Last Updated on 4 years by Christopher G Mendla
Dr. Phil did a segment on January 18, 2018 about age discrimination in the workplace. A woman who is 59 years old found that she was a victim of age discrimination. Read more for some ideas as to how to work around this.
The segment focused on a 59 year old woman who believes she is a victim of age discrimination
Susan tells Dr. Phil and Elizabeth that age discrimination in the workplace is quite prevalent. “AARP recently did a study of older workers and found 61% of them said that they had experienced or seen age discrimination in the workforce, and 91% of them said it was common,” Susan tells Elizabeth. “But the problem is these are very hard to prove.
The segment gave some good tips on ‘age proofing’ your resume and suggested visiting the AARP site for more tips.
Federal law mandates against age discrimination. However, the reality is that it does happen and it is difficult, if not impossible, to prove.
Watch the Dr. Phil segment
In addition to the information from the Dr. Phil segment, here are some other thoughts for older employees:
- Maintain as much of a cushion in your finances as possible to cover longer job searches.
- Carefully check your resume for things that scream out your age.
- Consider building a sideline business, preferably something that is passive or semi passive income. If you can put five to ten hours of effort into something like that, the additional income will tide you over during job searches.
- Network as much as possible and learn how to get as much as possible from your networking
- Keep current with social trends. That doesn’t mean you have to dress like a millennial at 60 years old. It does mean that you should understand the current culture of 20-30 year olds.
- Understand that you are fighting against the current.
- Understand that the best job offers will come from recruiters who find your resume before the position has been posted publicly. Depending on your industry, engage heavily in social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Post a portfolio site. This would be a couple of pages highlighting your skills and making your resume available.
Update November 2019
I have been in a position since April 2018. The company I work for, which is a subcontractor, and the prime contractor practice diversity in hiring including with regard to age.