Employers are often focused on productivity, and your boss likely does everything they can to make you as productive as possible. That’s why it can be very jarring when this changes.
For example, maybe you have certain quotas that you have to meet in terms of sales that you make. You can usually meet those quotas through your existing network of customers, which you’ve been doing for 20 years. But then your boss starts to transfer your accounts to other workers, your productivity falls as a result, and they point out that you started to miss your quotas. Why could this be happening?
The impact of age discrimination
This is one potential way for age discrimination to take place. It could be that your boss is trying to make you unproductive to create an excuse to fire you since you’ve been in the same position for decades. They want to hire younger workers to take over, and perhaps they’ve even been transferring your accounts to these younger workers.
However, your boss may know that age discrimination is illegal, so that’s why they’re trying to make you appear to be unproductive first. If they fire you based on your production numbers and they have documented proof that your numbers did fall, they may believe that this can help them avoid allegations of age discrimination. But you can see how they’re actually creating this lack of productivity intentionally to force you out of your position.
Discrimination happens in many different ways, and it is illegal in the United States. Be sure you know what legal options you have if this happens to you.