Week 13 – wow, how time flies when you are having fun. While I was watching the champions league match last week, I was writing up my thoughts on this subject – I was supporting the underdog (in this case not Liverpool… 💭 💭💭 why do I default to this behaviour, and then I realised, Villa generally are the underdog 🤭).
This week I will again be talking about another form of discrimination…ageism.
What is ageism?
It is defined as stereotypes, prejudice, or discrimination against people because of their chronological age.
Examples of ageism based on perceptions
Ageism generally has negative connotations.
Younger and older workers are more likely to suffer from age-based discrimination, and it is generally due to negative beliefs and assumptions.
For example, younger employees can be perceived as lazy, less reliable, less conscientious, less organised, and poorly motivated because of their age.
The same can apply to older workers, where assumptions can be they are less adaptable, lack physical capabilities, have limited technical competencies, are less trainable and are resistant to change.
You can see that I have highlighted key words: perceived and assumptions – straight away this is discrimination which is unfair and unjust. 🛑
Impact of ageism
- Younger and older members may be overlooked for training opportunities, greater responsibilities, and promotions.
- Victims may tend to receive lower pay and benefits.
- They may be less likely to be shortlisted for interviews or even hired and offered training opportunities or promoted.
- They may be offered lower skilled, low paid jobs when they are far more skilled.
My experience of ageism
When I first graduated, fresh out of university, I had young looks, and my baby face meant that I had to always keep my id with me to prove I was an adult. 🆔
On many occasions in my first role, I was always judged as the newer, less experienced, and junior member of the team, even when I took on more duties, filled senior members gaps and excelled. The impact of this was that I was overlooked for promotion and was given tasks that others did not want to do.
Did I suffer age discrimination? Yes, constantly, not only because I looked like a baby chick 🐣 (as my mum would say), but also because I was trying to grow a designer beard, which looked patchier than my grass after the pigeons had a good meal. 🐦
Time warp forward to now and I have a fully grown beard 👳🏾♂️ (not so patchy anymore, but patchy enough to not hold a pen); and though I suffer less age discrimination now, I still feel that I have a similar level of discrimination to get to the next level of my role. In the chief job role market it is easy to be seen as the ‘outsider’ due to being younger than others and it’s always easier for others to say, ‘you have time on your side’ and ‘you need more experience’.
My answer to this would be that if you are good enough then you should be given a chance!
Look at Wayne Rooney, who at 16 (though he did not look it – passport check needed please 👮🏾!) was far more skilled than people in their mid-twenties. He was rightly given a chance and his goals speak a thousand words. ⚽️
Types of age discrimination
Direct discrimination
When we treat someone less favourably than you treat others based on his/her age. This can be in 3 ways:
- Direct age discrimination – e.g. not hiring someone as you decide they are too young.
- On perceived age – when you treat someone worse than another person, due to how old you think that person is.
- Associative age discrimination – treat someone unfairly due to someone else’s age.
Indirect age discrimination
This is when you have a policy or practice in your workplace that applies to all workers, but that has a negative effect on people of a certain age or age group.
For example, a gym is looking for a new trainer and wants someone who is young, fit, and enthusiastic. 🙅🏼♂️
Harassment
When unwanted conduct based on someone’s age makes him or her feel scared, humiliated, or degraded, it is harassment.
Example: if someone makes a joke on someone’s age, or gives a nickname based on their age, such as ‘Old Johnny’ – this is harassment.
Victimisation
The equality act 2010 states that victimisation is unlawful. It may happen when you suffer detrimental treatment because you raised a grievance (made a complaint) regarding discrimination.
Example: telling someone to cancel their complaint otherwise they will be removed from a paid training course.
How can leaders ensure they are not promoting age discrimination?
When recruiting, we should ensure that we do not add any bias into the process. We should:
- Be clear on skills needed.
- Only ask applicants for qualifications necessary for the role.
- Blind recruitment i.e., remove age from the CV
Training: Do not deny any training based on age and we should allow the same training opportunity to all team members.
Promotion: We should make job vacancies and promotion opportunities open to all, irrespective of their age.
Performance management: We should not overlook performance matters because the employee is younger or older than other staff
Redundancy: Make sure that redundancies are genuine and that the process for who is made redundant is not based on age.
🔙🔙🔙
Back to meerkats, and I shared an example last week where Meerkats keep lookout for predators – what’s interesting here is that this is irrespective of age, rather, whoever is the best member for the job will do the role. Wouldn’t it be great if the workplace was the same! 😉
Overall ageism is not right, all I would request that all leaders give people a chance based on their skills, potential and not their age. Any form of discrimination is prejudiced, and it should be removed.
Have a great weekend all! 👋🏾