.

Unfortunately, this may lead to increased occurrences of age discrimination, also called ageism, in global work environments.

What is ageism?

The concept of ageism is simple—it is the act of discriminating against an individual based on their age. Usually, the person being discriminated against is older than their peers.

Signs of age discrimination in the workplace.

Ageism in the workplace may not always be easy to spot if you don’t know what to look for, so we’ve put together a few examples of ageism in the workplace to prompt awareness about your own experiences.

Age discrimination may look like:

Opportunities for promotion or further skills learning are offered with priority to younger members of the workforce.

Younger members of the workplace make disparaging comments about their older coworkers.

Older employees are left out or overlooked during company events or activities.

Preferences and advantages are given to younger interviewees (based on their age) during the hiring process.

As many employers crackdown on anti-discrimination policies, age discrimination has been among the types of discrimination that are becoming less tolerated. Why? Because discrimination based on age can have massively negative effects, hindering work performance and personal health—neither of which any individual should have to endure due to their age.

How to deal with ageism in the workplace.

If you’ve determined that you’re one of the many individuals experiencing discrimination in your workplace based on your age, we highly recommend that you speak to an Online Career Coach about the situation. One of these Coaches can help you to identify occurrences of ageism and, even more importantly, guide you toward learning how to deal with age discrimination in your workplace.

An Online Career Coach might, for example, work with you to understand the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, review your rights in the workplace with you, and help you compose a plan of action to confront these issues in your workplace.

Do you think that you have been a victim of ageist workplace discrimination, or do you fear that this might happen to you? Register for an online career coaching session with one of our many professionals who is ready and willing to help. Browse through our list of Online Career Coaches now and message them for free.