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Age discrimination in the workplace typically appears in two forms: interpersonal and institutional. Most often, interpersonal ageism in the workplace includes the use of degrading insults and jokes about another employee's age and the exclusion of older workers from group projects and activities. Both of these discriminatory actions lead to the alienation and degradation of older workers, whether done with harmful intent or not. But it gets worse. Not only are older employees daily victims of social mistreatment, but they are also subject to institutional job insecurity, as employers regularly fire and lay them off for being too old. According to a recent (2021) study by AARP, 78% of workers above age 50 reported that they have witnessed or experienced age discrimination at their job, including both prejudiced social interactions and biased firings/layoffs (Tileva). Furthermore, a similar AARP survey in January 2024 found that a shocking 91.33% of workers age 50 and older feel this discrimination is either "somewhat" or "very" common in their workplace ("Age Discrimination").
Bullying and Harassment
Bullying and Harassment
Older employees in the workplace are constant targets of verbal age-related abuse from their younger colleagues, including being talked down to, being the subject of an offensive joke, and receiving negative comments about their age.
Let's take a look at the statistics:
According to a 2013 report on the contents of ageism in the workplace for employees since turning age 62, 20.8% of workers reported they have been talked down to by their coworkers, and 20.2% said they have been talked down to by their bosses (Blackstone 38). Further, 9.8% have received offensive age-related jokes, and 12.6% of workers have been told demeaning comments about their older age (Blackstone 38). Similarly, in a survey in 2024 by AARP, the amount of older employees (age 50 and up) who have received negative comments about their age averaged to be 14.33% ("Age Discrimination").
Lastly, in a survey conducted in 2023 by the employment service LiveCareer of American employees of all ages, a shocking 72% of employees believed that older employees were targets for bullying in their workplace, revealing the prevalence of such mistreatment (Paczka).
Putting this into perspective:
While some of these statistics may appear slightly low, it is critical to remember that each of these numbers correspond to human beings. For example, while 9.8% of workers receiving offensive jokes may seem minimal, that's roughly 1 in every 10 older employees being harassed by their colleagues; especially in larger companies with hundreds of employees, or even tens of thousands in massive tech companies, these percentages translate to substantial amounts of real people being verbally assaulted at their jobs, simply due to their age.
For example, an older woman responded to this same survey of workers aged 62 and up, "Because I was older, the young girls thought I shouldn't be working, I should be at home waiting to die! They did everything they could to make my life there miserable and since the boss didn't try to stop it, I had to be quiet" (Blackstone 43).
Another woman wrote that she has been "patronized" and "talked down to in many situations where younger people think [she had] no value" (Blackstone 43).
Even Google's manager in 2010 reported that his colleagues called him "old fuddy-duddy," and constantly made fun of him for being "fuzzy," "sluggish," and "lethargic" due to his old age (qtd. in Powell 55).
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What about exclusion within the workplace?
Not only are older employees constantly assaulted with verbal insults and condescending remarks, as displayed by the previous testimonies, but they are also left out of teams and ignored in the decision-making process by their bosses and coworkers due to their age. Falsely perceived as lacking fresh ideas and being grumpy and stubborn, old workers are thought to be unfavorable members of workplace groups, and their ideas are seen as inferior, leading to the disregardance of many older workers.
Let's take a look at the statistics:
In the same 2013 study, a high 23.0% of older workers reported that they have been left out of important decisions in their workplace since turning age 62, and 25.1% noticed their work contributions were passed over (Blackstone 38). Additionally, 12.6% of the surveyed workers had been isolated from activities in the workplace as well (Blackstone 38).
What does this look like?
A woman from this survey reported, "After about age 60-65 I began to notice that people would sometimes ignore me as though I had become invisible. This is also evident in the way that co-workers, supervision, prospective employers and others discount or ignore my ideas, opinions, views and work experience that may be extremely relevant or helpful" (Blackstone 43).
Similarly, in 2022, former 62-year-old SpaceX engineer John Johnson detailed in an age discrimination complaint, "Respondent managers continued to marginalize me, minimizing my contributions, limiting my visibility to upper management, and thereby curtailing my opportunities for professional recognition and advancement" (Bhuiyan).
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While the above testimonies of verbal abuse and exclusion have the potential for self-bias and exaggeration, coming from older individuals themselves, each describes a similar hostile treatment towards older workers, even though being from a variety of different workplaces. Thus, this similarity emphasizes how such ageist mistreatment is indeed pervasive in the workplace.
The Impact.
The Impact.
Bullying, harassment, and exclusions can have devastating effects on older employees. For older workers, this routine interpersonal ageism can quickly become internalized. Repeated negative behavior about old age in the workplace can cause older workers to feel worthless, fall into depression and anxiety, and thus feel less motivated to take care of their physical and mental wellbeing; as a result, these victims of workplace bullying have higher risks of health problems and even higher chances of living shorter lives—an average of seven and a half years less (Applewhite 19). Similarly, when older workers are bullied, they often become unable to concentrate, insecure about their work, and afraid to present new ideas, such as the above woman who felt the need to remain quiet (Brownell and Powell 25).
While detrimental to the health of these employees, the devaluing of older workers also harms the productivity of the workplace equally. Since these bullied employees suffer concentration issues and become less confident in sharing new ideas, the workplace can suffer a sharp decline in efficiency and creativity. Further, the increased stress, and thus worse health, of older workers can cause higher health care spending and greater absences (Brownell and Powell 25). Moreover, although workplace teams may purposefully exclude older workers under the ill-founded motive to gain young ideas, non-intergenerational projects lack a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds needed to create a well-rounded product or make beneficial improvements to the workplace (Applewhite 154). By targeting and ignoring older workers, the workplace is actually limiting its productivity and innovation.
It is bad for both sides.
Asking for Help?
Asking for Help?
Unfortunately, many older employees who experience this bullying and exclusion do not reach out for help.
According to the 2013 study of employees over age 62, 50.0% of older employees who received offensive age-related comments spoke with no one about it afterward, and only 11.1% reached out to their boss (Blackstone 41). An even higher 66.7% of those who witnessed their older colleagues receive age-related comments told no one, while only 9.5% told their boss (Blackstone 41). Lastly, for those who were excluded from workplace activities, a majority of 52.5% did not report it to anyone, and 30.4% spoke to their boss (Blackstone 41).
Similarly, in a 2024 AARP survey of employees over age 50, 48% of older employees who were told offensive age-related comments told no one, while 13.7% told their boss ("Age Discrimination"). Once again, for those who heard other old employees receive negative remarks, 48% told no one, and 15% told their boss ("Age Discrimination"). Lastly, less than 3% contacted the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("Age Discrimination").
Finally, as to why so many of these older employees told no one, the two most common reasons were that it would not make a difference (42%) and that they would get themselves in trouble (27%) ("Age Discrimination").
Digesting these statistics:
In every one of these categories of workplace bullying and exclusion, in both the 2013 and 2024 studies, the share of older employees who decided to tell no one was always higher than the share of those who did speak out. The fact that so many older employees are not telling anyone about this bullying reinforces the idea of how older victims internalize this ageism, believing that they deserve to be treated this way and thinking it is wrong to combat it. This self-blame is further showcased in how older workers feel like they would get in trouble if they did speak out against this bullying, not their colleagues. Similarly, the fact that the largest amount of these silent victims believed that they could not make a difference exposes how older workers have been made to feel powerless and inferior in their jobs by their younger coworkers and bosses. Finally, these older workers' hopelessness in their abilities to fight this discrimination emphasizes how age-related bullying has become so deeply rooted and normalized in the workplace that it feels impossible to stop.
Time's Up.
Time's Up.
Aside from being socially targeted in the office, older workers are institutionally weeded out through age-related firings, layoffs, and even forced retirements. Employers' reasoning for the removal of older workers is often based on the stereotypes that older workers lack ideas, are unproductive, and take up jobs from younger employees, who are also cheaper to hire.
Let's take a look at the statistics:
In 2023, the employment service LiveCareer sent out a survey to a sample of fired employees aged 50 and up. Of these employees, a shocking 74% reported that have been fired because of their age (Paczka). Similarly, according to another 2018 Urban Institute study, 56% of employees aged 50 and up were pushed out of their jobs by their employers, referring to layoffs and firings (Johnson and Gosselin). This study also found that these "employer-related involuntary job separations increased sharply as workers grew older," increasing from 6% at ages 50-55 to 43% at ages 71 and older, demonstrating a clear association between old age and employer-related job insecurity (Johnson and Gosselin). Lastly, in 2014, a sample of new retirees reported that about 55% were forced or pressured to retire by their bosses due to their age (Johnson and Gosselin).
What does this look like?
Peg Whittemore was a bench chemist at Instrumentation Laboratory, a hospital equipment company, and worked there for twenty-two years. Whittemore was incredibly experienced and fit for the job; she taught chemistry at the University of New Hampshire and received a Master of Science degree in chemistry from Wellesley College. Yet, when she turned sixty-seven, Instrumentation Laboratory suddenly laid her off. Following, Whittemore wrote, "Companies will look for people who are getting to the end of their career agewise, because they can probably bring someone else in who can do just about the same thing for about half the salary...It was a shock" (qtd. in Applewhite 150). Once employees become older, their experience no longer matters to many employers; instead, many of these companies simply look to maximize their profits, replacing these older workers like Whittemore with someone cheaper and stereotypically perceived as more productive.
While Whittemore could be partially biased regarding the reasoning behind her layoff, her story aligns with the statistical frequency of age-related firings, layoffs, and forced retirements above.
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Want more? Click below for the story of Rebecca Danigelis, fired at age 75 from her work as a hotel housekeeper in Boston.
The Impact.
The Impact.
The uprooting of older workers has disastrous effects on both their financial stability and emotional wellbeing. Once fired, laid off, or forced to retire, older individuals struggle immensely to find new jobs (learn more about the difficulties in the hiring process here). After being fired or laid off, it takes older workers much longer to receive a new job than it does for their younger counterparts, thus causing "long unemployment spells" (Johnson and Gosselin). Not only is it difficult to find new employment, but even when some do land jobs, they are often ones "that are significantly below both their skill levels and previous pay grades" (Olen). According to an Urban Institute study, the median household income for older employees aged 50 and up fell by 42 percent once rehired (Johnson and Gosselin). Aside from this massive decline in income, a new job that does not meet the skills of older workers, or no job at all, can actually be damaging to older workers' mental health, as it deprives them of purpose, self-motivation, and even proper cognitive function (Applewhite 149). For many older employees, having a job gives them "something to get up for in the morning," helps them maintain social connections, allows skills to "stay sharp," and even leads to longer and healthier lives (Applewhite 148). For example, one woman responded in a 2013 survey, "I take pleasure to be with people. I love working. It keeps your mind alive, your body moving. I have a reason to get up in the morning" (Blackstone 41). Thus, when these jobs are taken away from them, older people can lose these emotional and mental benefits that keep them going. It's more than just a paycheck.
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