About Age Discrimination

Examining the likelihood of age discrimination in current employment practices and institutions is the primary goal of this essay. In other words, the article aims to investigate age discrimination in terms of how employers frequently overlook excellent applicants for particular employment positions due to their age. Employers might choose younger applicants who might not be qualified rather than selecting among qualified candidates based on age or unemployment status. The economy of today is relatively unstable, and its recovery has not gone as swiftly as anticipated, which has led to very little movement and a poor rate of job growth. For such reasons, the unemployed have remained unemployed for longer periods of time. The present research paper explores on the historical perspective of age discrimination in employment.

Keywords: Age discrimination, employment, ageism, stereotype

Introduction

Every single average worker needs to be aware of age discrimination. Even though anyone who lives in the middle-aged has a high probability of experiencing an age discrimination act; the concept is not a bother to many people. Such attitude is available in the literature that is available on the topic of age discrimination. Information on age discrimination is quite limited and scarce. Most of the information that exists on age discrimination is mostly based on the legal rights of workers and is accompanied by advertisement of the available legal services.

The current economy depicts signs of sluggish recovery, and for such reason, many employers tend to be cautiously optimistic about what the future holds. There are quite some mixed signs in the unemployment rate, dependent on the location, may imply a rise in job growth for some industries. Employers in the field of hiring new employees are facing difficulties in choosing the most suitable candidates for their job post, due to the increased number of well-qualified individuals ready to join the workforce as active participants. Even though such a situation could be considered as an advantage to the employer, two distinct groups are often overlooked. These two groups include those that are over the age of forty and are going through unemployment and the newest groups comprising those over forty experiencing extended unemployment. With regards to the recent study on Sony Ericsson, this presents a new form of discrimination, the long-term unemployed which has been of great concern for the human resource practitioner.

Human resource practitioners are responsible for ensuring that all the employment practices and procedures within an organization are steered in a reasonable and ethical manner. All the elements of fairness and consistency are necessary for making employment decisions. Therefore, there lies the need to have very skilled, educated and trained human resource practitioners for purposes of ensuring integrity in human resource. However, at times, professionals are assigned to these roles without having any consent or requisite knowledge, skills and experience, leading to inferior decisions that are based on feeling (Butler, & Berret, 2012).

Several words and phrases are used to disguise age discrimination. Examples of such words include saying that a certain employee in the workforce is too expensive, an employee has been with the company for a long period, an employee lacks versatility, and a worker is not in a position to adapt to the new methods and technology of the organization. The decisions that are made within the organization that is not directly based on the age factor of an employee may have distinct effects on the older employees such as the rules associated with the span of service. Some of the perceptions behind the concept of age discrimination revolve around the perception that older workers need to make room for the younger workers who have energy, will and are qualified. Moreover, there also exists the idea that younger managers in organizations are not willing to work the older workers, despite their perfect skills.

Legal Protections against Age Discrimination

Although age discrimination is quite common in workplaces and organizations, there exist legal protections that make an attempt to inhibit the act. The Age Discrimination Employment Act (ADEA) that was passed in 1967 was drafted aiming at protecting employees aged 40 years and above from any form of discrimination based on their age. The 1967 Act on age discrimination applies to any organization that has more than 20 employees. ADEA covers employment agencies, labor organizations, and the federal government. According to the ADEA Act, those employees of 40years and above are protected against discrimination for discharge, selection, promotions, and compensation. The ADEA Act outlines that the only instance when an employer is allowed to discriminate, and employee based on age status is when they can prove that the employee, particularly the young age is a bona fide occupational qualification for the job.

The main objective of the ADEA Act is to solely prevent the employees from targeting older employees when an organization goes through rough financial crisis calling for a reduction in the number of workers. In case the older workers are released from the positions by their age, they have the right to sue the employer or waiving their right to sue in an attempt to be compensated with substantial retirement benefits package. Another act that was drafted for protecting age discrimination at the place of work is the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (1990). The 1990 Act was passed aiming to provide detailed guidelines for the period that an older worker has before they can make a decision to sue their employer for discrimination (Hood, Hardy, & Simpson, 2016).

Another important Act for the older workers is the Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964. The interpretation of the 1964 Act enhances and influences the interpretations of the ADEA Act. The act mostly covers for the older female workers and the older minority workers who are considered as easy subjects to double or multiple discrimination by their age. On the employment discernment of rights that are reported to the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC), very few of the filed cases are related to age discrimination. For instance, in 2000, about 8.5% of all the EEOC filed lawsuits were on age discrimination, in 2001, the total number of cases of age discrimination were on 8% of all the filed lawsuits. The majority of the states in the United States have legislation that deals with age discrimination cases.

Older Worker Stereotypes

Stereotypes are defined as cognitive structures that are responsible for the storage and conservation of people's beliefs and anticipations regarding certain features of particular members of social groups. In case stereotypes are enacted, they directly influence the behavior of an individual with stereotypical ideas causing them to either confirm or dispel with their actions (Maurer, Barbeite, Weiss, & Lippstreu, 2008).

The present day stereotypes about the older people i9n the society describe these individuals on various domains such as their physical attributes, personality traits, emotional and social characteristics. Such stereotypes could either be positive or negative (North, & Fiske, 2012). Other than the general stereotypes related to the older adults some specific stereotypes are linked to older workers. For instance, there is a common stereotype that depicts the older workers as having less potential to contribute to any development as compared to their younger workers. They are, however, said to have a greater stability level unlike the younger workers (Döbrich, Wollersheim, Welpe, & Spörrle, 2014). Moreover, the way an individual perceives a particular job could have an impact on the way they understand or exhibit bias against the older adults. In a situation where a job position is presented as age neutral or more appropriate for the younger individuals, there are high levels of bias against the older applicants. In a situation where a particular job position is labeled as more suitable for seniors, no bias is apparent (Morgeson, Reider, Campion, & Bull, 2008).

Ageism

Related to the stereotypes directed to the older individuals and older workers is the concept of ageism. According to McCarthy, & Heraty, (2017), Ageism is a term that refers to the prejudice that is expressed in the form of stereotype, belief or discriminatory conducts directed to the older people. The definition of ageism is made up of two types of ageism; benign and malignant ageism (Rupp, Vodanovich, & Crede, 2006). Benign Ageism refers to the situation where an individual finds it difficult to either associate or interact with the older people in the society because of their inner fears or deep anxiety related to the older individuals (Rupp, Vodanovich, & Crede, 2006). An individual that exhibits traits of benign ageism is that who does not overtly discriminate against the older people, but in the way or another limits their level of interaction or association with the older people. Malignant ageism manifests itself in situations where an individual considers the older adults useless. A perfect example would be in an organization where the manager will not even consider promoting the older worker because they feel that organization would be wasting time or it is not worth for the organization to invest in the older worker.

Discrimination is a form through which ageism would manifest itself. Discrimination with regards to Ageism refers to the biased opinions on either activities, segregation or political rights of the older adults (Rupp, Vodanovich, & Crede, 2006). Ageism in the form of discrimination is portrayed through personnel decisions. According to the research findings of the research conducted by Rupp et al. (2006, the managers who were highly rated on the scale of ageism, were found to be more likely to enforce harsher consequences such as transfer or demotion of the older employees. In the same research managers who were considered to have ageism traits were more likely to request for resignation for the older workers for poor performance as compared to the younger workers who displayed similar levels of performance. Moreover, older workers as compared to the younger staffs were more likely to be issued with a recommendation for employer-provided assistance, a strategy to increase the ability to address their performance deficiencies. Ageism is evident in the society, and the older people themselves. The discriminatory attitudes that are grounded on stereotypes could have adverse effects on the process of policy formulation and result in institutionalized attitudes. Such instances have been associated to cause sexism and ageism. Ageism is associated with negative stereotyping of the older adults in the society. The negative age stereotyping practices that are common among the younger people and employers is associated with the time one retires from the workforce.

Manifestation of age discrimination

Age discrimination could manifest in several ways, and its manifestation could be subtle or blatant. The everyday actions that show manifestation of age discrimination include, denying a qualified older worker promotion or job opportunity, decreasing their employee's benefits, regulating their training chances or limiting the job roles and duties. In organizations and business, the older workers are usually easy targets for reductions in the workforce, and for various reasons they may end up being encouraged to retire. An organization may have very unfair exit incentive policies and programs that end up denying substantial benefits to the older workers, also there may be early retirement schemes that may pressure the older workers to take a premature retire. In case there are individuals in the organization that is not willing to retire, they end up receiving reduced incentive benefits. All these actions are examples of age discrimination conducts in organization regarding the order workers. Such actions reinforce a stereotype of older workers as the easily dispensable.

Conclusion

The concept of ageism is deeply embedded in many societies across the world. Many organizations and individuals link the old to the time of exiting the work force. Attitudes associated with ageism are commonly prevalent among employers and the younger workers. Addressing the issues of ageists in employers and younger workers would help solve the problem of the increasing levels of ageism in the workforce.

The majority of the older workers would prefer to work rather than be retired even though the state of paid employment is significant to their physical and psychological welfare. Older adults are healthy and fit for any job opportunity and work until they are 70 years.

It is evident that the older workers tend to be disadvantaged as compared to the younger workers. At most times, older job seeker is discriminated when applying for job vacancies. Older workers are known to have adequate job experience as compared to the younger job seekers, even though they end up been discriminated on the basis of age. The anti-discrimination legislation that is active focus on protecting the older workers but falls short of protecting, the older adult job seekers. Therefore, there is the need to have more anti-age discrimination laws that cover for hiring discrimination against the older people. One of the most challenging stage for the older adults is getting employed. The challenges associated with getting employment for the older adults is related to the stereotyping of the older workers. There are also traces of stereotyping differences across gender.

There is need tom promote behavioral changes in stereotypically based behaviors. In order to achieve such an objective, it is necessary to have adequate knowledge on the specific stereotypes fundamental to the imperative behavior.





















References

Butler, T. H., & Berret, B. A. (2012). A generation lost: the reality of age discrimination in today's hiring practices. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 9, 1.

Döbrich, C., Wollersheim, J., Welpe, I. M., & Spörrle, M. (2014). Debiasing age discrimination in HR decisions. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 14(4), 219-241.

Hood, J., Hardy Jr, B., & Simpson, L. (2016). Workers' compensation and employee protection laws in a nutshell. West Academic.

Maurer, T. J., Barbeite, F. G., Weiss, E. M., & Lippstreu, M. (2008). New measures of stereotypical beliefs about older workers' ability and desire for development: Exploration among employees age 40 and over. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23(4), 395-418.

McCarthy, J., & Heraty, N. (2017). Ageist Attitudes. In The Palgrave Handbook of Age Diversity and Work (pp. 399-422). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Morgeson, F. P., Reider, M. H., Campion, M. A., & Bull, R. A. (2008). Review of research on age discrimination in the employment interview. Journal of Business and Psychology, 22(3), 223-232.

North, M. S., & Fiske, S. T. (2012). An inconvenienced youth? Ageism and its potential intergenerational roots. Psychological bulletin, 138(5), 982.

Rupp, D. E., Vondovich, S. J., & Crede, M. (2006). Age bias in the workplace: The impact of ageism and causal attributions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36, 1337-1364.