Ageism In The Workplace

In sociology, class, gender and cultural background are common reference categories in research, especially when some form of discrimination is at issue. Now one can add age discrimination or what is known by sociologist as ‘ageism’ to this list of common reference categories. Ageism is increasing worldwide particularly when it comes to the workforce/workplace and older or senior workers are often at the forefront. It will be argued that ageism is still a topic of concern when it comes to discrimination of older people in the workforce and this essay will undercover the effects of ageism on older workers lives and will critically examined the impacts that workplace ageism has on older workers lives including social and psychological. A

Barnes et al 2006 expresses the ideas that workplace ageism against older workers, which includes poor job status and or lack of employment opportunities can simply form one component of wider social exclusion, in which those older worker who are unemployed are more likely to have low income and or live in poor quality

Since the 1970’s there has been a steady decline worldwide in the labor force participation rate of older workers and older workers are no longer being referred to as ‘go-getters, ‘loyal’ ‘can doers’ or hard workers; instead they are being referred to as experienced at a ‘senior level and ‘mature’. This in turn has might make some older workers feel as though all the years of experience and knowledge they have gained has gone to waste and is no use to the younger generation and It must hurt when you still have over 12 working years left and your told your two old to train and learn new skills. This type of ageism has been shown to impact the everyday lives of older workers both socially and psychologically by impacting their chance of a financially better retirement and mental health status. Somehow this has to have some type of impact older workers lives considering they still have at least 12 working years until