preview

Examples Of Prejudice And Intolerance In The Workforce

Decent Essays

Prejudice and Intolerance In the Workforce “We've made so many advances in other areas- civil rights, gay rights- but ageism is still an area that's taboo and not talked about and dealt with.” Popular singer, Madonna expressed in Rolling Stone magazine in March of 2015 as she protested a ban on her song. This type of discrimination has been brought to the public's attention at great extents in the past couple of years. Despite efforts to eradicate unfair treatment, the questions remain: Why are there so many older adults unemployed in the United States? How are these older individuals viewed by employers? What is being done to combat ageism with employment opportunities? Ageism is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person’s age. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), 7 million people were unemployed mid-year 2017, with 1.2 million of those people being fifty-five years of age or older. This older population plus the new graduates entering the workforce place the unemployment rate at about 4.4 percent. Countless young adults, fresh out of college and ready to enter the world of career opportunities, must first be “sell” themselves to employers during job interviews. The competition is fierce with employers analyzing experience, education, and skill sets. It is not just the younger growing population of college graduates that are competing for job opportunities; many experienced, mature adults are among those searching for employment. Unfortunately, those older generations are the ones that have the largest disadvantage when being considered for employment. One would presume that an individual with over two decades of experience in the field would have no concern finding a new position with another company. The inevitable demise of numerous years of experience is the individual’s age. Furthermore, job security is a false sense of safety for employees that have been employed for many years. Experienced employees begin to see behaviors from employers that result in termination or forced resignation of the worker. These individuals experience negative feedback on job tasks that they were once praised for and unfair expectations that give the appearance of performance

Get Access