7 Tips to Handle Age Discrimination at the Workplace

Age discrimination is the most spoken topic in the corporate world. Today's fresher is tomorrow's senior employee, and hence in some way, all of us are / will be facing age discrimination at the workplace. 

How can we smartly handle age discrimination and build our career successfully? Let us find the answer in this article.

20% EFFORT

A small effort makes a huge difference. Age discrimination would majorly influence your career from a long-term perspective. What extra effort can you make to tackle age discrimination in the workplace? maintain good physical health so that you look the best and perform the fullest, dress well to boost your confidence, build an attitude to fit the company culture, be flexible to work hours and be ready to report to a younger boss, and learn continuously to cope with emerging technology. Read more to find the 80% result...

When you had started working as a fresher, you might have admired your seniors for their competency. Learning from them and having a discussion with them may have encouraged you a lot. You may still have a senior as your role model. But have you ever checked their status after a few decades and found them in a higher position? The answer would be 'no' for 80% of them.

There may be 20% of them focusing on entrepreneurship or something else they are interested in, and 10% may not have liked the option of moving to managerial roles.

The rest of them might still be trying hard for career progression. Have you thought why only 20% of your seniors are at the top management level and the rest are not? The reason is when you are more experienced, chances are more to undergo age discrimination.

What is Age Discrimination?

Age discrimination and its consequences can’t be simply explained as it involves many factors like psychology, contribution, ego, skillset requirement…. 

In simple words, age discrimination can be defined as any act that prevents you from being hired, promoted, or allowed to continue working, irrespective of all the necessary qualifications, skills, and experience you have. 

In an organization, ageism suppresses the senior employees and spoils company culture.

When Is Age Discrimination at Its Peak?

Ageism in employment is at its peak when there is a high level of unemployment, recession, economic crisis, etc.

Why is Age Discrimination Unavoidable?

Employers are concerned about the health and culture fit of aged employees/job seekers. As you grow older, there are chances that you develop health issues resulting in poor performance at work.

The majority of the employees are young and middle-aged; hence an aged person may find it challenging to fit in the culture and report to a younger manager.

General statistics state that senior employees are highly paid, and hence they become an additional cost to the company. Instead of hiring seniors, the companies are ready to recruit a few younger candidates for a lesser salary.

7 Tips to Tackle Age Discrimination

As you have understood the concerns of employers with aged employees, you can now easily handle the issues. The following tips would help you fight better against age discrimination at the workplace:

1. being fit and healthy,
2. dressing appropriately,
3. expressing an attitude to fit in the company culture,
4. being flexible to work long hours, if necessary,
5. adapting the hierarchy to report to a younger boss,
6. learning continuously to cope with the young talents…,
7. growing old gracefully.

Fit and healthy

Following a proper diet and exercising every day helps you to stay fit. Taking regular medical check-ups would keep you assured of being healthy. Our body and mind are interconnected. When you are physically fit, your mental health will be perfect and vice versa. 

Practicing yoga, going out for jogging and walking, and regular exercise would keep you physically and mentally healthy.

Being fit and healthy helps you to be energetic and tackle age discrimination in the workplace.

7 Tips to Tackle Ageism at Workplace

Dressing appropriately

Wearing formal dresses that fit you well gives a good appearance. The choice of fabric, pattern, and color are vital as these not only provide a good impression on you but also make you feel better and confident. A perfect dress gives you confidence. It influences you psychologically.

An attitude to fit in the company culture

Every organization has it's own culture. One predominant factor is that most of the companies are flooded with young employees resulting in a youthful culture.

As an experienced person, you may have interacted with many people and been good at accepting cross-cultural differences which is an advantage. Make your employer understand that you are a good fit for the company culture and can quickly gel with others. Being positive with the right attitude is more important.

This is another advantage that helps you to tackle age discrimination in the workplace.

Flexible to work long hours

At times, you may have to work for long hours or work during weekends. Just like most of the other young colleagues, you may not be available to work all the time due to family responsibility or other reasons. 

You need not to avoid family responsibilities but can look for better alternative arrangements so that you can focus on work during peak time. Making such arrangements would greatly help you to tackle age discrimination.

Other than peak time, every employer understands that you have a family just like they have one and help you to have a better work-life balance.

Hierarchy

The corporate hierarchy is not supported by seniority, as it includes many factors to appoint employees at different levels. They only look for the qualities of the employee to perform the best for the given role. You may be a fit for a position, and a younger colleague may be a fit for another. 

The question arises when an older person happens to report to the younger boss. It won't a big deal if you understand that everyone is hired to do their job, and age/experience has nothing to do with it. Inform your employer that you are open to report to a younger boss and make them understand you don't encourage age discrimination for any reason.

Learning continuously

The emerging technology changes our system of work every day. Different methodologies are implemented to derive the best results. To cope with the latest technologies and fresh minds working with you, it is imperative to learn continuously. 

Developing a portfolio to showcase your recently acquired skills, projects, etc is a great idea. Doing a minimum of a couple of certification courses would keep you competitive.

Growing old gracefully

Growing old is an art. The one who has mastered the art grows old gracefully and tackles age discrimination effectively. Acting like an adult doesn’t help.

Accepting the fact that you are growing old, being technically strong, learning continuously, being healthy, adapting cultural differences, etc. helps you to make yourself a role model to many young people.

The merit of the older generation entices an evergreen mark on the younger brains and helps avoid age discrimination at all levels.

80% RESULT

It's time to analyze the result of your smartness in handling age discrimination in the workplace. How do your personality and performance chance? you become an influencer and role-model to many young people, and you master the art of growing old gracefully.

Additional tips

Being active on social networks and developing a good rapport with your contacts would help you at the right time. In your life, you must have admired someone for their amazing personality; find their good qualities that impressed you and develop such quality in you. All you need to do is developing a personality that speaks for you and wins your place!