Professionals age 40 or older should not have to face age discrimination in the workplace. Unfortunately, laws prohibiting age discrimination exist because it is a relatively common practice.
Professionals who have spent years developing their careers may face an uphill battle continuing that positive trajectory after a certain age. There are numerous ways that age discrimination can affect advancement opportunities, including the three common issues below.
1. Promotion discrimination
Professionals within a company sometimes consider a worker’s age when deciding who to promote or assign to a major upcoming project. They may give more opportunities to younger workers while freezing out the more experienced professionals on staff.
2. Challenges with networking
Cooperation with coworkers and professionals across the industry is necessary for career development at other businesses and the development of contacts that can make a professional more successful in their position. When companies don’t include older workers in networking events or allow younger professionals to exclude older workers, they may lose out on the opportunities derived from socializing with their professional peers.
3. Unfair company reviews
Businesses may become more negative about a professional’s job performance or more strict about rule enforcement as they age. This may relate in part to the wages they command or to increased expectations placed on workers with more experience.
When a company suddenly starts taking issue with a professional’s job performance, writing them up for violations that managers ignore among younger workers or proposing unfavorable transfers without real justification, the basis for those decisions might be the unfair consideration of a professional’s age.
Workers experiencing the chilling effects of age discrimination may need help fighting back. Reviewing recent experiences at work with a legal professional can help workers in their 40s and beyond understand and assert their rights.