Addressing Ageism

Someone sent this to me based on an issue in her workplace. I've posted on discrimination and favoritism. I think we are called as Christians to make sure we are not guilty of ageism, racism, sexism, or any other -ism.

As baby boomers age and remain longer in the workforce we see the phenomenon, and often the tension, of younger and older professionals struggling to work well together. Young professionals bring new energy and ideas, new trends, technological skills, and represent what many fear….change. Often young professionals go so far as to idolize their own attributes while seeing (and perhaps treating) their “seasoned” professional counterparts as “aged,” out of style, and old news.

On the flip side, young professionals are often pre-judged by senior-level employees as immature, inexperienced, naive, and altogether unworthy of opportunities to express opinions, participate in “senior” meetings, or to find a “seat at the table” (except maybe the children’s table). Both attitudes represent generalized and unfair assessments.

Young professionals are encouraged to not “let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

In his book On Being a Servant of God, Warren Wiersbe shares some valuable tips on the phenomena of older and younger people working together:

1. Never take down a fence until you know why it was put up.
2. If you get too far ahead of the army, your soldiers may mistake you for the enemy.
3. Don’t complain about the bottom rungs of the ladder; they helped you get higher.
4. If you want to enjoy the rainbow, be prepared to endure the storm.

The apostle Peter challenges the young and old to work together in humility. “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5, NKJV). Paul encourages the older woman to mentor the younger woman in godliness and for older men to encourage young men and in to set them an example by doing what is good (Titus 2:3-5). He goes on to say “in your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.” (Titus 2:7-8). What a noble and God-inspired calling for us to live out in our workplaces as intergenerational employees learn to grow together in mutual respect.