The Older Worker Essay

Many employers view the old employers especially the baby boomers as too rigid, failing health, lack of enthusiasm, afraid of new technologies, do not want to learn new training (stuck in old ways), and expensive to keep. Many aged people are viewing job advertisements with pictures of younger employees. In addition, the aged are facing high cost of medical insurance and healthcare. With the obstacles in the job market, the aged could possibly experience social isolationism, low self-esteem, and financial hardship.

As we begin to enter an aging America many positive effects will foreshadow, like having more experienced workers, changing perceptions of how we think of the aged and aging, them being active in the community, and obtaining their place in society. In observing the history and how far we have come along with regards to our views, government funding’s, and where they will live can only improve as future elderly come into existence. So much as 40 years into the future there perhaps will be modifications to reduce working hours to 4 days a week. Changes like this would shift our demographic work style that would ease us into our older years and living longer and happier lives. This growing demographic that’s estimated in the future will play a

This week, the lecture and additional articles were about the growing number of people reaching late adulthood and the problems that will be created for society. Society is not ready for the influx of elderly individuals needing assistance. In addition to discussing the amount of people reaching late adulthood, this week also touched on several models and theories in regards to aging. This week provided sufficient background information and vital knowledge for the introduction

Many studies have shown a positive link between work and well-being. Research concludes unemployed individuals show lower levels of well-being, reduction in happiness, lower income, and often destroyed self-respect and social relationships (Layard, 2004.) The older person’s importance of having employment is correlated with many aspects of their health and social relationships. It was estimated that in 2011, one out of six Canadians was an older worker, which was much higher from a decade earlier (Government of Canada, 2012). Currently, access to jobs is often limited do to mentioned ageist stereotypes. Often than not, older workers are perceived as having diminished mental and physical competence, resistant to change, unproductive, slow, difficult

The Department of Labor estimates that by the year 2012, the Labor Force will be over age 55 (Harvey 184). In a time when issues such as Age and Ability are at the far front for a lot of employers, understanding how to deal with an aging workforce is essential. The debate on how to address this issue is only beginning.

There are ways that employers can retain or entice older employees to push back retirement or continue looking for a job after their retirement age. Have a flexible schedule, the employment

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 1967, the U.S. Congress enacted the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) which aimed to “promote employment of older persons based on their ability rather than age to prohibit arbitrary age discrimination in employment…” (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Nineteen years later, by amending ADEA, Congress abolished mandatory retirement in 1986. However, mandatory retirement was not completely eliminated for all workers. There are exceptions for military service, federal law enforcement agencies and other occupations that demand high levels of physical and mental skill (Hannon). Workers in these occupations must retire at a certain age due to the assumption of “a general relationship between advancing age and decreasing physical ability to respond to the demands of the

Firstly, a key influence on retirement is gender. James M. Henslin, author of “Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach” uses the term gender age to describe how gender has influence on retirement. Gender age can be portrayed as the relative value assigned to men and women by their length of life (Henslin, 372). Symbolic interactionists use four factors to determine whether a person is considered old or not. These include biology, personal history, gender age, and societies idea of old (Henslin, 372). This is significant since gender age plays a crucial role in determining when age cohorts, or people born at around similar time and progress through life in conjunction, are considered old in societies standards. In addition, not only gender, but

Allen, S. G., Clark, R. L., & Ghent, L. S. (2004). Phasing into retirement. The Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 58(1), 112-127. Gelfand, D.E., & Bechill, W. (1991, Summer-Fall). The evolution of the older Americans act: a 25-year review of the legislative changes. Generations, 15(3), 19-22. Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment (8th ed.). Mason , Ohio: Brooks Cole/Cengage.

In conclusion, ageism in today’s times is a real form of discrimination and needs to be fixed. An individual’s skills and capabilities should be based on a personal level, not their age. The elderly and the young need just as much job opportunities as the middle-aged individuals living in the

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.

Concern by policymakers over these types of incidents prompted Congress to enact the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) in 1968, which outlawed discrimination in the workplace against workers between the ages of 40 and 65. Later amendments prohibited mandatory retirement before the age of 70 in 1978 (and then outlawed mandatory retirement altogether with a few exceptions) in 1986. During 1990, 10,485 complaints of age discrimination were filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.” 1 (Johnson and Neumark, pg. 779 , 1996 )

“The number of employees over the age of 55 has increased by 30 percent; however, the number of 25- to 54-year-olds has only increased by 1 percent” (Claire, 2009). In 2008 the eldest of the 77 million baby-boomers turned 62. Estimates are that by the end of the decade about 40 percent of the work force will be eligible to retire. As people begin to reach the age of retirement there may be not be enough new employees to fill the gap (Clare, 2009). Companies need to find ways to attract Boomers and Millennials. Companies that want to attract Boomers and Millennials need to be creative in their culture, HR policies and work environments.

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