Reactions to all articles in 1-2 pages

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AmIOldEnoughtoBeTakenSeriously_.pdf

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Age And Generational Issues

Am I Old Enough to Be Taken Seriously? by Emma Waldman

November 25, 2020

Summary.

GK Hart/Vikki Hart/Getty Images/Getty Images

Young adults are more likely to report experiencing ageism at work than their

middle-aged and older counterparts. So what if you are facing this situation? Start or join a

working group for young professionals. It’s important to create a safe space to talk to...

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here.

I started my career in New York City, working as an editorial assistant

for one of the largest publishing conglomerates in the world. Fresh out

of grad school with several years of internship experience in tow, I

walked into the 52-story building with my head held high. I was to report

directly to the senior vice president, an industry legend. She was poised

and intelligent and I idolized her.

During my second week on the job, I received her email invitation for an

in-person meeting. Heart racing, I dashed through the doors of her

corner office that overlooked Broadway and West 56th. Expecting to

receive my first real assignment, she looked at me and said, “Emma, I

just received a package from IKEA. Would you mind assembling my new

lamp? Let me know when you’re finished.”

I would love to dismiss this humiliating — yet humbling — moment as

one bad thing that happened a very long time ago. But it still triggers me

today: a woman approaching thirty with seven years of job experience

under my belt. As one of the youngest people on my team by a decade,

I’m often hesitant to assert myself in meetings or ask more seasoned

colleagues for help out of fear of seeming naive. In these moments, I find

myself back in the corner office, building my first boss’s IKEA lamp and

trying to figure out her intentions. Was it because I seemed

incompetent? Was it because my role included “assistant” in the title?

Or was it what I feared then — and still fear now — that my age makes it

hard to take me seriously?

I needed to figure out if this insecurity has grounds in reality. Here’s

what the research tells me: When you Google “age discrimination at

work,” you’ll find article after article about bias against older employees

and laws aimed at addressing this problem. In the U.S., the federal

government has protections in place to prevent discrimination against

workers age 40 and up. Companies can’t, for example, legally assume

that someone isn’t qualified for a job because they are “too old” to

understand how to use a certain technology or implement the latest

innovations. That said, it’s questionable whether these protections

always work. Ageism against older workers still runs rampant in some

companies and industries.

At the same time, these protections don’t apply to young professionals.

This is a problem. A recent study revealed that young adults are

often more likely to report experiencing ageism at work than their

middle-aged and older counterparts. It’s called “reverse ageism.”

On top of this, Glassdoor released a 2019 diversity and inclusion

survey in the U.S., UK, France, and Germany that found younger

employees (52% of ages 18-34) are more likely than older employees

(39% of ages 55+) to have witnessed or experienced ageism at work.

“Ageism cuts both ways,” Professor Dominic Abrams at the University of

Kent, told me. “It’s true that people often apply patronizing stereotypes

to older workers and so they are often assumed to be less employable.

But younger people tend to be more exposed to all forms of prejudice

and discrimination than older people — racism, sexism, and ageism.”

According to my research, this is what reverse ageism can look like:

More senior or experienced employees overlooking feedback from

younger colleagues on projects. Seasoned employees assuming that

younger colleagues can’t be trusted with important tasks. Or younger

colleagues being the target of stereotypical age assumptions.

When I explore whether these examples fit into my own work

experience, I’m brought back to one moment that took place before the

pandemic got really bad in Boston. I was in the office, talking to a fellow

20-something-year-old coworker about an upcoming assignment. We

were brainstorming ideas for a new product, when a senior employee

turned to us and said, “Girls, can you please take your chatter

elsewhere? It’s very distracting.”

My peer and I exchanged a glance — confused, and a little bit shocked.

While our colleague may have thought he was just asking for quiet, there

were assumptions embedded in his comment:

Assumption 1: That we are “girls,” not two grown women.

Assumption 2: Our discussion was “chatter,” as if we weren’t working

on anything of importance.

So no, not all of it is in my head.

I understand how it might be easy for people to mistrust those who have

less workplace experience than themselves, but this mistrust ultimately

works against all of us and can lead to biased assumptions. When older

workers doubt the competency of those younger than them, they fail us.

They are not helping the next generations develop transferable skills.

They’re building barriers of mistrust.

Sign up for Ascend A weekly newsletter to help young professionals find their place in the working world and realize their personal and career goals. Sign Up

Will it get better?

Discrimination varies from person to person, and for this reason,

organizations often struggle to tackle these biases on a wider scale. You

can’t force someone to think a certain way, but you can help them to

better understand your position and perspective.

If you find yourself in a position like mine, here are few ideas I’ve started

to put into practice to better my own situation. I hope they’ll help you

too:

Start or join a working group for young professionals. Keeping quiet

about discrimination at work can be both mentally and emotionally

draining — and can bleed into your life outside of the office over time.

It’s important to create a safe space to talk to people you trust about

what you’re going through. If your company doesn’t already have a

working group for young professionals, consider starting one yourself.

This might take the form of a designated Slack channel in which you can

talk openly and share experiences online. Or, it might be a monthly

Zoom call with a proposed agenda and discussion points. Either way, it

will give people like yourself a place to talk about workplace concerns,

find allies, and exchange ideas about how to remedy them.

Talk to your manager. Make your manager aware of the situation. They

may have no idea what you’re going through. During your next check-in,

share your experiences and concerns. They might redirect you to an HR

specialist who is trained in handling issues of discrimination at work, or

help you devise a plan for confronting the perpetrator. If anything, your

manager will know to keep their eyes peeled for future instances of

ageism. Raising the issue is the first step towards combatting it for good.

Alternatively, your manager might understand workplace

discrimination all too well, and can serve as a role model and mentor in

the future. One of my workplace mentors is a woman who has just as

much professional experience as her male counterparts (if not more).

Because we’ve both fallen victim to other workplace biases (in terms of

gender discrimination) in the past, she was sympathetic towards my

situation. She knew what it was like to feel undervalued because of

something that’s out of her control and offered me some actionable

suggestions for overcoming these biases in the future.

Have an open discussion with the culprit. There’s nothing wrong

with respectfully approaching the coworker who is demonstrating

discrimination against you to have an open dialogue. Sending an email

that begins with, “The comment that you made during Tuesday’s

meeting made me feel uncomfortable. When you bring my age into a

conversation, it sounds like you’re assuming that I’m not qualified to do

my job,” is a great place to start. This could evolve into a larger

conversation about ageism and how to overcome biases that might be

clouding their judgement. If you feel comfortable, you could suggest

working on a project together to build trust and demonstrate your

expertise. You might even end up learning more about where this

person’s bias is coming from.

You might find, for example, that the culprit’s behavior stems from an

insecurity about their own performance and has nothing to do with you

personally (though this is still not an excuse for their behavior).

Never forget your value add. When you’re put down by someone at

work, it can be easy to forget your value. But I can reassure you: You

offer a special skillset and a unique perspective, which is why you were

hired. Figure out what your “specialty” is — whether it’s social media

proficiency, communication skills, expertise with video or audio

platforms, etc. — and use it to your advantage.

When the opportunity presents itself, remind your coworkers of what

you bring to the table. You have insights and experiences that others do

not. During meetings, chime in with ideas that highlight your skills and

viewpoint. Take a quick pause and a deep breath to center yourself. You

might say something like, “This could be a great opportunity to

introduce a podcast,” or, “As a Millennial, I can speak to the fact that

many of our younger readers are looking for content on early career

financial planning.” Use your position to your advantage.

Most importantly, let these experiences inform your growth as you

advance in your career. Don’t let the fear that you’ll never be taken

seriously stay with you until you’re old enough to be considered

“seasoned.” Set an example by trusting and asserting that young

professionals know what they’re doing, and work to become the kind of

employee you’d want to work with, years down the line, when a young

worker approaches you for help.

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