[I’d normally file this with the Money in the Media links but since I had a few things to say about the article, I figured it should be here in my blog instead.]
This LinkedIn tidbit caught my eye (being an “older” citizen myself), but then I couldn’t help notice the seemingly obligatory “let’s trash the young’uns” comments.
I am so sick of seeing millennials trashed. Has there ever been an older generation that didn’t denigrate the younger generation for being stupid, lazy, and self-absorbed? This crap has been going on since at least Aristotle’s days. When I was a young’un (I’m officially a Baby Boomer, though just by the skin of my teeth) the older generation didn’t have a single good thing to say about us as we hit the workforce. And now it seems my contemporaries, in turn, feel compelled to crap all over the latest generation hitting the workforce.
If, indeed, age discrimination (toward older workers) is easing — well, I think that’s awesome. My cynical self knows that if organizations are collectively experiencing an attitude shift toward older employees it has everything to do with their bottom line and not to some collective revelation as to the stupidity and despicableness of ageism.
What I don’t get is how older people don’t understand that ageism works both ways. Bias against anyone based on age is bias. If you’re in your 50’s, how can you not look back and remember what it was like to be in your 20’s? If you’re in your 20’s, let me assure you, as impossible as it seems, you will someday be “old” like us (if you’re lucky, that is).
My final word is this: just because I’m in my 50’s and have some grey in my hair, don’t expect me to participate in your toxic ageist dumping on millennials. I’m not playing.
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