In 2015, the film “Trainee” was released, which raised the problem of employing people near retirement age and pensioners.
In developing countries, unlike Ukraine, the nation is aging, when the older generation prevails over the young. Many factors influence this: the level of medicine, which is several times higher than even some 20-30 years ago, family planning, when the average age of birth of the first child in women is 29 years old, as well as the average number of children in European families is 1 -2 children.
The World Health Organization has also officially revised age standards. Youth was extended to 44 years, average age – 44-60, old – 60-75, senile – 75-90, after 90 – long-livers.
Therefore, it seems that you have already reached the official retirement age, and you still have a lot of strength and experience that you can bring to life. But in fact it is very difficult to implement. And this is not only a problem for pensioners: if you are over 40, then employers have already registered you as pensioners, whom it is undesirable to hire.
There is even a special term for this – ageism. This is the creation of stereotypes and discrimination of individuals or groups of people by age. Ageism can take many forms, including bias, discriminatory practices, or institutional policies that reinforce stereotypical attitudes.
Studies show that ageism can be spread even more than sexism and racism.
Many employers still live within the boundaries of their myths:
– too young and not experienced;
– young, will marry, give birth to a child;
– men are lazy;
– with children, will sit on sick leave;
– aged, it means stuck in the era of wooden score.
The most vulnerable category is people who have reached old age. Age-based discrimination persists even when older workers do not have health problems and are less educated, less skilled or less productive than younger colleagues. Older women face special problems when applying for a job due to their gender and age.
Many high- and middle-income countries have anti-discrimination laws to combat ageism in the workplace. For countries of the European Union, the Framework Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment 2000/78 / EC has been developed, which aims to combat discrimination in the workplace due to disability, sexual orientation, religion and age. Member States of the European Union are invited to incorporate it into their national laws.
In the United States, which has one of the highest levels of labor participation of people over 65, some of the most stringent anti-discrimination laws have been enacted and enforced. For example, the Employment Discrimination Act of 1967 prohibits discrimination against people aged 40 and over. Some countries have gone even further – for example, the Netherlands provides for the proactive screening of job postings to prevent age discrimination.
In America, McDonald’s will hire not only students and youth. Now the fast food chain is targeting the older generation and is about to add 250,000 jobs for senior citizens. Together with the American Retirement Organization, McDonald’s will look for older low-income Americans to get them jobs. “For the first time, five generations will work in one company,” says Melissa Kersey, McDonald’s Human Resources Director for the United States. She states that the company values the diversity of the ages of its employees and takes care of older members of society. “Some of them have not recovered from the global economic crisis. Some did not have the opportunity to save enough money for retirement. But nowadays there are many energetic 65-year-old people who do not want to go on a well-deserved rest, ”explains Susan Weinstock, vice president of the organization of pensioners.
In Ukraine, there has also been a wave of struggle against ageism. The Charity Foundation “Zdoroveby” launched the “Adult Trainee Week”. Within the framework of the project, modern Ukrainian companies for a week hired from 50 to 72 interns. Mostly these are PR agencies and IT companies. But what is an internship week? This is nothing, even an experienced person who knows his job will study the specifics of the company for about a month. Therefore, there is most likely not a solution to the problem, but an advertising company with the possible attention draw to this problem.
The management of our company has never been guided by the criteria of age when applying for a job: both for specialists aged 50-65, and for young people. The main criterion is professionalism and prospects.
Neither gender nor age matters, and for those who still live in such myths, as a rule, no one will be an ideal candidate for the post.
Both young people, 25-30 years old, and specialists 45-65 years old work together with us. And I can confidently say that the experience, energy and knowledge of 45-65-year-olds are no lower than their young colleagues.
Employees of all ages are busy at our facilities. We employ people of pre-retirement and retirement age, while we offer them decent market salaries.
