Ageism

BUILDING a career is a challenge. There are many roadblocks that you face in order to survive. The mental and physical challenges are a given, but there is one other that usually is usually taken for granted. This is the challenge of discrimination in the workplace.

It comes in many forms. It can be towards your race, gender, religion or even position in the workplace. There is one however that usually goes undetected or ignored; and that is discrimination towards your age.

The proper term for this is “Ageism”. It was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors.

Ageism is very common among the elders in the workplace. Older flight attendants are deemed “unattractive”, older teachers are “boring”, while those working in manual labor are “senile”.

Though is the most widespread, ageism not only refers to the seniors but to younger people as well. The ideas of younger people are not taken seriously because they made be too “risky”.

They also aren´t given much opportunity to have high positions because they may “lack experience”. Most entry-level jobs require at least two years or prior work experience just to be treated like an intern. 

It seems like the generation wars rub-off at the workplace too. It´s a shame because it affects the productivity of the labor force. Young people who try to start their career as well as older people who want to shift have a very hard time due to this discrimination.

There are ways to solve this though. There is the RA 10911 or Anti-age discrimination in employment act. However, even though this has been implemented since 2017 I still see many business establishments that say “must be 18 to 25 years old”.

I guess it all depends on the employer to set an open and accepting work environment. I realize I was lucky because the company where I used to work didn´t discriminate you based on your age. As long as you met the credentials you were given a role.

Let us all try to make a conscious effort to not stereotype people and let them work as long as they have the capacity to./PN