Research Finds Links Between Suffering from Age Discrimination at Work and Physical Harm & Deterioration

Our law firm fights illegal age discrimination in the workplace. Age discrimination is more widespread in workplaces than you may suspect – and its harmful effects can be lasting. One CBS broadcast affiliate’s $215,000 settlement with a female reporter who was denied a job due to her age is capturing news headlines in part due to the company’s agreement to furnish significant equitable relief throughout the CBS Corporation, which owns and operates 29 television stations in the US, including WJAX-TV here in Jacksonville, Florida. The company admittedly offered the job to younger candidates who did not meet the hiring criteria over the plaintiff, who had worked for the station as a freelance reporter. The lawsuit was filed under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), and the consent decree subsequently reached now requires the CBS Stations Group to not only refrain from engaging in age discrimination, but also to provide training on the ADEA and regularly report to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on its compliance.

Sadly, this reporter’s experience is hardly in the minority, and new findings indicate that these practices are also exacting physical harm on their targets. According to a new survey, many Americans age 50 to 80 not only face blatant age discrimination every day in the form of age-based job demotions, forced retirements, and other discriminatory practices; but ageist messages also negatively affect their health and welfare in the workplace. These comments included people making assumptions about what individuals in the 50 – 80 age group might need help with, their inability to remember or use technology, and their supposed inability to see, hear, or understand. According to the research conducted, those who experienced three or more of these “forms of everyday ageism” displayed worse mental and physical health than others. The research indicated that a number of health conditions, especially cardiovascular disease and diabetes, can be both induced and exacerbated by the stress that comes about from age discrimination.

Age Discrimination Is More Than Just Blatant Adverse Employment Decisions; It’s Also Present in Actions Designed to Make You Leave

One author discusses an especially insidious and demoralizing form of age discrimination in the workplace that many Americans in their 50s and 60s experience – marginalization – in her new book It’s Time to Talk About Ageism in the Workplace. Older workers can be marginalized, for example, by slowly but surely being excluded from important meetings, provided with meaningless tasks beneath their skill level, and having supervisors and bosses engage in other activities designed to get them to feel so small and insignificant that they choose to leave, thus getting the employer “off the hook.” By using marginalization to get older workers to leave, companies can avoid paying severance. However, the practice has also been associated with resulting in physical and mental manifestations of anger, anxiety, depression, fear, isolation, sadness, and stress.

If You Have Been the Victim of Age Discrimination in Florida, Speak with Our Florida Labor & Employment Lawyers

It is important to understand is that ageism and marginalization are all a part of age discrimination. If you have been the victim of an unfair employment decision or practices, speak with our Jacksonville labor and employment attorneys at Douglas & Douglas, Attorneys at Law today to find out what your options are.

Resources:

usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-07-16/many-older-americans-face-ageism-every-day-survey-finds

nextavenue.org/marginalization-insidious-form-of-age-discrimination-at-work/

timesrecordnews.com/story/news/local/2020/07/13/texas-cbs-affiliate-pay-215-000-age-discrimination-suit/5430456002/

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