Age is Only a Number

This week’s topic is something that came to me after hearing about my daughter’s tribulations with a new coworker and then realizing I was doing almost the exact same thing myself: Age discrimination. I know you’re thinking you don’t do it, and if you do, it’s warranted. They’re kids. They’re not supposed to know everything and there are many times when they act like they do and it’s very obvious they don’t. I just giggled at a post on Instagram at a dad whose primary focus is to share what texts his teen sends him and believe me, they’re pretty hilarious and seriously pretty alarmingly ignorant for someone who will one day be an adult in charge of the world, but I digress.  

Let me break this down. My seventeen-year-old has been at her job for the past few months and she knows what to do. Recently, another worker was hired, who presumably is about thirty years of age or thereabouts and supposedly has worked retail before just not for this storefront, and as you know, each company is going to have their way of doing things. On his first day, he assumed since he was older and was being trained in a higher position than my daughter since she was only a high school kid, that he knew more, despite the fact that it was just his first day. He immediately began trying to tell her what to do. She calmly looked at him and said she knew what to do since it was not her first day and proceeded to do her job as she had for the past three months. The rest of the shift he continued to try to much of the same and apparently had a pretty challenging time learning how to do his own job, let alone assuming that the seventeen-year-old couldn’t possibly know how to do hers. He treated my daughter differently because she was young, essentially half his age. It seemed as if he had made the assumption that she did not know how to do her job because she was a teenager, and because he was older that meant he automatically knew more. That was clearly not the case in this situation. If he had not made that incorrect assumption and treated her with respect since she had been working at the store longer than he had, it would have been a much better working environment. This happens all the time in all work environments, and not just in the retail world.

Now I made this same mistake myself.  As you know, I am also a realtor. As I was scrolling through Facebook one day, I noticed one of my past student’s girlfriends had become a real estate agent as well and she had begun making videos. What was startling about her videos that caught my attention was that she was talking about topics that I knew she probably didn’t know much about such as what it took to sell a house since I knew she had never sold her own house. I mean, she’s in her early twenties. She probably hasn’t even owned a home yet. Many of her videos were about content that she probably had never done personally, but that did not negate the validity of the content itself. What right did I have to judge her content? And what right did I have to judge her age for giving that content? So what if she had never sold her own house? Did that make her information any less true? No. Was I out there making videos, putting myself out there for others to judge and critique? No, I was the coward who was hiding behind my judgmental words. This girl was working in a very competitive market and from my standpoint, absolutely, killing it on social media when I couldn’t even get my face in front of my phone’s camera. I was discriminating based on her age and possibly even her experience. Good for her for putting herself out there and shame on me for my negative thoughts!  Since I writing those words, I have actually created my own video and wow, it was SO difficult! This woman made it seem so easy! She spoke easily and with confidence. I did not. I stuttered and blinked weirdly at the camera and I actually used to be a television reporter at a much younger age. I absolutely have no reason to ever judge anyone who is courageous enough to do any type of social media videos. Kudos to her, for putting out good content and doing it so young!

Why do we automatically judge based on age? Why can’t we accept others for who they are and what they bring to the table or to the workplace? Regardless of age, we all have a wealth of experience and knowledge we offer. It was not appropriate for me to judge someone who was doing her job and doing a great job at that. No more than it would be for you to judge someone who waits on you at the store who is younger, and you assume because they are in high school they must not know how to make your coffee or bag your items. Perhaps we all need to take off our tinted glasses and realize none of us are better than anyone else. It’s not easy to be young and treated with the scorn many young folks receive due to their lack of so-called experience. Believe me, as my daughter was showing me how to edit my own video, I took a huge piece of humble pie to understand how to do what she could do seemingly effortlessly. I know she will absolutely have a huge advantage over me in the workplace because I need to know how to navigate these social media platforms and these programs that she and so many other young people can edit so easily.

Besides, I’m getting to the age where I will be the one who is too “old”, and these younger people will be hired instead of me when I go to an interview. Remember, there’s always the flip side to every situation. Who’s being discriminated against then? We live in an evolving world where we all need to learn from each other, regardless of age, because, really, age is just a number. We all offer knowledge and wisdom, at any age. Take off the glasses and let’s appreciate each other, regardless of the number we supposedly represent.