Ageism and other problems in the Workplace

Occupational Psychologist, Stephen Howarth, joined Vince to discuss the implications of the working life in the UK. I asked Stephen whether he felt the management teams of many companies haven't really looked too deeply at the people who work for them.

Stephen went to University to develop his ideas of helping people including work in mental institutions and he was repulsed by what he learnt during his studies.

We discussed the way management in many UK companies have not really been very good at managing. Often people are promoted from being good in one job to become a manager in areas where they really are not quite up to the mark. This can then drive the person into depression at not being able to cope with their new role induced by poor management in the first place.

Enormous changes over our working lives have meant that we have had to try and address issues at both personal levels and institutional levels. Racism and ageism is discussed where it has not not always been easy to isolate the problems and gain evidence that the problem exists in the first place.

Meeting legal requirements hasn't always meant that the problems have been diminished.Ageism means that a person can be wonderful at his or her job at 64 years and 364 days and on the scrapheap the next day. The old saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks, " is challenged by Stephen and we both show how many older people have a much better work ethic and great experience from which to draw.

Stephen points out how absenteeism tends to be far more prevalent with younger workers and older people tend to be more reliable.

Stephen and Vince then looked at stress in the workplace and Stephen finished by looking at his book "I finished so I'll start.............

http://www.vincetracy.com/podcastfile/stevenhowarth.mp3