I've just been looking at the Times Top 100 best companies to work for. They also have a list of the top 20 and some facts and figures. Each company has to state, among other things, what percentage of staff are under 35 or over 55. very enlightening. Most are in single figure percentages for over 55's with some around the 1% mark. Guess it's going to be a long hard road to climb! Take a look - http://business.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,20089,00.html
Have a good weekend!
Sue Beatt
3 Responses
Not really
Interesting, but at the same time meaningless without an understanding of what is causing the figures.
Equally one could pull out the figures from the Nationwide Building Society which say they have 72% female workforce – is gender discrimination rampant as well???
Cold figures on their own mean nothing but they do make for trendy reading.
More evidence supports
According to ACAS today (27 April 2006) 4 out of 5 companies are failing to tell their staff about the new anti-ageism laws due in October.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4948782.stm
This is not surprising in view of a Kent University study for Age Concern last autumn, which showed how deeply ingrained the problem is.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4220228.stm
The survey results came from detailed interviews with 1,843 people over the age of 16, and they appear to show that age prejudice is ubiquitous in British society.
More people (29%) reported suffering age discrimination than any other form of discrimination.
“Ageism is the most pervasive form of prejudice in Britain today,” Dominic Abrams of Kent University said.
“Ageism is the form of prejudice experienced most commonly by people in the UK and that seems to be true pretty much across gender, ethnicity, religion, disability – people of all types experience ageism, and indeed people of all ages experience ageism.”
The study also revealed just how strongly perception of ageing is related to the age of the perceiver, and – to a degree – by the sex of the perceiver, too.
For example, the arrival of old age recedes into the distance as one gets older.
So, if you are a 24-year-old man, you think old age arrives at 55; but if you are a 62-year-old woman, you consider youth to end at 57.
I hear what you are saying but….
quotation from below…
“Ageism is the form of prejudice experienced most commonly by people in the UK and that seems to be true pretty much across gender, ethnicity, religion, disability – people of all types experience ageism, and indeed people of all ages experience ageism.”
Let’s think about this…
Q. What is it, other than a pulse, that we ALL have in common, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual preference and so on?
A. We all have a birthday each year
Therefore it would be a bit surprising if “ageism” weren’t the most prevelant form of prejudice since we can all feel that we have suffered from it.