by Suzanne Rose

Created on: May 10, 2010

Age discrimination is something that occurs all too frequently in business.  Sometimes a business or a manager can actually foster it without even realizing it or doing so purposefully.  The following are steps you can take to prevent age discriminations in your business.

Do not discriminate yourself

You may be discriminatory yourself without even realizing it.  Make sure that when you are thinking about hiring and promoting people, that you are not discriminating someone based on their age. You may be doing so without even thinking about it and it is not fair to the person.  When you are making a decision about business moves that involve older employees, think about these decisions carefully.  Make sure that you are making decisions based on fair items such as someone’s work productivity or experience and not something like their age.  A lot of times this is a mistake in itself.  Younger people sometimes feel that older people are not as capable, however they are often more so simply because of the amount of experience that they have had through the years.

Do not talk down or make a joke about someone’s age

It may seem like a simple joke – just an attempt at humor.  Yet what is humor to one person can be very hurtful to another.  The person might not even say anything and may even laugh with you however that does not mean that he or she is not bothered by your attempting humor at their expense.  When other people see that you make fun of their age then they will feel that it is okay for them to do so as well.  When people start making jokes about it, that is when age discrimination can occur.

Make an education program for your employees about this issue

One of the best things that you can do to prevent age discrimination is to actively work against it.  To that end you can put together some literature or even a little educational program talking about the issues and why it shouldn’t happen.  You could give this to the managers in your company, the employees or ideally both.  Make sure that it explains why it is a problem and it will hopefully drum up empathy for the elderly workers.  Remember, all that separates the younger workers form the older ones is time.

It is important to do what you can to prevent age discrimination in your business.  The above tips can help you do so.

Learn more about this author, Suzanne Rose.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.