How Ageism Affects Malaysians in the Workplace

A study by professional social networking site LinkedIn revealed that Malaysians find age as a barrier to work opportunities in the current economic climate.

According to the LinkedIn Opportunity Index 2020, 40% of Gen Z (those aged between 18 and 22 years old) and 21% of millennials (aged between 23 and 38 years old) felt held back by a lack of work experience.

Meanwhile, 45% of Boomers (55 to 65-year-olds) and 33% of Gen X (39 to 54-year-olds) revealed that they were struggling to keep up with the new technological and automation changes.

LinkedIn Asia Pacific Managing director Olivier Legrand said that age manifests as different opportunity gaps for other age groups.

“For the first time, four generations are working together. It’s time for businesses to set aside hiring biases against age, and embrace the multigenerational workforce as an opportunity,” said Legrand.

“The biggest skills gaps that we see today are soft skills among Gen Z and millennials, and tech skills among the older generation. We encourage companies to hire for complementary skills and to promote collaboration and bi-directional mentorship among their workforce,” he said, adding that a multigenerational and diverse workforce is a business advantage and driver of growth.

Older employees are just as competent as younger employees.

6 signs of ageism in the workplace

Most employers don't notice the subtle signs of ageism in the workplace. For older employees, some benign behaviours might seem ageism to them.

The crucial takeaway from this is that we should not assume that we are in the clear because we work at a forward-thinking organisation, but also, just because something feels like ageism does not make it so.

Here are some signs of age discrimination:

Being left out of client meetings or company meetings.
Learning opportunities are only offered to younger employees. This can include educational coursework, training programmes, and professional or industry conference attendance.
Being overlooked or passed over for challenging assignments. This may also look like an unfair share of unpleasant or dull assignments given to older employees.
Being passed over for raises and promotions. This one is tricky, different raises and promotion decisions may hint age-based discrimination or they might be a reflection of individual performance.
Negative comments and remarks about age. Usually framed as subtle and playful, there are also people who joke about the employee's age, retirement plans, and slow typing speed. It can also be downright aggressive. For example, pressuring the employee to retire and free up the position for another professional.
A spoken or unspoken assumption that the employee is not entitled to take time off for family commitments because they don't have young kids at home.

It's crucial to not let age discrimination become a problem in your organisation.

Dealing with ageism in the workplace

First things first, employers should not assume that their workplace is 100% immune to age discrimination. Human brains work by relying on established stereotypes for faster processing and decision making.

We need to learn to recognise our own thinking patterns and challenge our assumptions. If we see signs of ageism that are not directed at us, we should not distance ourselves by thinking that this could not happen to us.

Here's how to deal with ageism in the workplace:

1. Create a policy.

Your policy should include definitions of age discriminations, with examples, as well as reporting procedures and grievance procedures.

2. Rethink promotion and training

Opportunities for promotion, job-related training or other development opportunities should be available to all employees regardless of age.

3. Encourage mentoring

Companies which embrace mentoring are usually warm and inclusive places to work. Pair workers of different ages. Workers of any age can pass on their experience, and help others develop through their unique knowledge and skills.

As an employer, we have our obligations to create a fair workplace for everyone. Make sure no employee suffers from age discrimination.

Hi, we are AJobThing, allow us to introduce ourselves!

Source: The Malay Mail