Proving Age Discrimination Workplace

Is age discrimination a legitimate complaint? It most certainly is. However, if you’re wondering as to whether or not you are experiencing age discrimination, to the point of being able to pursue the matter legally, defining age discrimination in the workplace can be a little tricky.

Thankfully, there is a criteria in place. You can use this criteria to determine once and for all if you are indeed being discriminated against due to your age.

Examples Of Age Discrimination

If you are trying to prove that you really are being discriminated against because of your age, there are a number of words and behaviors that you can look for. All of these represent clear examples of age discrimination. All of them are capable of proving age discrimination in the workplace:

1. Direct comments: If a boss, supervisor, or someone working in the human resources department makes a crack about your age, those things can be direct examples of age discrimination. If someone makes a joke about your age, or makes comments along the lines of telling you that you should retire, that you’re getting in the way of younger employees advancing, you’re going to want to write that down. You’ll also want to note the time and place.

2. Harassing behavior or comments: Some people hide their brand of age discrimination behind jokes. Believe it or not, some won’t even bother to do that. If you are working with people who repeatedly make comments about your age, you’ll want to keep a record of those instances.

3. Are you being disciplined unnecessarily? If you suddenly find yourself getting yelled at or written up for your work, and there have been no discernable change to the quality of your work at any time during your career with that company, then it’s possible you’re dealing with work discrimination.

4. Are you being excluded? If you find yourself being excluded from lunches or other work-related events, it’s possible that you’re dealing with a form of age discrimination.

5. Examples of favoritism: If you find that younger employees are being given advancement opportunities and other perks, and the quality of their work is exactly the same as yours, then you’re likely dealing with another form of age discrimination.

6. Hiring practices: If you find that employees are being promoted or hired due to their young age, while older, more experienced employees are being overlooked again and again, you’re dealing with age discrimination.

All of these examples can easily prove workplace discrimination is occurring.