I Was a Manager in an Ageist Workplace

A few years back, I decided to chat with one of my team members, a man in his late fifties. I had recently started a new position as a manager — was just a few weeks on the job — and I wanted to see how people were adjusting to the change.

As the conversation continued, I found a moment to bring up something I’d been thinking about.

“OK,” my employee replied, slightly suspicious yet curious. During my short time leading the team, I’d learned he was admired for both his talent and his tenure. So, getting his buy-in could mean others would be open to my idea.

He was silent, which made me a little uncomfortable. But I pressed on, explaining what the collaboration could mean — like learning new tools and fostering the support of a creative, visible group.

After what seemed like forever, he awkwardly shifted his body.

Anuj Shrestha

This was the first of numerous concerning conversations I had over the next several days. I discovered that most of my team members — people in their fifties and sixties, many cherished contributors to our organization — had no desire to work with “those young people on the other side of the room.”

I also learned I was in a culture that normalized ageist behavior — one where making surface-level assumptions about younger colleagues was acceptable. And it went both ways: Younger employees often disparaged older colleagues’ technical skills and willingness to learn. They lamented, publicly and privately, that their knowledge, insight, and skills weren’t appreciated and that they were being obstructed from developing and advancing.

After I required my team to work on projects with younger coworkers, eventually they began to collaborate with the digital team openly and often. But this was the first time I’d worked in an organization where people perceived each other’s value, to some degree, in terms of their age rather than their contribution, commitment, and potential.

After this experience and several others, I continued to wonder about ageism and how it affects the workplace. And I haven’t stopped asking questions: How do we define and identify ageism at work? What can managers do about it? And what are the potential consequences if they do nothing?

What Ageism Is

At its core, ageism is discrimination based on age. In the United States, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act forbids it against people who are 40 or older. The World Health Organization (WHO) divides ageism into several layers: how we think (stereotypes), how we feel (prejudices), and how we act toward others or even ourselves (discrimination) because of age. Taken together, the WHO reports, those types of behaviors can affect physical and mental health and can even shorten people’s lives by up to seven and a half years.

Researcher Justyna Stypińska and sociologist Konrad Turek conducted an extensive study that shows ageist behaviors at work can take two forms: hard and soft. Hard age discrimination is illegal or prohibited behaviors, such as firing, demoting, or severely harassing someone because of age. Soft discrimination, like an off-color joke or comment, isn’t necessarily illegal and mostly occurs in interpersonal interactions. The soft form is the more common one, and women experience it more often than men. Since soft discrimination is mostly rooted in stereotypes, it can lead to people not valuing coworkers’ contribution and perspectives and even negatively assessing their skill sets.

The primary victims of ageist work cultures tend to be at the poles — the youngest and oldest workers. Members of the first group are seen as inexperienced and having less to offer, which can make it difficult for them to find employment or negotiate with hiring managers for fair wages. Meanwhile, studies show older people struggle to get promotions, find new work, and change careers; this is particularly true for women and minority racial groups in the U.S. When ageism is rampant, older workers might be seen not only in a negative light but also as lower status than even very young peers, despite having lower turnover and high-rated job performance.

People often equate generation with age. But when I talked to Peter Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he told me age and generation are not exactly the same. A generation is created when people experience something so distinctive and powerful that it leaves a unique impression on you and your cohort. Age has more to do with life stages, such as starting a career, having children, or preparing for retirement.

In the workplace ageism can be insidious and pervasive and can have a negative influence across groups. It can dissolve solidarity, limit the contributions of younger and older employees alike, and lead to people being devalued and excluded. Experts say that if managers allow ageist behaviors to persist, employee job satisfaction, engagement, and commitment all decline.

How to Identify Ageism at Work

According to Cappelli, ageism surfaces in different ways, starting with hiring.

“You can see it in the recruiting side,” he told me, even in job descriptions and interviews. There are key words typically associated with youth, such as new ideas and fresh perspective, as well as more positive ways of saying “older,” like experienced. If hiring managers require an applicant to list a grade point average, consciously or not they’re targeting people in a certain stage of life — typically those within a few years of graduation. Look, too, at how the company presents itself through pictures on its website, marketing materials, and events. “If all you see are really young people, that tells you something,” Cappelli said.

Ageism also appears in HR practices and management decisions: promotions, terminations, training, leadership development, and project assignments. The types of employees who are groomed for and elevated to important roles may convey messages about age. Is it the case, for instance, that younger workers get all the promotions for digital-focused jobs?

Cappelli says that even office activities can be red flags. Offering foosball tournaments and unlimited beer after hours, for example, may attract workers of some age groups and not others.

To help identify ageism, managers can collect data. Qualitative data from one-on-one, informal conversations with employees can help unearth concerns that might have gone unnoticed. “Stay interviews” provide insight into how people feel before they decide to leave or retire. Remember to ask open-ended questions like What can I do to support you? and What motivates (or demotivates) you?

You can also use more-formal methods, such as employee surveys, to collect quantitative data. And look for age patterns in HR’s people analytics about who goes and who stays.

Combating Ageism at Work

To combat ageism, Cappelli encourages managers to start with something simple, like how the company depicts employees visually. For example, ensure that in-office and public-facing images include people of all age groups.

The harder work is in changing behaviors: what people say, do, encourage, and accept. It all comes down to understanding. Lindsey Pollak, author of the book The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace, says managers can ignite change by creating multigenerational committees and seating arrangements. “What you tend to see in an office is all the executives of one age sit in one place, all the young people are in the bullpen, and all the middle managers are elsewhere. And I think that should be abolished.” She also says managers must be deliberate in getting to know employees of all ages — and getting them to know one another.

Leaders don’t have to let ageism quietly simmer, either. To spark change, start with language. Consider the comments, jokes, or labels people use to describe younger and older employees and whether they are microaggressions or are biased or insensitive. Overt terms, such as “old-timer” and “youngster,” should be eradicated, as should euphemisms like “seasoned” and “newbie.” Needless references to someone’s age set the stage for conflict. Think, too, about what your work culture values. Studies show organizations commonly use reward systems to shape norms. In your company, are managers who hire up-and-comers as celebrated as those who recruit established stars? Do leaders equally laud the skills of digital natives and the institutional knowledge of older workers? Both are needed for an organization to thrive.

Younger workers (and hiring managers of all ages) should be encouraged to think about the assets that older workers bring to the table: experience, social skills, the ability to work independently. Similarly, older workers should understand what younger peers can offer, such as being tech savvy and valuing diversity.

Finally, recruiting strategies should yield a diverse group of people, including older and younger candidates. Advertise with organizations that have members 55 and older as well as on job boards for college students and other relevant, frequently visited employment sites.

What I Learned

I still think about when I wanted to bring that group of older employees together with the younger digital team.

As a manager, I had to understand how ageist ideas were affecting our work — and then be brave enough to change the culture and create an environment where everyone, however young or old, felt comfortable. Knowing this problem wasn’t something I could tackle on my own, I asked other managers to have their teams work on projects with my direct reports; to set a good example, we got in the trenches with them on those collaborations.

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Generational identity should be a source of learning, not division.

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I also built a mixed-age team by hiring people over 60, under 30, and all ages in between; helping young and older workers see their ideas through and become more visible in the organization; offering training in new technologies to my team members; and promoting one of my oldest employees.

Despite the initial apprehension, my team and several others in the office eventually learned to work together without worrying about age. Through the years, we became more inclusive and creative. We challenged the status quo, and in some ways we became the personification of the adage “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Our differences helped us learn, and we made each other better.

Today, I challenge managers in my professional network to see the value in mixed-age teams. And I’m asking you to help all employees — from recent college graduates to those nearing retirement — see how pivotal their contributions are to your outcomes and organization.