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The phrase “life begins at 40” has already been the title of a book, a movie, a play, a song by John Lennon and even an advertising campaign, but currently it has been rewritten as: “Life ends at 40!”.
Due to the behavior of many people and how companies treat this large portion of the population, which was a motto widely propagated in the not-too-distant past, at most it has been a reason for jokes and laughter.
What is behind this is ageism, which is increasingly wide open in society and naturally, in companies as well.
What it is, what are its consequences and what are the solutions for ageism, is our discussion today.
What is ageism?
It is customary to define ageism as being discrimination or prejudice against a person, based on their age and which usually falls on older people. Not infrequently it is also called ageism or ageism.
The discussion on the subject gained importance from two recent episodes that went viral on the Internet.
In the first, still in the year 2022, Carlos Augusto Luchetti Junior, 45 years old, due to an internal error by an HR company, received in response to a selection process to which he had submitted his resume: “Cancelaaaaaaa, it’s old age“.
Obviously, the “opinion” of the person responsible for the selection should only be internal, but due to an oversight, it reached Carlos Augusto and reveals the thoughts of the recruiter – and possibly of the company that was hiring – in relation to people aged equal to or older than Carlos Augustus. They’re too old!
In the other, in March 2023, three students of the biomedicine course at a college in Bauru (SP), recorded and published a video on a social network, not to praise and show admiration, but to make fun of a classmate, the Patrícia Linares, for having “40 years already” is that “was supposed to be retired”.
In fact, Patrícia turned 45, days after the regrettable video.
The two events opened up the stereotype associated with age and that in both cases, they are not strictly considered elderly people and which, according to the set of Brazilian laws, stipulates those over 60 years old.
Even if they were elderly, it should not be a reason for this type of treatment, which is inhumane to say the least.
The feeling one has is that these and other prejudiced demonstrations mean that when reaching a certain age level, a debilitating or disabling condition is also reached and that people from a certain age, no longer have the right to many of the situations of life, including work.
The data from National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) show that the slice of people over 30 years old represents 56.1% of the population and 26% of the Brazilian population is over 50 years old, but by 2040, 57% of the workforce will be over 45 years old.
Faced with this mentality, almost 1 out of 4 people today and 6 out of 10, in 17 years’ time, should have the end of their lives decreed, including some who today are part of this current that has discriminatory behavior.
How is ageism manifested?
Ageism manifests itself in different ways, as in the two cases that have gone viral on the Internet recently and which in their origin should have been just “innocent and inconsequential jokes”, as in other phrases said and heard repeatedly, with great naturalness:
“The lady is well preserved for her age. Doesn’t even look her age…”
“At that age and still working?”
“It looked like a museum. there was only old”
There are those who say things like that laughing and causing laughter, without realizing the consequences and what is behind thoughts like these.
The truth is that there are consolidated paradigms in this regard, according to which older generations are questioned about their ability to adapt to the digital transformation, to keep up with the innovations of the market in which they operate, to keep up-to-date, they are little productive and also less flexible and versatile.
There are even times when prejudice is explicit, when you see a job vacancy advertisement, in which, among the requirements, there is an explicit age limit.
Age is even more and more one of the characteristics that make up the profile of a vacancy and has been as decisive – or even more so – than the candidate’s set of hard and soft skills.
Many – if not the vast majority – are passed over, regardless of their professional history, skills and aptitudes. Is the age not within the stipulated limit? Candidate automatically discarded!
Why should ageism be fought?
Allowing ageism to be institutionalized has consequences in several spheres.
Institutional ageism refers to laws, rules, social norms, public and private policies, which limit opportunities and directly or indirectly harm a citizen depending on their age group.
It is easy to see how this prejudice is rooted and how it manifests itself.
In 2021, Deputy Martins Machado (Republicans) presented a Bill (PL 2256/2021) which proposed changing the pictogram (indicative signage in vacancies, seats, queues, and others that provide priority services to the elderly) representative of the elderly citizen and which until then consisted of a person bent over and carrying a cane, to an upright person with the inscription “60+”.
According to the Bill, the image is pejorative, disrespectful and institutionalizes ageism
Assuming certain conditions depending on age is not prudent. The same set of stereotypes based on age can prevent, for example, a younger professional from assuming a leadership position, under the justification that he lacks experience, or that perhaps he does not have the necessary maturity to assume the responsibilities that the rank requires.
Ageism restricts and limits people necessarily to unique and definitive roles. It is as prejudiced as assuming conditions due to ethnicity, skin color, gender or any other characteristic.
One survey conducted by the vacancy platform Infojobswith professionals over 40, reveals a harsh and worrying reality:
- 70.4% of professionals over 40 years of age state that they have already suffered age prejudice during selection processes;
- 78.5% of them said that the job market does not give the same chances to professionals aged 40+, when compared to younger ones;
- 68.4% claim that often being up to date is not enough.
Restriction based on age is the same as gradually excluding people from living in society and starts when you lose your job or work opportunities because you have reached a certain age group. The individual in these conditions often finds himself in a situation of low self-esteem, alienation and even helplessness.
There is no lack of studies that point out that cases of depression in the elderly are usually related to the end of their professional life.
That is, in times when the ESG agenda is increasingly a basic foundation, the “S” and which represents the social responsibility that companies need to have, must be practiced first within the organizations themselves.
How to combat ageism in companies?
The fight against ageism is, first and foremost, an aspect of the culture and philosophy of companies and is manifested in their internal policies, such as in talent management, in job and salary policies, in the ways in which employee promotions are conducted and, above all, in the selection processes and their administration by the Human Resources area.
We even have an article that deals more broadly with how to act in the current moment, in which there are different generations in the job market and how to deal with this reality.
In more practical terms, there are a series of measures that can and should be adopted to combat ageism in the company:
- Review the job definition policies – which are the starting point for hiring – and ensure that there are no age-related limiting factors;
- Establish mentoring and coaching programs, in which younger people can share and learn what only the experience of younger people can provide;
- Create and maintain qualification, recycling, training, corporate and continuing education programs, so that everyone can acquire the knowledge necessary for the proper performance of their functions;
- From the process of integrating new employees (onboarding), regardless of the age group to which they belong, one must seek to overcome any differences in age and that needs to be extended to the formation of diverse work groups and not only in terms of age;
- Promoting and participating in events, whether of a business nature (eg business fairs) or of a social nature (eg end-of-year get-togethers), should be good opportunities for integration and mutual knowledge;
- Talent management programs are a great condition to reward the most valuable characteristics and strategically useful skills for certain areas of the company;
- Periodic carrying out of organizational climate surveys, which, among other things, should identify how the age factor influences the climate.
Currently, HR professionals have extensive knowledge about this harsh reality and are therefore able to conduct a series of actions and implement strategies to combat ageism and the negative consequences it can have for businesses.
Conclusion
Ageism, which manifests itself as prejudice according to a person’s age, has been a real problem that companies have to deal with.
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