Guide: Dealing With Ageism In The Workplace

Demographic Reports

Just as its illegal for U.S. businesses to discriminate against you on the basis of race, color, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, and national origin, it’s also illegal for them to do so based on your older age.

Despite this law, 37% of individuals aged 40 to 54 have experienced some form of age discrimination during employment, which jumps to 48% of those between 55 and 64.

In fact, while most discrimination goes unreported, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission resolved 90,558 charges of discrimination in private, state, and local government workplaces during 2018, 20% of which were related to age.

The good news is that this guide will help you learn more about ageism, what it looks like in the workplace, how to handle it when you encounter it, and how to avoid it in the first place. We’ll also provide a list of additional resources you can use to expand your knowledge further.

How many people experience age discrimination

What Are Protections Against Age Discrimination?

Employers in the U.S. aren’t allowed to discriminate against their employees based on age. For example, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) forbids age discrimination (i.e., treating an applicant or employee less favorably) against individuals 40 years of age or older, regardless of the age of the offending individual(s). However, some state laws also protect younger workers from age discrimination.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the law specifically “prohibits discrimination in any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.”

It also makes it unlawful to harass a person because of their age, whether by a direct supervisor, other area’s supervisor, a co-worker, or a business’s clients or customers.

How to Identify Age Discrimination in the Workplace

Ageism and age discrimination rear their heads in many different ways inside the workplace, such as patronizing language (e.g., using words like sweetie, dear, honey, etc.) and name-calling (e.g., geezer, dirty old man, little old lady, etc.). Being able to identify when you’re being discriminated against can help you confidently file reports and press charges when need be. Therefore, here are some classic examples of workplace ageism outlined:

14 Examples of Workplace Age Discrimination

Assuming you’re less technologically skilled, uneducated, unintelligent, or more inept based on your older age.
Preventing you from attending job-related training while allowing younger workers.
Leaving you out of an office field trip because it’s assumed you won’t fit in or will otherwise experience difficulty (e.g., a group hike or bike ride).
Commenting on how slow and inefficient you are when performing job tasks, making you feel humiliated, offended, or degraded.
Telling you that you’re having a “senior moment” after you forget something.
Victimizing you after you complain about an instance (or instances) of age discrimination, whether you’ve personally witnessed it against someone else or experienced it yourself.
Letting you go, forcing you to resign or retire, eliminating your position, or denying your a promotion or raise, solely because of your older age.
Blaming negative workplace changes on a specific age group or groups.
Making jokes about your age or creating policies that discriminate against employees over the age of 40.
Creating an imbalanced workplace by only hiring younger workers.
Overlooking you for a challenging work assignment.
Isolating you by leaving you out of meetings or moving your desk away from their colleagues.
Unfairly disciplining an you or putting you on a performance plan because of your older age.
Asking an you about your age during the interview process, solely based upon your appearance.

Understanding these instances can not only help you guard yourself against ageism in the workplace, but also give you the tools to identify more positive environments.

Steps for How to Find an Age-Friendly Workplace

Just because ageism is illegal while on the job, this doesn’t mean that ageist attitudes and actions don’t occur. Here are a few key steps to remember when looking for an age-friendly workplace:

Browse the Company’s Website. Whether related to ageism or anything else, most companies are proud of their efforts to foster increasingly inclusive workplaces. Consequently, they’ll often include details on their website about these efforts, such as supporting events or other forms of outreach. An excellent place to start is the business’s mission statement.
Read Online Employee Reviews. Just like with customer reviews for a product or service, word will often spread quickly if employees experience ageism or other forms of discrimination or harassment while on the job. Sites like Glassdoor.com and Comparably.com can be great resources in this regard.
Visit the Location. Often, there’s no replacement for physically visiting a location where you’re considering working. While there (and if possible), walk around and pay attention to the ages of employees. Are they homogenous, or do you see a wide variety of ages from younger to older?

While you’re walking around, you can make small talk with the employees and learn more about their background, whether or not they enjoy working there, and if they’ve experienced any concerns, especially related to ageism.

Hint: A receptionist, if available, can be a gold mine when it comes to this type of information.

Job Hunting Tips for Seasoned Employees

Job hunting isn’t easy or anyone, but luckily, you have the advantage of experience. In fact, there are many ways you can use your older age to your advantage on the job market, including:

Focus on your extensive work history. After many years (perhaps even decades) in the workforce, it’s essential to emphasize your employment experience, whether on your resume or in an interview.

This is something younger workers won’t have, so it’s important to highlight your experience and reframe it in a beneficial way for any company you’re considering.
Seek jobs that align with your skillset. You’ve likely developed an extensive list of skills after years on the job, so write them down in a list and then match them with the requirements for any jobs to which you’re thinking about applying.

Remember to include transferable skills like communication, management, relationship building, problem-solving, and teamwork. It’s also important to highlight soft skills typically honed after many years of employment, such as reliability, an eye for detail, and patience.
Add to your skillset. Online courses and continuing education have become the norm in today’s digital world, many of which are free or come with a minimal price tag.

As a result, it’s usually easy to add new job-specific skills to your resumes, such as coding, communication, business administration, marketing, and advertising, to name just a few.
Network with others. The fact of the matter is that most jobs are never published publicly, such as on online job boards. Instead, HubSpot reports that 85% of jobs are filled through networking, which is why it’s critical to maximize the number of contacts in your field.

Solid options that can increase networking opportunities include:
- Joining a related professional association;
- Updating your LinkedIn profile and reaching out to other members in your field;
- Letting friends, family, and neighbors know that you’re searching for a job;
- Volunteering with an organization that aligns with your interests;
- Maintaining or reviving relationships with past professional contacts;
- Fostering and reaching out to new professional contacts.

Interview Tips for Older Workers

Maximize your chances of making a great first impression. Make sure you’re clean and dressed in modern clothes that reflect your personality but that are also interview-appropriate.
Be succinct. You could be one of several potential employees undergoing an interview on any given day, so it’s crucial to briefly but thoroughly answer any questions. Otherwise, you could risk boring the interviewer and decreasing your chances of landing the job.
Maintain confidence. Confidently speak to the employer’s needs and how your skills — gained after years of experience — can help address them. While you might boast a robust skillset, it’s also important to remain humble and note that there’s always more you can learn.
Emphasize your technology skills. Speaking of which, make sure you mention how adept you are with relevant technologies, even though you might not be a “digital native” like some younger generations. If you have social media accounts, this might be a good time to mention them.
Speak to the elephant in the room. Because you might be older than some other employees, you can:
- Speak about what you hope to accomplish in the next phase of your career;
- Emphasize that you’re not eager to retire;
- Describe how satisfying the job duties of your prospective role will be;
- Address any gaps in your resume;
- Discuss the fact that you won’t have a problem working for a manager who’s younger than you;

How to Handle Instances of Ageism in the Workplace

So you’ve been hired, but you’re starting to suspect that you’re dealing with ageism in the workplace. Well, the most important thing you can do is act quickly and precisely, so you can get the justice you deserve. Here are some tips to consider:

Call it Out. Perhaps the most important thing to do is call out ageism when we see it in ourselves and others. The only way to reduce or avoid age discrimination is to bring awareness to different instances and then consciously decide how to handle it appropriately.
Talk with Human Resources. You should also bring the problem to the attention of the Human Resources department. When doing so, you’ll need documented evidence of harassment, unfair discipline, exclusion, or favoritism that has negatively affected you, including any witnesses to the instance(s).

What happens if HR fails to handle the complaint? Below are two different actions you can take:
- Consult an Attorney. It’s important to point out that proving age discrimination can be very challenging, which is why it’s essential to work with an employment law attorney to file a lawsuit, many of whom offer free consultations and will help you assess your options.
  
  Keep in mind that you may have as little as 180 days from the last discrimination to file a claim, which your lawyer can help you determine.

How Employers Can Help Avoid Ageism in the Workplace

Avoiding ageism in the workplace isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, here are several tried and true methods that can make everyone in the office, including older individuals, feel as comfortable as possible.

Create Anti-Ageism Educational Opportunities. Education is one of the most powerful tools for changing perceptions about older employees in the workplace and protecting everyone’s human rights.

Together, it can help others become more empathetic, dispel misconceptions about different age groups, and decrease biased, discriminatory, and stereotype-based behaviors.
Cultivate Age Discrimination and Diversity Training and Development. A common method for fostering education is through discrimination and diversity training.

Here, businesses should address unconscious biases and stereotypes and include real-world examples of ageism in the workplace, along with interactivity, to help keep employees engaged.

Additional topics should include respect, implicit bias, working together, team building, career counseling, and reverse-age mentoring for all employees.

Finally, make sure that your company offers the same training opportunities to all employees, regardless of age or experience level.
Check Ageist Beliefs and Stereotypes. Avoid believing that older workers are less technologically savvy, unable to learn a new trade or skill, or are otherwise unable to excel at different aspects of their job based solely on their age. Don’t speak to them as if they were a child while providing opportunities to exert independence and control over their decision-making.

When discussing technology in a meeting, assume that older employees either know exactly what you’re talking about or that they’ll speak up and ask for clarification if they don’t. You can also actively seek out older individuals’ knowledge and opinions, which indicates that they’re valued and respected.

Additionally, avoid blaming workplace changes on older workers—or those of any age, for that matter.

The bottom line is that it’s vital to foster a culture that not only rejects stereotypes about race, disability, national origin, religion, or sex but also about age.
Establish Anti-Ageism Policies. Start by assessing your organization’s anti-harassment and discrimination policies, including recruitment practices, sick leave policies, or training processes, which can help uncover antiquated and potentially damaging beliefs about older workers.

Tip: AARP partnered with Boston College’s Center on Aging Work to develop a workplace benchmarking assessment tool that can help point you in the right direction in this regard.

During the assessment phase, you need to make sure that your company’s policies clearly define acts of ageism, emphasize that you will not tolerate age-based unfair treatment, and outline how employees should report discrimination.

Also, you need to state how management and other leaders should enforce policies (e.g., formal discipline or more severe penalties) and how a resolution will be reached when instances occur.

Then, it’s wise to hire an employment law attorney to ensure updated policies and procedures are compliant with the law.

Finally, once these policies are defined and put into place, it’s essential that all employees, especially new hires, are aware of them.
Examine Your Interview and Recruitment Processes. It’s crucial to have anti-ageism procedures in place even before an individual is hired, such as during the recruitment and interview processes.

Here, you shouldn’t ask questions about a candidate’s age, if they plan to get married and have children, when they plan to retire, personal topics, and discussions about soft skills. Instead, recruiters and hiring managers should only ask questions related to specific employment-related skills and work experience.

Even before a candidate is in front of a recruiter or interviewer, it’s essential to advertise open positions everywhere job seekers might look (e.g., online job boards), not just outlets that cater to younger workers. In job descriptions, you should avoid using potentially discriminatory language and buzzwords like:
- Recent graduate or new grad;
- College student;
- Cultural fit;
- Tech-savvy;
- Go-getter;
- High energy;
- Young.
Furthermore, it’s wise not to require that applicants list their birthdates or when they graduated on the application or other forms. It’s also a good idea to include photos on the company’s website of an age-diverse workforce and feature a similarly diverse interview panel.

The bottom line is that it should be a company’s goal to spell out each role’s job requirements clearly and objectively measure each candidate’s qualifications, regardless of age.
Implement Performance-Based Rewards. Many companies base employee rewards and promotions on how long they’ve been with the company, although this could be considered ageism. Instead, ground these decisions on their performance and overall value to the company versus their age.

Whether you’re a business interested in minimizing (or eliminating) ageism in the workplace or an individual looking to learn more about ageism, the resources below can help point you in the right direction.

LeadingAge.org — LeadingAge is a Washington, DC-based community that uses “applied research, advocacy, education, and community-building to make America a better place to grow old.”
Society for Human Resource Management — The SHRM specializes in covering issues impacting today’s evolving workplaces, including ageism.
World Health Organization — WHO’s Global Campaign to Combat Ageism Toolkit can help you learn more, talk with others, and organize events about ageism in the workplace.
American Association of Retired Persons — AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that “empowers people to choose how they live as they age.” Their site contains many articles that address key topics related to ageism, including how the problem is perceived, how to combat it, and relevant statistics.
Project When — Project When specializes in helping create a more respectful and productive workplace for all, including fighting against ageism in the workplace.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — The EEOC enforces federal laws that make it “illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee” because of various traits, including age.
U.S. Department of Labor — The DOL’s Age Discrimination page focuses on laws and regulations related to age discrimination, including in the workplace.

Fighting for Justice

Ageism is an unfortunate reality of some workspaces, just as racism, sexism, and other horrible “-isms” are as well. Fortunately, since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic there has been steady 20-25% decrease in the number of workers who’ve experienced age discrimination; from age 40-60+.

Overall, the best thing you can do when you experience age discrimination in the workplace is to refuse to ignore it. When you call out inappropriate behavior and use the protections provided to you to seek justice, not only will ageism against you decline, but it will also gradually decline for other older workers all across the country.

Demographic Reports

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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