Age Stereotypes

With longer life spans and a decrease in birth rates, older generations are working longer (age diversity). Age diversity is the acceptance of all age groups and their differences within an organization. Besides providing years of experience to younger generations, older employees can also increase organizational value (age diversity). In regards to Target, there are many older employees working, some due to the recessions and lost their higher paying jobs and could only get minimum wage jobs, since they were the only job openings. Bringing their experiences to the corporate culture allow for the ability to avoid certain

In today’s modern world, our mindset in fashion are all based on fantasy; new brands/branding, trends and many more. We all live in a society whereby we tends to buy things that are attractive. Even though we don’t have enough money for such items such as cloths, borrowing or lending money from others would better off the cost. In fashion, a question came to mind, what type of people are mostly portrayed especially in magazine covers?

Ageism is surprisingly common in Australia, particularly within the workforce. The definition of ageism in working life according to Furunes and Mykletun (2009), is the “stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against ageing workers, based on chronological age or age categories such as older worker or senior”. This phenomenon has seen older workers increasingly subjected to biases and discriminatory practices when seeking and maintaining employment. Hence, the importance for organisations to understand current and trending issues on age discrimination, in order to draft and implement, effective, and relevant policies. The purpose of this report is to provide an in-depth analysis on ageism as a diversity issue in the workplace and to recommend organisational policies that recognise older workers as a strategic advantage. This analysis will focus on literature relevant to the recruitment and development of older workers. To begin with, this report will consider the context of ageism in Australia providing a deeper understanding of the diversity issue. Furthermore, an extensive discussion on the positive and negative age stereotypes of older workers will follow. The report will then review literature regarding organisational practices towards recruitment and development from an age related perspective. Finally, recommendations will ensue, providing organisational best practise suggestions to create age positive recruitment and training experiences.

Workspace demographics now span four generations. A twenty-something hired this year can expect to find that they working with colleagues who are older than they are by fifty or more years. The reason for this is primarily due to labor shortages for trained personnel in many industries. In addition, many older workers are now delaying retirement due for economic or other reasons. Many of the baby boomer generation can now be expected to delay retirement into their seventies. (Randstad USA)

Age discrimination has long been present in society due to the rapid development happening around us. According to Farney, Aday & Breault (2006), this era of ageism is defined as "discrimination against any age group", but it often is pointed to age discrimination among adults which is slowly causing a negative effect for them in the workplace. In the workplace, adults with more experience and longer history behind them are targets of this ageism belief that companies and employers tend to have (Farney, Aday, & Breault, 2006). They are shunned and even fired in favor of accepting new and fresh faces for the company they have worked for. Unknown to most companies and employers, this notion of favoring the young and banishing the old can

In today’s economy and workforce, ageism is a factor that we see appear way too often. Ageism reverses it’s roles (discrimination for being too old and discrimination for being too young) and changes its job essentials when need be. The effects of Ageism do not “discriminate”. This particular discussion has an experienced meaning to me since I have encountered ageism in previous employment. However, before sharing my experience I would like to express my position on the posted statement. “Older workers take employment from the young”. I spoke with a few friends on this issue and their responses seemed bias for the fact that we are all young (19-21), yet each of us obtain jobs that Older adults normally obtain. My friends and I discovered that

I really enjoyed the lecture on Ageism; it was very interesting and educational. I was surprised with the 20 True or False question on what is your aging I.Q. We do have different concept about elderly or older people, however after watching the lecture I have learned more true understanding about ageism. Ageism is when you judge people based on age. Unfortunately, I was surprised when this can be called as prejudice and stereotypes. I use to receive elderly jokes through email, which was really hilarious but didn’t think as being prejudice or stereotypes.

The age differences in self-awareness to automatic bias and the effects of stereotypes on how we perceive others.

2. William J. Rothwell, (2008): Working Longer, New Strategies for Managing, Training, and Retaining Older Employees. Amazon.com

Aging! We all do it every day, but have you ever thought how it is going to affect the rest of your life or more importantly your career? Aging isn’t something that we get to choose if we participate in, however working is, and aging may affect that choice. Right now, I want you to think about the age of sixty-five. What words pop into your head when you think of someone sixty-five? I’d imagine some of the words you thought of were retired, old, fragile, slow, as well as many others. Those words right there all help to explain the many concerns that one’s employer may have when hiring someone that is of the older population. When we think of the older population in the work force we don’t necessarily think of positive things, instead we think of things. When we think of this population in the workforce we generally think of lower production rates and higher costs. These can create issues among the older population, as employers must consider all the possibilities when hiring someone. We know that more people in the older population are continuing to try to continue their careers, but why? How hard is it for them to continue? What changes have made it easier? How are the younger and middle aged populations perceiving them in the work place? This are only some of the many question surrounding the increase of aged workers.

At the outset, there are numerous reason why elderly people should be treated equally as younger people, but the most conspicuous one lies the fact that older employees are competent to bring valuable working experience

     By making a healthy business case for age diversity, many employers have driven significant change within their organization. The business case is based on a simple premise; people are living longer than ever before and are having fewer children. As a result the population is aging. From an employment perspective, the dramatic drop in numbers of young people

Employees are increasingly pushing back retirement leading to an older and higher proportion of older employees in the workplace. In fact, the SHRM Workplace Forecast (2013) released by The Society for Human Resource’s listed the generation gap as a top future workplace trend. In addition, women are to becoming more and more a part of today’s workforce. However, both older individuals and women remain highly stereotyped groups.

Aging population can be used as an advantage to increase economic rates growth by keeping them employed as long as possible (Nankervis et al. 2006, p.55). People who are working in a knowledge fields may increase their performance with age, however for more physical positions there is an opposite possibility of low performance with increasing age (Patrickson & Ranzijn, 2006). Consequently, specific jobs may have lack of professional employees. For example by separating workers and using older workers as experience type that can teach and train young employees, as well as use their knowledge will benefit organization in different departments. Also by using younger workers as routine workers or in more physical positions that are hard to perform for older employees will give them opportunity to earn more experience and will keep older employees working as well (Patrickson & Ranzijn, 2006). It is necessary for human resources to distribute their workforce accordingly and to provide required training for their young and old employees.

Elderly people are often stereotyped as forgetful, weak, or unable to take care of themselves; keeping this in mind, how can you logically hire an elderly person to do a job that a young, more physically fit employee could undoubtedly perform with less risk and effort. Stereotypes such as these are playing a huge role in the controversy over mandatory retirement. Morgan