Ageism and prejudice at work aren’t just matters for older people, they can have a serious impact on young employees too
‘STOP WORKING so hard. You’re making the rest of us look bad. Your chance will come. You’re only young yet.”
I may be young, but does that mean I am inexperienced? Does it mean I should be happy to wait another few years, to wait for a time when I look old enough to take on a higher position or a bigger salary? I think not.
Ageism is often discussed, analysed, examined. We hear about older people losing their jobs, being discriminated against, losing out on opportunities because they are seen as old-fashioned, and not able to deal with modernity.
What about young people? Do you ever go to work and wonder whether or not you will be taken seriously today? Ever have to build up the courage to challenge a colleague older than you? I have felt that way. So have many of my friends.
It is hard to make the transition from the education system to the workplace. It is even harder when you are the youngest employee. You have to fight to gain respect and to be treated in the same way as everyone else. You must prove you are committed and able and have initiative.
There is nearly always an unspoken resentment towards young people who come into a workplace with energy, enthusiasm, positivity and fresh ideas. And when that same young person proves himself or herself, gets promoted, and perhaps becomes manager or director of a company, that is when things change.
It’s like the GAA. Isn’t it great to see new talent emerging among various county football teams? It is indeed, until they dare to get better than the old favourites, and perhaps even manage to win an All Ireland.
How dare they? Who do they think they are? It is often said that Irish people don’t like to see people being too ambitious. Instead of embracing that ambition and passion, they try to squash it. We have probably all experienced that before. At some stage in our lives, people will try to crush us, to get rid of any spark we have and make sure we are not a threat to them.
Young people often have that spark. They believe anything is possible. There are no boundaries.
I believe hard work, commitment and a passion for what we do are a recipe for success. As a young person working with people older than me, in many different situations and workplaces, I have experienced ageism at first hand.
When I was 19, I was given the chance to go on work experience in a media company for three months. I soon found out that it is very hard to be taken seriously when you are younger than everyone else. All they saw was what they wanted to see. A number. An age. A way to dismiss me, to stop me from getting too big for my boots. I was shocked.
Before then, I had always been respected, and it had always been the work I produced and the way I acted, that formed people’s opinions of me.
In that same radio station, I worked with a different group of people, people who respected me, treated me as part of the team, encouraged me and valued me. Instead of stereotyping me, they got to know me and judged me on my abilities, not on my age. That was an exceptional team of people.
My friend started working in a secondary school last year. Before my friend got a chance to enter the classroom on her first day, the school principal informed the students that “she’s only 20 years old”. He told them to “go easy on her”. Imagine if my friend had been 65 years of age. Would the principal have told those same students what age she was? Would he have patronised her and undermined her position by telling them to go easy on her? It is disgraceful that people are judged by the amount of years they have lived on this earth.
Everyone deserves the right to prove themselves and show what they can achieve, regardless of their date of birth.
Who do they think they are, these people who look down on us because we haven’t been around as long as them? How would they know what we are capable of if they don’t give us a chance?
Another friend was managing a summer camp in Dublin this summer, for foreign students learning English. She had the highest position out of all the people working on the project. To her, it was a job, something she would do as best she could, with the help of everyone else around her.
Yet she met resistance and resentment from someone older, someone who was technically working for her, who - she felt - had a problem with a younger person in a more senior role than him.
My friend didn’t see it that way. We are working together, she told him, we are all helping each other. When you want something badly enough, you have a very good chance of getting it. Don’t listen to people who tell you to wait a few years, to sit tight, to keep your head down. Hold your head up high and work as hard as you can at what you love. Age should never be a barrier.
Remember when you were 17, not quite 18. You were waiting on your birthday to come, waiting for the official day when you could vote, when you could go to a pub without worrying about being turned away, when you could finally be treated as an adult.
What a wonderful feeling. There are no barriers after that 18th birthday. And if there are, break them down and dance the rest of the way into your dreams.
Meadhbh Ní Eadhra is 23 years old and has spent time on work experience with various media organisations.