In many instances, those who are aged 40 and older receive workplace protections shielding them from negative employment actions that are based on their age. But while the federal law providing these protections is wide-reaching, far too many people misunderstand the law or simply fail to recognize that they’ve been subjected to illegal workplace discrimination. This is important to recognize. After all, if you’ve been treated unfairly at work, the burden is on you to take legal action to protect your interest.
How do you spot signs of age discrimination?
You don’t want to make the mistake of chalking age discrimination up to harmless jokes or acceptable business practices. Therefore, you need to keep your eyes and ears open for any of the following signs of age discrimination:
- Older workers are consistently replaced with younger, less experienced workers.
- Older workers are pushed out of the business by incentives to voluntarily leave their positions.
- Older workers are constantly subjected to age-related jokes.
- Younger workers are given training and education opportunities that older workers are not.
- Promotions and favorable job assignments appear to be based age rather than merit.
- Older workers are treated disproportionately unfair in their performance appraisals.
- Younger workers are kept in the loop about and are invited to important meetings while older, more experienced workers aren’t.
- Younger workers are given more challenging assignments.
- Older workers are more commonly demoted.
These are just some of the signs of age discrimination that you might see in your workplace. When you experience them, be sure to document them so that you can easily recall them when you take legal action.
Are you going to let your employer get away with age discrimination?
We hope not. After all, if you’ve been victimized by age discrimination, then you’ve suffered damages that should be compensated. But to hold your employer accountable, you have to be prepared to take legal action. If you want to learn more about what that looks like in your case, then be sure to read up on the legal process and reach out for any guidance that you may need.