Reply to Have you experienced ageism at work?

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Reply to "Have you experienced ageism at work?"

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[quote=Anonymous]The ageism is structural, and institutional. In the (now gone) era in which people remained with the same employer for years, even decades, the concept of "paying your dues" was well-ingrained and accepted. People who had been around for a while were older and tended to be more skilled and well-schooled in the culture of the organization, knowledge that was valued all down the line.

In the present era, people work in one organization for 1 to 5 years and then tend to move on to another job. The pressure for employers is not to retain the best workers so much as to get the workers who can do the work best for the least cost for the limited time they are there. In these technology driven times, that often means younger people, perhaps not those right out of college, but workers, say, 26 to 40. They come in with some skills, are less likely to have children at home, and aren't yet at the age where they are running up big health insurance costs for the employer. These workers laugh at the idea of "paying your dues", or embrace it only in the sense that they understand they need to work a few crappy jobs before they get to the better jobs -- all at different employers.

So why respect your elders when 1.) there aren't that many of them around, and 2.) your employer doesn't and 3.) you don't rely on them much for advancement in this new era.[/quote]

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