Aging! We all do it every day, but have you ever thought how it is going to affect the rest of your life or more importantly your career? Aging isn’t something that we get to choose if we participate in, however working is, and aging may affect that choice. Right now, I want you to think about the age of sixty-five. What words pop into your head when you think of someone sixty-five? I’d imagine some of the words you thought of were retired, old, fragile, slow, as well as many others. Those words right there all help to explain the many concerns that one’s employer may have when hiring someone that is of the older population. When we think of the older population in the work force we don’t necessarily think of positive things, instead we think of things. When we think of this population in the workforce we generally think of lower production rates and higher costs. These can create issues among the older population, as employers must consider all the possibilities when hiring someone. We know that more people in the older population are continuing to try to continue their careers, but why? How hard is it for them to continue? What changes have made it easier? How are the younger and middle aged populations perceiving them in the work place? This are only some of the many question surrounding the increase of aged workers. In 2007 approximately, thirteen percent of Americans that were sixty-five years or older reported that they were still working and in 2016 this number
Many employers view the old employers especially the baby boomers as too rigid, failing health, lack of enthusiasm, afraid of new technologies, do not want to learn new training (stuck in old ways), and expensive to keep. Many aged people are viewing job advertisements with pictures of younger employees. In addition, the aged are facing high cost of medical insurance and healthcare. With the obstacles in the job market, the aged could possibly experience social isolationism, low self-esteem, and financial hardship.
Medicare is not the only benefit seniors receive from their government. Taxes can be greatly affected by age. For instance, many elderly receive tax breaks and extensions based on their social security benefits as well as reductions and tax-cuts on certain holdings and investments. So with Roth IRAs, 401k the elderly is only taxed upon withdrawal. Discounts are available everywhere for the elderly from restaurants to cruise ships. Normally, with higher prices bring bigger discounts. Ageing workers are more skilled, knowledgeable, and more proficient than their younger counterparts. Often times it can be said that the “older people” are more intelligent, practical, intuitive, extremely flexible and very strategic in their work ethic, planning and can be considered “intelligent” in life’s well learned lessons that come with age and wisdom. Being positive and using an example in this way between aging and greater wisdom, one tends to have a greater degree of patience, greater understanding and wisdom that parallels life’s pathway. “Many elders in foreign countries are considered to be esteemed and held in high regard,” (Applebaum, Bardo, Robbins (2103). Some studies show that interests, motivation and skill does not decline with age, nor does a person’s work performance suffer due to aging. Aging workers also receive higher salaries due to their tenure. Finally, there is no data to show that older workers cost more to insure than younger
Age discrimination in the workforce is a major issue in Today’s society. Although this is hardly ever mentioned, it is a concern that affects the aging population and their work performance. Those who are of old age are often not given a chance and looked down on. They are thought of as being mentally and physically in decline, less adaptable, unwilling to be trained, and costly to the organization. The elderly are considered “slow workers.” They are often forced to work extra hard to prove to their employer, they are capable of working as effective as the young. Defining someone’s work performance according to their age is against the law. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) addresses discrimination against the older population. This Act was passed by congress to ensure people of age 40 and older are given fair judgment in the workforce; however, the maturing population of baby boomers has led to an increasing number of elderly workers. This has cause age discrimination to rise. It is important that we review and analyze age discrimination has a political issues that must be changed. Although ADEA sets out to help the aging population, changes should be made within the employer. In order to seek change, one must first understand ADEA and how it promotes fair treatment for the elderly.
As we begin to enter an aging America many positive effects will foreshadow, like having more experienced workers, changing perceptions of how we think of the aged and aging, them being active in the community, and obtaining their place in society. In observing the history and how far we have come along with regards to our views, government funding’s, and where they will live can only improve as future elderly come into existence. So much as 40 years into the future there perhaps will be modifications to reduce working hours to 4 days a week. Changes like this would shift our demographic work style that would ease us into our older years and living longer and happier lives. This growing demographic that’s estimated in the future will play a
While these aspects of society certainly do impact a nation with a growing older population, they are not the most problematic. Financial instability of the country should not be the spotlight of concern, but as people are living longer, people should be more concerned with that the typical life should look different in the future. With this in mind, the article proposes other areas of concern: lack of incentive for volunteering, little to no new education for older adults, and massive technological change with no way for older generations to learn how to use it. If these areas are not provided with change, it will ultimately lead to economic hardship for the elderly, due to the lack of new education and technological knowledge, which would, in turn, able them to work longer. If older generations were able to stay in the workforce longer, our aging society, which people believe may eventually not have a large enough work force, would be able to avoid this presumed
By 2020, approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population will be 65 years or older and employers have yet to come to grips with this fact. The aging population will affect the workforce through retirement and those continuing to work. Medicare and Social Security are very likely to undergo profound changes. Some who reach the age of 65 will not be able to retire due to the fact that they require outside income. Retired or not, the aging population will contribute heavily to the consumer market. Their demand for leisure-time pursuits and professional services will fuel local labor markets. This boom in the service sector may replace many low-skilled or unskilled jobs. The aging of the population will be far more dramatic that ethnic
Ageism is surprisingly common in Australia, particularly within the workforce. The definition of ageism in working life according to Furunes and Mykletun (2009), is the “stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination against ageing workers, based on chronological age or age categories such as older worker or senior”. This phenomenon has seen older workers increasingly subjected to biases and discriminatory practices when seeking and maintaining employment. Hence, the importance for organisations to understand current and trending issues on age discrimination, in order to draft and implement, effective, and relevant policies. The purpose of this report is to provide an in-depth analysis on ageism as a diversity issue in the workplace and to recommend organisational policies that recognise older workers as a strategic advantage. This analysis will focus on literature relevant to the recruitment and development of older workers. To begin with, this report will consider the context of ageism in Australia providing a deeper understanding of the diversity issue. Furthermore, an extensive discussion on the positive and negative age stereotypes of older workers will follow. The report will then review literature regarding organisational practices towards recruitment and development from an age related perspective. Finally, recommendations will ensue, providing organisational best practise suggestions to create age positive recruitment and training experiences.
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
The title of the report is "Unemployed Older Workers: Many Face Long-Term Joblessness and Reduced Retirement Security" and was published on May 15, 2012. The main focus of this report is to address the long period of unemployment rates among older workers. The unemployment rates of all American workers have dramatically increased during the recent recession between 2007-2009, especially in older workers. Researchers associated these unemployment rates of older workers to the longer job tenure that older workers tend to have and the low possibility of younger workers being laid off. The GAO discovered that both the focus group participants and many experts believe that employers tend to be reluctant when hiring older worker which proposes
In conclusion, ageism in today’s times is a real form of discrimination and needs to be fixed. An individual’s skills and capabilities should be based on a personal level, not their age. The elderly and the young need just as much job opportunities as the middle-aged individuals living in the
Does aging reduce the work effectiveness of older workers? In this fast-growing economy, many people believe that older workers should stop working at a certain age because younger workers will keep up with rapid economic development better. Lois Lowry describes this discrimination in The Giver when citizens get older, they give up their jobs and are treated as children instead of knowledgeable individuals to maintain the sameness in the community. Similarly, because of the ageism, modern society falsely limits the opportunities of the group of older workers. The misunderstood perception in the present can be against themselves in the future because most of people, who are lucky to live long, will
Many of us treat the elderly as cute and almost in a way that could be associated with how we deal with children (such as when I noticed at retirement homes the nurses would speak in the high-pitched, squealing tones that are associated with how we speak to newborns). Yet with the stereotypes of the fragile and gently senior, according to the Canadian Centre of Occupational Health and Safety, there is no definite correlation between being older and diminishing work performance. In fact, in general, studies indicate that the older workforce displays traits such as higher levels of dedication, more desirable work values, and are less likely to call off (https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/psychosocial/aging_workers.html). Yet, whatever the case may be, it is apparent that age bias is a problem that will continue to be a hidden stigma in our society while other social equality issues remain at the forefront of
As aging is a stage of development that cannot prevented, the question of “can one’s aging be more successful than another?” is posed my many. Researchers continually consider the differences between aging successfully, and aging unsuccessfully. As researchers work to complete their studies, many find a reoccurring basis of successful aging. A basis of successful aging can be set including: physical health disease free, chronic illness free, mental health disease free, among many others. The only problem with this basis is the difference from person to person in terms of what makes aging successful. As individuals age, their mental state is a large predictor of how the person will age. A positive mental state about aging, will have a more positive effect on a person’s aging process. Many factors may influence the positivity of aging, such as negative aging stereotypes and discrimination because of older age. These negative aging stereotypes include but are not limited to: older adults are not as smart, older adults are angry all the time, older adults are bad drivers, older adults are isolated and never socialize. In adult aging and development, having a positive outlook on aging will lead to better mental and physical aging.
Aging population can be used as an advantage to increase economic rates growth by keeping them employed as long as possible (Nankervis et al. 2006, p.55). People who are working in a knowledge fields may increase their performance with age, however for more physical positions there is an opposite possibility of low performance with increasing age (Patrickson & Ranzijn, 2006). Consequently, specific jobs may have lack of professional employees. For example by separating workers and using older workers as experience type that can teach and train young employees, as well as use their knowledge will benefit organization in different departments. Also by using younger workers as routine workers or in more physical positions that are hard to perform for older employees will give them opportunity to earn more experience and will keep older employees working as well (Patrickson & Ranzijn, 2006). It is necessary for human resources to distribute their workforce accordingly and to provide required training for their young and old employees.
Although mandatory retirement is not largely popular, it still has an effect on many older workers and how they plan for retirement. "Mandatory retirement involves less than 1 percent of the work force and so opens up only a small fraction of the total jobs", because