The purpose of this paper is to review six professional articles to obtain the professional consensus on age discrimination in the workplace. Ageism and age discrimination is alive and thriving in today’s workplace. Age discrimination continues to be a problem for both male and female workers over the age of 40 and more regulations should be implemented to protect workers rights in all age groups, both in the younger and older generation.
A recurring theme throughout the articles reviewed was that recruitment and training of older workers needs to be improved upon in order to combat age discrimination against older workers in the workplace. “In short, aging workers are under-represented in recruitment and training and over-represented in early exit from employment.” (Walker 371) This means that the Human Resources Department needs to be a supportive environment. It is also very clear that management plays a large role in combating age discrimination. Managers need to follow “good practice.” Good practice, in general, in the employment of older workers is defined as “action to combat age barriers, whether directly or indirectly, and providing an environment in which each individual is able to achieve his or her potential without being disadvantaged by their age.” (Walker 370)
While good practice seems to be the main component in the fight against age discrimination, there also needs to be a level of commitment from the employee. In order for an employee to feel that they can or will commit to an employer to continue working when approaching retirement age, the employee needs to know that the support from management is there for them.
As well, age discrimination is not simply limited to the “older” worker. “Our study’s goal is to investigate the pattern of reporting of age discrimination across the adult life course in order to examine the predictive validity of such reports. A life course perspective views aging as