New Developments in Age Discrimination

Reasons for Age Discrimination During the course of history, one of the most used methods in teaching a younger worker a new skill was to match him or her up with a veteran worker who was quite competent in that skill. The young worker learned by observing, assisting, and practicing in the skill. The “student” spent many hours with the “master” for little or no pay. In time the student learned to become as capable as his teacher. In some societies the passing along of such skills from mentor to student was considered a noble tradition. The actions of corporate America within the past few years run quite contrary to such traditional teaching methods. The restructuring of companies has lead to an increasing perception that older workers are less necessary to corporate success. This trend began in the late 1980s and has continued through the present.