Ageism in the Workplace

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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 cause them a lot of losses in terms of business, economy and individually if this continues on. For this paper, it is my fervent belief that this concept of age discrimination in the workplace can be stopped if there is a proper decorum on addressing the importance of older employees in the workforce and the discussion of the possible consequences of continuing this age discrimination practice and how revise the current recruitment system so that employees are given equal opportunities and not fire them just because of their ages.

The problem of age discrimination especially in the older generation is not a new issue as it has been around for quite a long time. Segrave (2001) noted that most workers are deemed old if they reach their forties in the early nineteenth century. Employers and companies would already start firing people just because of this particular notion on age. Employees find this idea ludicrous and insulting as they are judged just because of their age and some would file charges ...

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...younger generation would also feel this stereotyping, discrimination and prejudice once they step in the age where they can be classified as part of the older generation.

The problem of age discrimination is a long cycle of problems that all members of society would face in some point of their lives. Now that everyone is taking good interest of worker rights, they would realize that this old notion of age discrimination is still happening and they would stop at nothing to get rid of the problem before they experience it themselves. Once this problem is resolved and eliminated, not only would the older generation benefit from it but also the society in general. Everyone must be given a chance to work on their professions even in their golden years, as long as they are happy and stress free because of the lack of discrimination on their age, we should let them be.

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