Hidden dimensions of DEI: How ageism and ableism intersect
With the increase of life expectancy, it is inevitable that people will stay in the workforce longer. In fact, in the last decade, from baby boomers to Generation Z, the labor participation rate of all age groups in the United States has gone up. However, age-based discrimination, or ageism, is not widely acknowledged. In discussions about discrimination in the workplace, the focus is often on race, gender and sexual orientation, whereas age is often left out, let alone its intersection with disability.
As people age, they can bear greater risk of physical and/or cognitive impairment, and can be prone to mental health issues like anxiety, depression and neurological disorders. These are examples of invisible disabilities that are not necessarily obvious: studies have shown that more than 60% of people with disabilities choose not to disclose this information to their managers for fear of losing out on opportunities and experiencing discrimination. Both ageism and ableism involve bias in being perceived as less capable, having insufficient skills, and a lack of growth potential.
In our work measuring inclusion in the workplace by looking at experiences of exclusion, we have been able to demonstrate the unique impact on older people with disabilities. The graph in Figure 1 shows satisfaction data from 1500 participating employees from a range of organizations.
It is easy to spot a divergent satisfaction level for people with and without disabilities. Overall, people without disabilities have a higher job satisfaction than people with disabilities, and the difference in levels of satisfaction between the two groups grows with increasing age. In particular, the group of people with the lowest average satisfaction is employees over 50 years old who have disabilities, either visible or invisible. The results in Figure 1 also show, not surprisingly, that older employees with disabilities have a significantly higher chance of encountering exclusion in the workplace. To be more specific, among people over 50 years old, those with disabilities reported a level of exclusion that is 20% higher than that reported by people with no disabilities.
Digging deeper, we see that most of these experiences of exclusion are linked to Learning & Growth and Skills Use & Assignments, two of our Categories of Inclusion. The chart below shows the percentage of people impacted in each age group in the categories of Learning & Growth and Skills Use & Assignments combined. We find in our data that with an increase in age, people are more likely to experience exclusion in these two areas, regardless of having a disability or not. Moreover, the pattern becomes more evident when we look closely at the intersection of age and ability, as shown in Figure 2, which quantifies the percentage of individuals who reported at least one experience of exclusion in these categories. As the figure shows, more than 40% of employees 50 and older with disabilities (blue/darker shade) had experiences of exclusion in these two categories, compared to 31% of people 50 and older with no disabilities (pink/lighter shade).
When we reviewed some of the actual experiences shared by individuals, we found that older people with disabilities often expressed that they were denied training, had very limited career growth opportunities, and felt their long time experience in the industry was under-appreciated and overlooked. This creates an unfortunate vicious cycle for older employees with a disability: once they reveal their disability status, they are more likely to be assigned to simpler tasks and less challenging projects, where their skills are underutilized. Combined with insufficient job training, they face greater barriers in their career advancement. On one hand, this will further discourage people from disclosing their disability status. On the other hand, according to research conducted by the Internal Longevity Center, it is possible for older employees to internalize these biases and stereotypes and become less motivated to seek professional training and growth opportunities.
It is critical for companies to create an inclusive working environment for both an aging workforce and for those with disabilities. Cultivating a sense of belonging and motivating employees to achieve their goals, they can positively impact not only their people, but the company’s performance as well.
