After spending years in the workplace, you’ve gained a significant amount of experience, which you believe makes you a valuable employee. Instead, you’ve noticed that you now receive unfair treatment compared to your younger, less experienced coworkers. However, as with any other form of employment discrimination, ageism is unlikely to be extremely blatant. While ageism may occur in a workplace, no one will openly state that the unfair treatment an employee receives is due to this.
If you’re experiencing age discrimination, you need to get help from an employment discrimination lawyer, but how do you know that it’s happening? Here are some of the most common signs that ageism could be occurring.
You Hear Negative Remarks About Age
In some discriminatory workplaces, employees may overhear comments about their age. People may often try to pass this off as just joking, but discriminatory comments are not jokes. You might hear comments about your retirement, even though you have no plans to retire, or other comments that make you feel unwelcome. If you’re experiencing harassment in the workplace due to your age, you need an age discrimination lawyer who can help.
Being Left Out
Feeling like you’re not wanted in your workplace can seriously affect your quality of work and well-being. If an employee is being discriminated against, their employer may take steps to isolate them from their fellow coworkers. This can mean missing information in important meetings or feeling like you’re not a wanted member of your team. When this affects an employee’s work, their employer may use it against them. Additionally, these discriminatory behaviors can force an employee to want to quit.
Only Younger Employees Are Hired
Who an employer hires can say a lot about their employment practices. During your time with the company, you may have started to notice that many of the employees they hire share similar characteristics – such as being young in this situation. Of course, this can just be a coincidence in some cases, but if it seems like they’re pushing older employees out in favor of younger ones, this could be a sign of discrimination.
Older Employees Aren’t Promoted
Similar to an employer’s hiring practices, who they promote can also be telling. You or other employees may have applied for promotions, only to be turned down and have the position go to a younger employee. Refusing to promote older employees can be especially telling, as these employees are likely to have more relevant experience. Additionally, older employees may be skipped over frequently for important projects that are given to younger employees. If this happens frequently enough in a workplace, it could be a discriminatory practice.
Forcing Older Employees Out
Older employees may be terminated more frequently in discriminatory workplaces. There are a few different ways that employers may terminate older employees while hiding their discrimination.
When companies need to perform layoffs, it may be noticeable that they mainly lay off older employees. Likewise, older employees’ positions may be eliminated only to be renamed and filled by younger employees later. When only older employees are targeted in situations like these, it may be for discriminatory reasons.
Contact a New York Age Discrimination Lawyer Who Can Help
If you’ve experienced age discrimination on the job, know that you have rights that protect you. Employees have various protections from age discrimination in the workplace. This includes the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the New York State Human Rights Law, and the New York City Human Rights Law.
Proving that you experienced age discrimination may be challenging, but Brown Kwon & Lam can help make it possible. No one should have to suffer due to workplace discrimination, and we will fight for you to get justice. Contact our New York age discrimination lawyers today to see if you have a case.