THE CLASS BLOG FOR ENGLISH 110
Sunday, July 17, 2011
3rd Group Summary
The blog we chose for this weeks discussion is http://www.newyorkemploymentlawyerblog.com/age_discrimination/.This blog focuses on age discrimination in the work force. We found this blog to be appealing because age discrimination is not something you may hear about very often, but during these hard times, it is very prevalent. Many of you may have been discriminated against because of your age over the past couple of years, but you may not have been aware of it. When reading and commenting on this blog, remember that not all of the posts are recent, they range from 2007-2011. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Excellent choice, guys! I think this is an issue all of you could potentially identify with. Not me, of course... I'm old.
ReplyDeleteThis issue of losing your job due to age discrimination is ridiculous but sadly very realistic. Men and women of the older age group (40+) in the workplace should not "encouraged" to leave their job. No company should have the right to make them "retire" or what we know it as actually terminate them at the age of 50 just because they want younger workers who will work for less and work night shifts. Yes, that may be a great advantage for a company owner to have workers who are young so they can pay them lower, give them work night shifts, and not have to worry about their workers having strict schedules due to having a family. But what about the experience aspect? Men and women who have had their career for 20 years or more have much more experience and therefore will most likely be more reliable on the job. Because this issue has been raised to be very controversial, I think that age discrimination in the workplace and the ability to terminate workers solely because of their age should be made unconstitutional.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jen in that losing your job because of your age is simply ridiculous. Most people in their 50's and 60's have a stable job that has supported their family for probably many years. I also have to agree with Jen because these "older" people working at their jobs are probably very good at what they do versus a 20 year old who just comes into the company. Yes, young people can bring new and fresh ideas to a company, but I still believe that firing or forcing someone to retire based on their age is not a viable conclusion. Employers have to realize that people in their 50's more than likely have kids that are in college and have to pay their tuition each year. Firing these workers may end up in a decline of schooling for their kids which can ruin their futures. Employers must take into consideration that these workers have actual lives and firing someone because they are older is unjust.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI honestly did not even know age discrimination was a big issue. Probably because i am young but i can not believe people are firing people because their age. I look at performance as a reason to fire someone. If the "old" person is not as productive as they used to be, then there is a reason to fire someone. However, if the "old" is just as productive as before and they still get fired, then there is a major ethical issue
ReplyDeleteYa Scott, a lot of companies have been letting go older people from their businesses, especially in this awful economy. Many employers believe that by hiring young people, they have the ability to come up with new and fresh ideas and they figure they should get rid of the older people so they aren't paying for more workers. The reasoning for doing something like this is so unethical and employers should fire someone not based on age but, like Scott said, performance.
ReplyDeleteScott, that's a very good point that this bring into effect the whole idea of ethics. Ethically, there is no way that terminating an older worker for a new, younger work solely because of age is a viable reason to do so. This certainly is a problem and needs much more attention than it has been receiving.
ReplyDeleteI also did not know that age discrimination was a major issue in the workforce. I believe that instead of letting go of older employees, employers should keep them instead of hiring new and younger employees. Although they may require a higher pay, older employees are more experienced and can provide more for the company.
ReplyDeleteAs opposite to Deeqa and Scoot, I did hear something about age discrimination. Yet I never paid attention to it as well as them probably because I am still a student and haven't worried my future job yet. Letting go of older employees seems harmful to the old group since they may be still qualified for their jobs and they have to raise their children as parents. But if they occupy their postions all the time, how could their children after graduation find jobs? For companies, whatever hiring younger employees or older employees, there are advantages and disadvantages together. Younger employees are more energetic and less-cost but less experienced, vice versa. Personally, I prefer hiring younger employees because older employees should still have welfare to support themselves after graduation and need free time to do what they like in rest of their lives, while younger employees could have chance to show their talents.
ReplyDeletePerhaps age discrimination does really exist, but I think losing job is hard to distinguish whether it is cause by a kind of discrimination or the result of market competition. I used to experience a kind of thing that it looks like a discrimination but actually not. At that time, I was looking for a sponsor for the student association and finally I met a manager. But that manager rejected me rudely because I didn’t know his company much and can’t do anything for him. Maybe it was because I was looked like a young student and unable to be trusted to bring some benefits back to him. But in fact, the reason why I failed is just lack of experiences for that area. If I know much about what kinds of benefits I could give him, I could make that deal. So age discrimination could be a reason of losing job, but I do not think it’s the all reason.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I can see both sides of this issue. It is wrong to let people go simply due to their age, and that is definitely a horrible form of discrimination. However, from a company's standpoint, younger employees would have a more accurate outlook on the current trends in the market. Younger employees will be much more beneficially in some markets in some cases. Take Abercrombie for instance. I know the majority of the workers there, even at corporate offices are usually 35 years or younger. I don't believe that firing someone because of their age is ethical, but what about hiring someone because of their age? Is that a type of discrimination too?
ReplyDeleteMy perception of age discrimination can go two ways of insight. People who are replaced, asked to leave, or can’t find a job because of age might not just be about age dicrimination. I say this because the future depends on new minds. I see it as a way to move in our area and to expand our creation and science. For others that can not find jobs is not very discriminating to me because you have to succeed in order to score a high in a job. I do agree with Jen and others on their insight for being let go at a older age very discriminating but I see the side where the younger is the future because the older teach us and we learn from them but we are the ones who proceed further. People should retire and let new minds in. The world is also a lot different then the past because there are more people in the world and most of the jobs right now are very hard to come by these days. More people who have been working for a company for years that probably did not need a college degree and now a days they require the college degree. The world has changed a lot but it's changing for the better, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteOne area where i think age discrimination has an inverse effect is the medical industry. Most people don't like to be checked out by young medical graduates who just got out of college and don't know a headache from a migraine; they have the paychecks to prove it. The majority prefer the veterans of the trade. While in college, it might seem ludicrous for old people to be pushed into retirement. There are only so many spots in companies. Once you graduate and can't find a job because the old people didn't get out in time, you might no longer think that way.
ReplyDeleteAll the comments above make me realize that age discrimination was a real concern after all. I personally think age discrimination could be good, bad, and ugly at the same time. If people have been discriminated against their age, probably because of the stereotype that people might believe younger is better than older. Younger colleagues have higher stamina to stay on top of today’s world and more productive. And there is a reason why they fire older colleagues. However, I think younger colleague may not be as experienced in handling conflict within the workplace like what older colleagues do.
ReplyDeleteFrank, thats a very interesting point you made that many patients feel more comfortable when a doctor of older age takes care of them all because they feel more confident that they know what they're doing. To add to that, jobs in the medical field are always open and always need new doctors, nurses, etc. Older employees in the medical field will never lose their job because employees are always needed in a hospital setting, therefore attracting to all age groups. This just points to a career that you will never face age discrimination in the workplace. While all of us college students will be facing the real world in a few years, now-a-days job availability is a huge factor to take into consideration.
ReplyDeleteJust gotta remember though, with old age comes... old age. I like the doctor example but sometimes people can be too old to perform regular tasks. However, at the ripe age of 40+, I hardly doubt any of that happens. The sad part is, I can see where a company comes from when they want new, younger people. It means they get the same job done, maybe not as well, but close, and for less. Welcome to capitalism. I think everyone should hate it only because some day we'll get old and be fired =[ and losing your job is never good. it's sad that this happens. This blog depresses me. Why can't people live without discrimination? it's really not that hard
ReplyDeleteI defiantly agree with you Daisuki. No matter I do not believe that age discrimination within the work force is right, but it is inevitable. I just feel like it is so unnecessary to create such problems when there are always people that have special and unique characteristics to contribute to a company. While I do think it is appealing to have a younger and new people working for you through appearance, with age comes experience and that can be one of the things that really matters the most. Ultimately i believe that it depends on the type of job and from there it can be determined the best suited age group. There is always going to be jobs that others can perform better at then someone of another age group.
ReplyDeleteI don't think age discrimination is a big issue as well. And I believe lots of cases may have prejudgement in it. Being fired at old ages does cause a more serious problem for people's life than that at younger ages. For this reason, fired aged people become a vulnerable group and they easily arose public's attention. Then "age discrimination" is used by people who want to fight for these people's right and earn money at the same time. Lots of young people are fired for same reason as well, so we can't say old unemployed people are being discriminated just because they face a worse situation after being fired. Just like Youzhi said, young people always being rejected just because of "lacking experience". Isn't this an age discrimination toward young people?
ReplyDeleteWhen Tracey said this, "I say this because the future depends on new minds. I see it as a way to move in our area and to expand our creation and science", I really thought about all of the new technological/scientific advances that some of the older generations might not be as savvy with, as some of the younger generations are. But at the same time the younger generations also lack experience. There needs to be a way to create a company or setting where both can intermix. They can have the older generations with their experience and the younger generations with their "younger" minds. I understand that this is how they do it with my dad's company, while he has the marketing experience of over 30 years, they do bring in people in their 20s to help market to their age group better. Also, there is an Act that makes it illegal to discriminate by age, especially if they are 40+, what ever happened to that?
ReplyDeleteWhenever I heard the phrase "age discrimination", I always thought that it referred to younger people being discriminated against due to lack of experience or stereotyping. I had no idea that it applied to the opposite, and that people were losing their jobs because employers thought they were too old. But in a way, it makes sense that this is occurring, considering the integration of social networking and technology into the work force. Many older people haven't adapted as well to these changes, which means that their employers might consider replacing them for this reason alone. Is it right? No, but in a way, there's a sort of twisted logic to it.
ReplyDeleteI personally think the main reason that a company fire people is their performance or effect of economic instability. Otherwise, I don't believe a company fire people just because he/she is old and need save place for younger worker. On one hand, company can control the proportion of different aged people when they recruit. On another hand, well-performed old worker definitely make more contribution to the company than non-experienced young worker.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the article about the 68-year old lady don't want to retire but his manager force her to do so. I think this is does a problem for old people. If the government can ensure their better benefit of retiring, I don't believe old people would rather work. Also, I can't blame the manager, because he has to earn profit and ineffective worker should be fired. So I conclude that social security may be helpful towards this issue.
I think age discrimination is a controversial topic. On one hand, every year new graduates come into society to find jobs and companies do need them to put into new technology and new ideas. On the other hand, old people also need to maintain their jobs to afford their life. I think a good way to deal with this problem is that the government can take measures to make a balance. Like frank said, aged doctors seems more popular in medical industry. The government can develop more job opportunities for such field and other field in which age is not matter, like salesman. Also it should encourage companies to absorb more graduates to insure the employment
ReplyDeleteHonestly, people getting old have lower efficient than young people in some aspect, such as concentration, physical strength and the ability of accepting new things. They might not be adequate for certain positions but the positions like experienced required are good alternatives. Especially in tech company, younger employees are supposed to dominate in the number since in IT industry the technology get advanced fast. So for the seniors, the society need to provide enough welfare after their retirement and they also can find other appropriate positions but it is not that easy as it sounds like.
ReplyDeleteI agree with yi xiao. New graduates have to look for jobs and the retirement age is increasing due to the poor economy so young people have a tough time finding jobs and sometimes have replace older people. Either more jobs have to be created or people have to be fired.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a little difficult to define the age discrimination. And actually, I also don’t agree with those people who always simply treat the company’s behavior of laying off those old employees is a kind of disguised age discrimination. For me, it is not a very big issue, I believe ,the profit is the most important thing for a company. Maybe some times, they don’t want to just cut those old employees; their original intention is to let the company product most in the same time with the less payment. We cannot ignore a fact that the young always can stimulate more inspiration, more abundant energy into work and study, what’s more, they even require less salary. All of these may be the reason why company prefer younger employee. And thus, it is not necessary to pay too much attention to this topic, in my opinion, if the old employees have better skill and more experience, we should use them; on the contrary, the younger can make more products, we can prefer the young. If we chose the maximum profit as the criterion, things must be much easier. As for the living problems of the unemployment, just as Yi Xiao said, it is the government functions to have a better unemployment guarantee.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this blog, I found out that people really should be more rational about discrimination. Some cases in this blog are not discrimination for me, they seems more like a best choice for employer, and I think there's nothing wrong for employer to choose the workers satisfy his/her needs most.
ReplyDeleteAlthough we should not discriminate anybody, but don't take any specific criteria as a discrimination. As I believe different genders, different ages people have their own advantages and disadvantages, I think we should make best of these different advantages. That's nothing wrong to me