Employees are NOT commodities, they don’t depreciate with Age
Employees are NOT commodities, they don’t depreciate with Age
Published on Published on November 8, 2017
Brigette Hyacinth
_“He is ‘too old’ for this job.” The HR manager said to me after we interviewed John (not his real name). She continued saying, "he will not fit into our culture." John had been laid off by his previous employer due to restructuring at the age of 53 yrs.
Ageism in the workplace is very real. It is the elephant in the room. I see uproars over every other “ism” (sexism, racism…etc) but everyone turns a blind eye to ageism. It is being swept under the carpet; To the HR manager’s disappointment, I did hire John. John brought a wealth of experience and taught me a lot that I never learned from an MBA.
We live in a youth oriented society. The hype about "out with the old, in with the new" needs to stop. You can't Google experience. A person's age doesn't lessen their ability to work hard or to make a valuable contribution to the organization or society. When someone crosses 50+ doesn't mean they cannot function and should just retire and sit in a corner. Common myths: "They can’t learn. They are not creative. They are not as productive as younger employees. Customers do not respond as well to older workers." These are all based on false premises and assumptions._
Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employees-commodities-dont-depreciate-age-brigette-hyacinth/
Published on Published on November 8, 2017
Brigette Hyacinth
_“He is ‘too old’ for this job.” The HR manager said to me after we interviewed John (not his real name). She continued saying, "he will not fit into our culture." John had been laid off by his previous employer due to restructuring at the age of 53 yrs.
Ageism in the workplace is very real. It is the elephant in the room. I see uproars over every other “ism” (sexism, racism…etc) but everyone turns a blind eye to ageism. It is being swept under the carpet; To the HR manager’s disappointment, I did hire John. John brought a wealth of experience and taught me a lot that I never learned from an MBA.
We live in a youth oriented society. The hype about "out with the old, in with the new" needs to stop. You can't Google experience. A person's age doesn't lessen their ability to work hard or to make a valuable contribution to the organization or society. When someone crosses 50+ doesn't mean they cannot function and should just retire and sit in a corner. Common myths: "They can’t learn. They are not creative. They are not as productive as younger employees. Customers do not respond as well to older workers." These are all based on false premises and assumptions._
Read more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/employees-commodities-dont-depreciate-age-brigette-hyacinth/
While I agree that age should not be a factor I have noticed in my own life that the further in time you separate your youth from current conditions/technology/methods the less adaptable you are to them (generally speaking). I imagine this has to do with how the brain develops.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is a good reason to employ people that are older because some things don't change or reoccur and for those issues, there is no substitute for experience.
I should also note that in my experience there are plenty of young people that cannot grasp new technologies any better than a chimp and seem to lack direction and interest.
Overall it is a garbage move to terminate the employment of person because of their age.