This article was first published in Training and Learning (www.trainingandlearning.co.uk) in Vol 2, Issue 1, 2006 and is reproduced with the kind permission of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (www.traininginstitute.co.uk)
Neil Thompson explores the significance of the outlawing of age discrimination.
What do you expect at your age?
There has long been a significant gap in the anti-discrimination legislation when it comes to age. While race and gender discrimination have long been subject to legislation, and disability, sexual orientation and religion have more recently been added, discrimination on the grounds of age has nonetheless remained legal throughout that period and does not become subject to regulations until October 2006. Why has it taken so long for age discrimination to be taken seriously?
There is no simple answer to this, but clearly a major part of the problem is the long-established tendency to devalue older people and to see old age as a time of dying rather than a time of life. It is to be hoped, then, that the forthcoming regulations will play an important part in bringing about much needed change in attitudes towards older people and the contribution they can make.
Older people are subject to a wide range of negative stereotypes – for example, the common but misleading assumption that they are deaf or hard of hearing and that it is therefore necessary to raise your voice when speaking to an older person. Hearing loss is more common in old age, but that certainly does not mean that all, or even most, older people have a hearing problem. Part of this stereotyping is the idea that older people are ‘past it’ (whatever ‘it’ may be), that they are a drain on the economy and therefore do not have a positive contribution to make. This, of course, is unduly negative. The reality of the situation is that older people make a major contribution to the economy (as consumers, as workers and as providers of child care to allow others to work – grandparents babysitting, for example). They also have a major positive contribution to make in terms of experience and expertise.
What we have, then, is a vicious circle. Older people are often excluded from certain sectors of the workforce (as a result of early retirement policies, for example) and therefore have less opportunity to prove their worth. This in turn reinforces the stereotype that ‘younger, dynamic’ people are to be preferred which, in its turn, makes it less likely that older people’s contributions will be recognised and appreciated (and, besides, who said that younger people are necessarily more ‘dynamic’ than their older counterparts?).
No doubt the new regulations will generate a lot of training opportunities and many colleagues will be called upon to deliver such training. Given the deeply ingrained negative attitudes towards older people, it will be necessary to design training inputs that are capable of challenging (firmly but constructively) such a negative mindset. Unfortunately, we have a history of some forms of training in the race relations field (for example, Race Awareness Training – or RAT, for short) that have been counterproductive by being excessively confrontational – and therefore experienced as punitive, rather than educational. It is important, then, that training geared towards preventing and challenging age discrimination should not fall into this trap, that it should involve constructive, skilful challenging (what is often referred to as ‘elegant’ challenging), rather than the crude, ill-advised challenging of yesteryear.
Anti-discrimination training in relation to age is about to become a major challenge. It is therefore important that we plan carefully how we are going to make the most of this opportunity to promote age diversity as a benefit, an asset to be grateful for – rather than return to the days of ‘compliance’ training, with a narrow focus on not breaking the law. We have learned (or should have done) that such approaches merely breed defensiveness, while what we really need is a positive approach geared towards best practice.
It is to be hoped that forward-thinking organisations will not skimp on such training and will invest properly in developing training interventions that are more than tokenistic and are well equipped to tackle the complexities of this important aspect of the equality and diversity agenda.
Neil Thompson is the managing director of Avenue Consulting Ltd (www.avenueconsulting.co.uk). He is the author of Promoting Equality, Valuing Diversity: A Training Resource, published by Learning Curve Publishing.
© Neil Thompson 2006
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