WHY AGEISM HAPPENS AND HOW TO ADDRESS IT
What is ageism?
Ageism is the discrimination of a person based on his/her age. Be it older people or the younger ones, Ageism is not restricted to a certain group. It may seem to be a trivial issue but it plays a great role in deteriorating the mental health of the targeted people.
Where does it affect the most people?
In modern society, it is very common in the workplace. Ageism is the promoter of toxic work culture and offers less growth to certain age groups. It happens in pretty much every area of our day to day lives, be it at our homes, workplaces, sports, politics and the list never ends.
Why ageism happens?
The major reason for this act is living with prejudices and negative stereotypes. We all at some point do it in our daily lives be it intentionally or unintentionally. However, it still is not justifiable to target people because of their age and not giving the, equal opportunities based on their talents and wisdom.
How the ageism propagates itself?
- Disrespectful attitude – Being singled out in a meeting or conference just because of the age gap. It implies on both elderly and very young adults.
- Inappropriate language – Using inappropriate words to address someone who is the target of their ageism. For example- addressing an elderly as old man, or a young adult as kid, baby, etc.
- Thinking lowly of the targeted person – Assuming that the person won’t be able to complete the given task based on his/her age and acting in a patronizingly superior way. The targeted people face negative comments about their ability and ideas methodology of doing tasks.
- Underestimating their intelligence and work stamina – Questioning the input and advice of the targeted person on the basis of experience in that area. Young people are assumed to be too young to handle the hurdles and elderly are simply referred as old-minds that are not creative enough. This doesn’t occur only at workplaces but also our homes very commonly.
- Dismissal from the important tasks on the basis of age – The target person in singled out of the important tasks saying that they are too new or lack experience in the case of young adults and in the case of elderly they can be targeted saying the area is new and innovative and requires people having expertise in the area to avoid loss.
- Unfair evaluations of their performance – Often the younger adults are assumed to be guilty if some problem arises in the work situation. They are labelled guilty for not knowing how things work. On asking questions, they are said to be ignorant or impertinent, disrespectful, sarcastic or dumb.
- Inappropriate age-targeted jokes
How to address it?
Mo matter where you go, whatever you do, or whatever the age group you belong to, there are some hurdles that will come your way for sure. This is life and it is not certain in any way. You only have two options, either quit and be a loser or buckle up and be ready to face anything that comes your way with determination and enthusiasm. At the very end, nothing is going to matter but only your capability to prove everyone who doubted you wrong will. Your ability to do your job effectively and nicely with a positive attitude can make their attitude take a U-turn.
Don’t shy away and let them know when they are singling you out on purpose.
When they question your knowledge you throw them your best ideas confidently and make them acknowledge your input where you have performed well. To be the best, you have to act like best!
Trust yourself! No matter what others say, don’t let them doubt your capability, knowledge and wisdom. You go there despite all the criticism and perform the best of you, shoving all their doubts into the trash.