Catherine Smith, Director of People and Organisation at Auckland War Memorial Museum, looks at the subtle and damaging ways ageism rears its ugly head in our workplaces.
Step into any supermarket or browse through a bookshop, and you'll encounter a disheartening display of greeting cards that mock and belittle older people. With caricatures depicting sagging body parts, forgetfulness, and feebleness, these cards reinforce harmful stereotypes that portray aging as something to be ridiculed and feared. What message does this send to older people - that they are nothing more than punchlines to a tasteless joke? Ageism is so ingrained in our society that we’ve become numb to ageist beliefs and attitudes.
But the issue extends far beyond the realm of greeting cards. Age-discriminatory laws and policies lurk within the fabric of our society, quietly dictating who is deemed worthy of certain opportunities based solely on their birth date. Consider, for instance, the archaic mandate that forces judges to retire once they reach 70, regardless of their continued professional value or performance. Are we to believe that wisdom and competence have an expiration date? And let's not forget the KiwiSaver cutoff age, which effectively penalises older workers by denying them employer contributions simply because they stay employed beyond an arbitrary threshold.
Ageism is insidious and flies under the radar, masquerading as harmless jest or subtle policy. Older workers make up a third of the New Zealand labour force and are the fastest growing demographic group, and over 25 per cent of those aged 65-plus are still working.[1] We must address the pervasive undercurrent of age-based prejudice that permeates their daily lives. We live in a society obsessed with youth, where wrinkles are seen as flaws to be erased and grey hair is dyed away to cling to our fleeting youth. But ageism is not just about wrinkles and grey hair. It's about the insidious belief that older people are somehow less worthy, incompetent, unappealing, or useless, and less deserving of love and respect.
In the workplace, ageism rears its ugly head in subtle and damaging ways. Older employees are sidelined, their experience and expertise overlooked in favour of younger, supposedly more "dynamic" counterparts. Stereotypes abound, painting older workers as technologically inept, resistant to change, and lacking in innovation. Yet study after study has shown that age-diverse teams are not only more productive but also more innovative and resilient[2]. Youth is not synonymous with competence, just as age is not synonymous with incompetence. Older workers are just as capable of learning, growing, and adapting to new challenges as their younger counterparts.
Let's talk about the stereotypes that plague older people, particularly when it comes to sexuality and beauty. How many times have we seen older adults portrayed as unattractive, undesirable, or asexual in popular culture? Yes, older people have sex lives. Shocking, I know. But why is it that people openly cringe at the thought of their grandparents being intimate? Why do we persist with open denial of this fundamental aspect of their humanity?
And don’t get me started on generational stereotyping! We've become accustomed to categorisation of individuals into distinct generational groups, from the so-called "Silent Generation" to the much-discussed "Millennials" and "Gen Z." But what do these labels truly signify, and are they anything more than arbitrary constructs that serve to divide rather than unite?
Generational labels are little more than judgmental shorthand that morph into rigid stereotypes, unfairly pigeonholing entire cohorts based on their birth year. And nowhere is this more evident than in the case of the much-maligned "Boomers." The term Boomer has become synonymous with a litany of negative attributes in popular discourse: selfish, entitled, out-of-touch. Are all individuals born within a certain timeframe destined to embody these characteristics? Of course not. To paint an entire generation with the same broad brush is not only lazy but also deeply unfair.
But the problem doesn't end with Boomers. Millennials are dismissed as lazy and entitled, Gen Xers as cynical and disengaged. These labels do little to foster understanding or empathy, instead breeding resentment and mistrust. Let's recognise that age is but one facet of our identity, not the defining characteristic. And in our equity, diversity and inclusion workplace efforts, isn’t our job to amplify and celebrate the diversity of human experience, rather than participate in such simplistic labels and stereotypes?
It's time to shatter the illusion of ageism as a harmless joke or a necessary evil. This pervasive form of discrimination benefits no one. By perpetuating negative stereotypes, we undermine not just the inclusivity of our work cultures, but the fabric of our society.
A colleague recently told me that when she came to New Zealand she was shocked to see how (a majority in) our society viewed and treated older people. To be honest, so am I. In many indigenous cultures, including te ao Māori and in Pacific nations, older people are revered and respected deeply. Their life experiences are valued and sought after, and they play key roles in decision-making processes and governance. This reverence stands in stark contrast to the ageist attitudes that prevail in Western societies, where aging is viewed as decline, and older individuals are marginalised or dismissed based solely on their age.
We also know that age discrimination intersects with other forms of discrimination. The notion of the invisibility of an aging woman has become an accepted trope (with associated microaggressions like being talked over, not served, not taken seriously). Aging is gendered, disability is stigmatised and racism denies many the chance to age at all.
Internalised ageism becomes ingrained into the subconscious, and I have found that it takes some work to see it and address it. Phrases like "having a senior moment" or "feeling old" may seem harmless on the surface, but they reinforce stereotypes of aging as synonymous with decline, incompetence, or forgetfulness. By using such language, we contribute to the stigmatisation of older adults and reinforce ageist attitudes within ourselves and society.
Think about it: how many times have you seen an older person hesitate to pursue a new opportunity or take a risk simply because they've been conditioned to believe they're no longer capable or its not appropriate? Have you witnessed older colleagues make self-deprecating jokes about their age, to beat us to the punchline? Not surprising when every advertisement, every movie, every magazine cover seems to scream at them that they're no longer young, no longer desirable, no longer relevant.
The elephant in the room is that old age is (hopefully) inevitable for us all. We all have skin in this game. As such, ageism has been described as a “prejudice against our feared future self” (Nelson, 2005, p. 207).[3] Ageism doesn’t have to be inevitable though because in the end, we are more than the sum of our birth years. It's time we started acting like it
References
[1] https://www.business.govt.nz/older-worker-employment-toolkit/#:~:text=As%20the%20population%20ages%20and,aged%2065%2Dplus%20still%20working.
[2] García-Granero, A., Fernández-Mesa, A., Jansen, J. J. & Vega-Jurado, J., 2018. Top management team diversity and ambidexterity: The contingent role of shared responsibility and CEO cognitive trust. Long Range Planning, 51(6), pp. 881-893.
Deloitte, 2018. Diversity and inclusion revolution: Eight powerful truths. [online] Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com [Accessed 24 Sep. 2024].
Diversity for Social Impact, 2023. Strategies for Building an Inclusive Multigenerational Culture. [online] Available at: https://diversity.social [Accessed 24 Sep. 2024].
Gurchiek, K., 2020. Age diversity in the workplace: Facilitating opportunities with organizational practices. Public Policy & Aging Report, 30(4), pp. 119-130.
[3] https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2005.00402.x