Does your age work against you in the workplace? You might inform your employers that fighting age bias is good business.
The aging of the baby boomer generation will cost businesses billions of dollars in fines and damages related to age discrimination over the next few years unless employers face some hard facts about the problem, says educator and consultant Sheldon Steinhauser.
The sociology professor at Denver's Metropolitan State College says individual and class-action suits alleging age discrimination will proliferate if businesses do not change their attitudes toward older workers. If businesses are going to avoid costly litigation, they should recognize age bias and discrimination as a pervasive, escalating issue and immediately expand preventative training on age bias.
One step he recommends is for a company to assess its "culture" and learn how employees feel about older workers and how those feelings play out in the workplace. Corporate executives and lower-level supervisors and managers should re-think attitudes about older adults in the company and policies, training programs and evaluations should be revised to eliminate discriminatory language.
Companies should spend less time documenting defenses against potential age discrimination suits and spend more time preventing or minimizing such legal actions, Steinhauser says.
He will present his views, "Rethinking the Battle Against Ageism in the Workplace," later this month at the annual meeting of the American Society of Aging in San Francisco.
