Should Men Use Botox? Ask The Thirtysomethings Who Want To Look Young Again
Ageism in the workplace is unabashedly rampant, employment lawyer Richard Cohen notes -- and it's against the law.
Sigh … we all get old. Hopefully.
Maggie Kraft, in the Times-Standard, recently wrote that “May is Older Americans Month and the theme, ‘Age Out Loud,’ invites us to give aging a new voice that reflects the truth about aging. … We are not all the same as we age any more than we were the same when we were younger. … We are not a unit, we are not homogenous. We are just who we are with more years under our belts.”
Age is the only protected category under the employment discrimination laws that we all hope we enter. (Except for pregnancy, I guess, which eliminates a lot of us.)
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
We may hope to become old, but the workplace has yet to become welcoming – or accepting. Quite the opposite. Ageism in the workplace is unabashedly rampant worldwide, with no sign of changing.
Which is not good for those of us — baby boomers — who do not want to retire and “go gentle into that good night.”
Hazel McCallion, the 96-year-old former mayor of Toronto, wrote that “We’ve made great strides in fighting racism and sexism. Now it’s time for us to agree that ageism is getting old.”
Ain’t that the truth. Wish everyone felt that way.
Sponsored
Ranking The Law Firms Lawyers Love
Luxury, Lies, And A $10 Million Embezzlement
Thomson Reuters' Claims Explorer: A Powerful Tool For Legal Claim Identification
Ranking The Law Firms Lawyers Love
Are “Old Person” Jobs Our Destiny?
Ageism is age discrimination, plain and simple – usually resulting from inaccurate and misguided stereotypes, myths and assumptions – as well as not a little bit of displaced anxiety. Older employees are marginalized and “hip checked” out the door based upon a belief that they are less competent, less energetic, less able to learn new things, and less attractive than younger employees.
People are working longer these days: “In 2016, 18.8 percent of Americans ages 65 and older reported being employed full- or part-time compared to 12.8 percent in 2000, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
And with that, the problem of ageism has come to the fore.
“The rules of the job market aren’t the same for older workers,” commented Quoctrung Bui in the New York Times. According to a recent study he cited, people over 55 are being “funneled” into “old-person” jobs: “a mix of high-skill service work (like managers, sales supervisors and accountants) and low-skill service work (like truck drivers, janitors and nursing aides).” He noted that “The social stigma for age discrimination is really weak.”
Sponsored
Curbing Client And Talent Loss With Productivity Tech
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
The employment situation for older people (those over 50!) is bleak worldwide.
In Australia, “If you lose your job past the age of 50, you are in the hardest age bracket to find work again thanks to age discrimination.… One-third of people surveyed aged over 50 revealed they had experienced age discrimination when applying for work.” And in New Zealand, “almost 74% of Baby Boomers respondents said they had been discriminated against because of their age.”
Having A “Senior Moment?” Harmful Stereotypes
Readers of my blog know that I like to collect code words or expressions from court decisions that are stand-ins for “old” – things that bosses call older employees who, in turn, use them as evidence of age discrimination.
I’ve seen cases where older employees are referred to as “ancient,” “old school,” “set in their ways,” “not a proper fit for the ‘new environment,’” “lacking in energy,” “having no runaway,” “sounding old on the telephone,” and “like a bag of bones.” Want more?
How about “Hang up your Superman Cape”?
Hard to believe, right? Well, believe it.
Are The Stereotypes About Older Workers True?
A Wall Street Journal article cited a study concluding that “Rapid retirements deprive companies of critical experience and knowledge, which undermines productivity across the entire economy.” The study’s authors noted that “An older worker’s experience increases not only his own productivity but also the productivity of those who work with him.”
And the WSJ quoted an HR manager at a manufacturing company who said, “As your employees who have been working in manufacturing start to retire, you’re not just losing people, but that knowledge and experience is walking out the door.” She said what her company really missed was experience.
As a leading New Zealand recruiter, Robert Walters, noted, “it’s often assumed that Baby Boomers aren’t interested in new ways of working, in fact, the research shows the overwhelming majority are. So employers shouldn’t let unconscious bias lead their organisation astray.”
What Some “Old” Guys Do Will Curl Your Remaining Hair
So what does an old geezer of 40 do if he wants to appear “down” with a youthful workforce, and not look past his prime and unable to compete?
“It makes me do things like shoot up my face,” said one over-the-hill 40 years old.
Of course: Botox! Fillers! Surgery!
Bob Sullivan wrote on CNBC that “The American Society of Plastic Surgeons said there’s been a nearly 20 percent increase in men going under the plastic surgeon’s knife — or laser, or needle — since 2010. Much of that growth is in minimally invasive procedures like Botox or fillers. The number of men getting Botox jumped 27 percent during that span.”
He quoted a New York dermatologist, Dr. Robert Anolik, as saying ” If you are part of start-up or venture capital environment, and you are running around with people who are 25, you don’t want to look like you’ve aged out of that environment. We are in a youth-obsessed culture right now.”
And this situation is magnified in kiddie tech-world.
In FT Magazine, Hannah Kuchler wrote, “In San Francisco, I can go days without meeting anyone middle-aged. Young entrepreneurs are easy to spot because of their adherence to cliché, from their hoodies to their hoverboards. … In Silicon Valley, the same people who are enraged by sexism and racism often ignore ageism.”
After repeating anecdotes that anyone over 30 should be spared (“Don’t trust anyone over 30,” we blithely spouted, some 40 years ago), she concluded that “it is the tech industry that really needs a makeover: if Silicon Valley wants humans to live for ever, it better start valuing those who are over 40.”
Great takeaway, Ms. Kuchler.
Richard B. Cohen has litigated and arbitrated complex business and employment disputes for almost 40 years, and is a partner in the NYC office of the national “cloud” law firm FisherBroyles. He is the creator and author of his firm’s Employment Discrimination blog, and received an award from the American Bar Association for his blog posts. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @richard09535496.
