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Due to the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), it has long been illegal in the U.S. to discriminate against workers based on age. Not that the law discourages companies much from maintaining young-only work environments. Horror stories abound (I have a few of my own) and it’s not just old folks who are affected. Age discrimination begins striking women as young as 35. In men, it begins at about age 40.
Until 1 October 2006, when new legislation went into effect, England had no age discrimination laws. Ever since the legislation was enacted two years ago, corporate Britain has been screeching that all business will come to a halt if they can’t fire old fogies just for getting wrinkly. The law has now been in effect for two months with no discernible breakdown in commerce.
Meanwhile, one Francesca Pagnaccio has been living the real story of age discrimination. Writing in the Times of London last weekend, she explained:
“Last January, amid the season for resolutions and job hunting, my conversation with a recruitment agent took a depressing turn. ‘So how old are you, Francesca?’ she asked. ‘Thirty-eight,’ I told her brightly. Yes, 38 and shifting career into the high-paying world of information technology. ‘Oh. Never mind,’ she replied. ‘I know what it feels like to be old — I’m 28.’â€
[Never mind, too, that a 28-year-old believes she is old. That’s a story for another day.]
Fed up with the lack of enthusiasm for her age from potential employers, Francesca reversed two digits of her birth date on her resume from 12/18/1967 to 12/18/1976 effectively lopping nine years off her age. Two weeks later, with employers believing she was 29 instead of 38, Francesca landed a job.
For the next year, she avoided conversation about age so as not to reveal her lie, and she found it to be liberating. Thinking of herself now as 29, Francesca carried on a romance with a 23-year-old man – until, she says, she realized he had his whole life ahead of him and she didn’t. (From my perspective of 65, 38 seems young enough to still have a lot of living ahead, but that’s another story for another day.)
Francesca says that she made a pact with herself to live as much as possible with no conversation or curiosity about age and found it nearly impossible to achieve because
“…people are so eager to tell all: twenty-somethings are gagging to divulge how bloody young they are; thirty-somethings often think they really look 20-plus so they’re dying for you to ask; and people in their early forties want to let it all hang out. From 50 to 80 there’s a period of calm until 90-plus when you are potential material for The Guinness Book of Records. But at every stage there remains the need to hear that time-worn platitude: ‘But you don’t look your age.’â€
Francesca makes an important point. It is no different in the United States and as long as everyone – employees and employers; women and men; young and old - is desperate to appear younger than they are, age discrimination will continue. As long as people Botox, lipo and cosmetic surgery themselves into grotesque facsimilies of the human form to hear that coveted phrase, age discrimination will cut short professional lives when there were years and even decades of productive work left in those kicked out of the workforce for what? For not looking young.
Age discrimination is notoriously hard to prove in general and is further hindered by the fact that corporations employ in-house counsel who get paid whatever their assignment while plaintiffs must pay an attorney $300 or $400 or more per hour. You can guess who wins most cases.
So next time you’re preening when someone says, “you don’t look that old,†why not instead say something like, “I know you think that’s a compliment and I appreciate your intentions, but I’m comfortable with my real age and don’t mind revealing it.†If enough people do that, we’ll begin to make a dent in age discrimination – maybe even before you become a victim.
* Contributing Editor Ronni Bennett also blogs at Time Goes By - What it’s really like to get older.,
