Ageism In The Workplace Essay

Ageism in the workplace

Ageism in the workplace is something that is inevitable. Just like racism and sexism are types of discrimination, a form of discrimination that is not often talked about is ageism in the workplace. Oftentimes, older generations find themselves unable to find a job, leading them to be unemployed in the long run (Georgiana 2018). Older unemployed people spend much longer periods searching for jobs. People who are 45 or older can spend up to an average of 22 weeks looking for a new job, while workers who are under the age of 45 spend less time (Thomas 2022). There is a common misconception that older people are less effective in the workplace, such as not having amazing performance compared to younger people, being unteachable,

Many people don't believe that discrimination against older people in the workplace is a thing; many people would argue that it is the other way around, that employers would much rather hire an older person with experience vs. a younger person who is inexperienced because it can be costly. Young people often find themselves unemployed in this competitive job market. The United States has one of the world's highest rates of unemployment among 20- to 26-year-olds. About half of the people who are unemployed in the United States are under the age of 34 (Tucker 2013). Just like older people face a lot of stereotypes, younger people also face many stereotypes, such as lacking experience, being too young, and being too impatient, which lead to fewer opportunities for promotion (Georgiana 2018). Younger people often have to build their way up and often have to start at lower wages than older people. Most of the time, these minimum-wage jobs are so hard because it's difficult for these inexperienced workers to be worth paying much more than that because odds are that they will be losing the company money in the first few months of employment due to the fact that they are untrained. (Tucker 2013) A problem that both young people and older people face is that businesses don't like to take chances on younger or older people because both can be costly. It has been found that businesses are not willing to invest the proper amount of money in their workers to help them succeed. Even though both younger and older people have this problem, most of the time it has to do with businesses not giving them the tools to succeed. When people say that older people are slower and not willing to learn, it mostly has to do with the fact that managers tend not to support, accommodate, or accept requests coming from