Employers’ Callousness Towards Their Employees.
America. Unfortunately, the same people are discriminated against on the grounds of age and for not being tech-savvy. Sad to note too, how these companies quickly forget that these people have spent their youth and energy serving the company for many years. To deny them the right to continue shouldn’t be the way to go. Besides, any maltreatment or forcing them to retire is bound to backfire. Sooner or later, the company might pay a higher price for their callousness.
The predicament of older Employees in the Workplace
Indeed, President Biden’s legislation that would make it easier for older workers to prove for being discriminated against on the job must be applauded. It’s timely and highly welcome!
Supporting reports have shown that the American population is relatively younger than many developed countries. The fact is that 35 percent of this is 50 and above. Still, this category of the population has been going through terrible challenges when it comes to employment. Technology and the rise of technologies may be significant factors militating against many older people concerning employment. Older people may not be conversant enough and possess technological skills in their respective careers. But employees with a long year of service could boast of depth knowledge and experience that’s worth paying for and not easily replaced.
This category of workers’ wealth of experience can be utilized to a considerable extent to supplement the wealth of expertise younger folks don’t have. Similarly, the older folks lacking technical skills can lead to hiring discrimination. Hence, prompting many companies to assume wrongly that younger workers will be more tech-savvy. Not minding older folks long years of experience acquired, which in itself could be a significant loss to the company if quantified in figures.
Is the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC), Just a Barking Dog?
Despite that, the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC), the country’s workforce vanguard, sternly warned in a report of 2018 on age discrimination against older Americans. It recalled how Congress outlawed the practice 50 years gone by. But “age discrimination remains a significant and costly problem for workers, their families, and our economy.” The report further compares age discrimination to harassment: “Everyone knows it happens every day to workers in all kinds of jobs, but few speak up. It’s an open secret.”
Between the period 1997 and 2018, about 423,000 U.S. workers filed age discrimination claims with the EEOC. And that’s roughly 19,200 annually, and 22 percent of all workplace discrimination claims. According to an AARP survey, only 3 percent of older employees have ventured to launch a formal complaint of age discrimination to a government agency. This implies hundreds of thousands who just adjust to the job repudiation, overlook the rejection for job promotion, endure workplace harassment, or accept early retirement.
Interestingly, Kristin Alden of Alden Law Group PLLC in Washington, D.C., rightly said: “Age discrimination is so pervasive that people don’t even recognize it’s illegal,”… It’s a fact that older people are forced to leave their workplace with substantial intellectual property. Under normal circumstances, such knowledge is supposed to be transferred to the younger generation; if not, consciously or unconsciously, the company will have to pay the price for the loss.
Illegal age discrimination in the workplace takes many forms. Notably, during recruitment and hiring, younger folks are favored. At the same time, older employees are given fewer or no opportunities to train on the job. Likewise, older folks are an easy target for layoffs and are sometimes forced to retire.
Anti-Aging: The Many Fingers Pointing at Society
Some experts even find fault with our enterprise model as a root cause of most of these problems. In this business model, our employees are considered and treated as human capital much in the same way as their fixed assets, say, equipment, trucks, etc., which depreciate in value over the years. They get rid of them and replace them at will to keep the business going.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) cites our American culture as to why ageism continues to be an issue. Stating how we spend billions on anti-aging goods and services. But wonder why do we complain when our companies cherish and share our youth-obsessed world in addition to the horrible way we perceive aging?
It’s not enough to say: “This company does not discriminate against any employee or job applicant because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, physical or mental disability, or age.” While at the backdoor, the company can easily change the rule of the game without being seriously penalized.
Our companies are just not complying with government rules and regulations when it comes to age discrimination. Understandably, they may be short of manpower in terms of staff to battle with the rampant age discrimination in our society. But the agency has to step up and do something urgent and drastic to solve the hardship older American workers are going through. As the saying goes, “where there’s will there’s a way.” Our companies must summon the courage for them to have the will, therefore a smooth way to do the rightful for the long-suffering older American workers.