Has anyone else ever felt like they were being targeted because of their age and some health issues?

7 Comments

1. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 6:20PM UTC

   Of course. It's called descrimination. There are laws in place to address descrimination but very hard to prove.

2. AnonymousJanuary 7,2025 at 7:47PM UTC

   Descrimination happens all day everyday.

3. Laura CampbellJanuary 8,2025 at 1:41PM UTC

   I read recently that women suffer from age discrimination 3 times more often than men. I know that doesn’t help, but it was an interesting factoid.

   can you file an anonymous complaint with your HR department?

4. AnonymousJanuary 9,2025 at 2:59AM UTC

   Yes, this absolutely happens sometimes. That said, IME, most people who have been called out at work, put on a PIP, or dismissed believed they were doing a great job and that they were unfairly targeted for sex, race, age, personal, or health reasons. Where I've known what's going on behind the scenes, I've personally never seen that. There have been times when one of those things has intersected with whatever legit work concern is causing problems (e.g., someone older who can't/won't learn new processes and bogs down an entire department; someone with serious health issues who is unable to work for months at a time and is not terribly functional when they do manage to clock in because being in pain sucks) - but it's not a get out of jail free card where people get to do whatever they choose while the business just has to suck it up, go short-handed, continue paying someone who is not able (whatever the reason) to do the work that needs to be done. I wish we had a much stronger social net so some of these issues would resolve themselves, but we don't.

5. AnonymousJanuary 12,2025 at 4:32PM UTC

   But it does happen. The executive director at the nonprofit where I worked told me that they were going to start replacing people who left with younger ones because the median age of the staff was 40+. I was nearing 60 then, so it didn't give me much hope for advancement. At one point, they promised me a promotion that they later gave to a younger (in his 30s) man that I had trained. The explanation I was given was that they were concerned about my health and the stress it would cause me (on an issue that had utterly resolved itself and didn't interfere with my ability to do my job). People who are older and have health issues have two strikes before stepping up to the plate, so it doesn't take much to make their lives worse or cause more stress than letting them do their jobs. By the way, all my reviews were stellar, and I was never put on a PIP.

6. AnonymousJanuary 13,2025 at 1:07PM UTC

   I did begin my response with "this absolutely happens sometimes" and it sounds like your situation fits into that category. Did anyone ever bring up concerns about your work? Maybe you decided whatever they were commenting on was petty or wrong? I've seen this happen many times, especially where there's a strong culture of giving people top reviews because it's the only way they'll get even a minimal pay raise. As a manager, I've even done it myself with an older employee who just needed to coast for a couple of years until she retired. Refused to learn anything new, but had a long history with the company, so in acknowledgement of her many years of service, we just quit pushing. Let her coast, gave her solid reviews so she'd get her 2 or 3% raise every year, and marked the time until she was gone and we could get a good employee to replace her. That didn't mean I never broached the topic of the things we really could have used help with, but I didn't escalate it and I didn't let my other staff escalate. They did know my reasoning for letting the situation alone, and that definitely helped them stick it out when they were also frustrated with needing extra support we weren't getting. I'm not saying that was a good management technique on my side, but I can understand why that's not uncommon. If she would have pushed for advancement at that point (who doesn't want more money?), I like to believe I would have had a hard conversation with her. I understand why people don't, though. Definitely wasn't the right choice to use your health as an excuse, but I can see how that might happen.

7. AnonymousJanuary 13,2025 at 1:40PM UTC

   Thank you for acknowledging. To answer your questions, no, my reviews were all stellar. At one point, when the site manager was let go, I asked the director if they were going to replace her, and he told me point blank, "Everyone knows who runs this place (meaning me), but they aren't sure what they are going to do with the site manager position."

   They kept me at an IC level, and then I had to have surgery, which ended up with complications (the medical issue that had been resolved). When I returned from my medical leave, there was a new 30-something that they wanted me to train as an IC (back story: they were trying not to rely so much on interns in my area). I was back at full strength and duties within a month of returning and had no reason to believe I couldn't work another 10 years. They were all very supportive of me and my recovery from the surgery and even went out of their way to not have to convert me to LTD by extending my STD a couple of weeks. Based on what the director said, I was expecting to move into the manager position because everyone was talking like we needed someone who could have the direct (not implied) responsibility of running the center. Nevertheless, a year later, they promoted the guy I had just trained. The OP asked if anyone had been discriminated against because of age and health issues, so I have no problem answering that yes, I was.