@Indeed It Was a Week! It's time to ditch outdated thinking about older workers and DO SOMETHING (Part 1)

In 2022, there was a well-publicized age discrimination case filed against IBM. The smoking gun? Documents in which company leadership referred to older employees as "dinobabies" who should be shed in favor of millennial employees. (IBM settled the case for an undisclosed amount later that year.)

In my workshops for employers about the business case for age inclusion, I often mention this case, reinforcing this point:

The real dinosaurs in times of demographic change? Those who don’t understand and don’t get ahead of this powerful trend—the aging of the world, and the real value that older workers bring.

I spend a lot of time educating employers, employee resource groups (ERGS), HR professionals and workforce development centers about the business case for older workers and intergenerational teams, and refuting outdated and ageist myths and stereotypes, including the "decline and deterioration" narrative pervasive in our culture.

As I explained to Chris Henry when he interviewed me for his The Art 2 Aging podcast last week, the companies that hire me understand that the world is changing and the future of work requires them to think differently about older workers and to reject the outdated stereotypes.

So I’m always a little surprised when dinosaur thinking emerges like it did last week in an article on the Indeed website, with this accompanying graphic:

I saw the link to the article on LinkedIn as I was preparing to log off for the weekend (it was the Friday before Labor Day in the U.S.) in a post by Victoria Tomlinson FRSA who called it blatant age discrimination. She had seen the article in a post by Sarah Taylor Phillips , who shared her own perspective as a career development expert.

And--so much for logging off early!

I shared the article in this post and issued a call to action, tagging members of the Editorial Team who were listed as authors of the article, and messaging Chris Hyams , Indeed's CEO.

Within minutes people were commenting and most importantly TAKING ACTION, sharing the post and asking Indeed to DO SOMETHING.

And many others weighed in, echoing the call for action. I lost count. I'm still trying to respond to all the thoughtful comments that people made on my post, and to those who reposted, as well as the many private messages I received.

The good news?

Within a few hours, Indeed had taken down the offensive article, and issued an apology. On my post, CMO Jessica Jensen commented:

And I hope that Indeed will take up at least one of the multiple offers, including mine, to train their leadership and teams on the benefits of age inclusion, and put in policies and practices to ensure that they exhibit age inclusivity in everything they do.

The better news in my view?

1. People spoke up. Very often in my work addressing ageism, older jobseekers and workers won't, concerned that doing so will affect their chances of future employment. I get it. Yet when we don't speak up, employers and government aren't motivated to act.
2. LinkedIn members MADE the business case for older workers. You spoke of the insights you've gained over time, your willingness to mentor, your ability to help companies solve some of their most perplexing challenges. You showed why the companies who ignore the potential contributions of older workers, or worst, push out older employees, will be those marked for extinction.
3. The potential use of the energy generated. As someone who has spent her career working toward social and organizational change, I know when the time and conditions are right. The time is now for harnessing this energy toward significant attitude and policy change.

Things we can do together moving forward:

1. Enlist a group to form a rapid response team, to replicate deliberately the conditions that led to Indeed taking down the article, and to respond to the ageist articles that flood the media. (I'll be writing more about this next week).
2. Ask employers to include age as part of their DEI efforts, and to exclude statements like "digital natives" in job postings.
3. Ask our Congressional representatives and candidates running for office to take action on stronger workplace age discrimination laws and other policies that would strengthen our workplaces and the economy overall. For examples, see my articles on the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, on why candidates should be talking about age, and why the National Plan on Aging should address employment of older adults.

What would YOU add? Are you in? Let me know in the comments!

© Janine Vanderburg, 2024.