Age discrimination is a real thing in the workplace today, and employers tend to do a pretty good job covering it up. Have you ever heard of someone not being hired because they had too much experience or was over-qualified? In some unique instances, this may be true. However, there’s a higher likelihood these excuses are being used because the candidate is too old for their liking.
If you’ve been told this or something similar, you may benefit from reaching out to the top law firms in NYC to see if you have an age discrimination case. Similarly, if you are denied a promotion, have been reassigned job duties after many years or have been getting poor performance reviews for no reason, employment lawyers in NYC are ready to hear your case. Here are some signs you can look for in the workplace to identify age discrimination.
Promotions or New Hires Only Include Younger People
Older and more experienced professionals should be in line for promotions quicker than younger employees, assuming the quality of work merits it. However, if you notice younger up-and-coming workers getting all of the promotions, it’s the first sign of age discrimination. Take a look around as well, and if the new hires in your organization are all younger professionals and people 40+ years of age are getting looked over, then you may want to have an attorney in New York on speed dial for a possible age discrimination lawsuit in the future.
Reassignment of Job Duties
Job duties may get shuffled around constantly at the workplace. You need to look for patterns every time work gets reassigned. If most of the high-level or technical tasks get assigned to younger workers, age discrimination could be a factor. The general perception is younger workers are more capable of handling certain job duties, but that may not actually be the case in reality. An older worker cannot be denied these tasks simply because of their age.
Unjustified Poor Performance Reviews
Another thing employment lawyers in NYC caution older employees to look out for is unjustified poor performance reviews. Many times these negative reviews are used to either anger the employee enough to make them quit voluntarily, or give them a paper trail to document and provide proof of poor performance when they fire the employee. An attorney in New York needs to be contacted if poor performance reviews start coming out of nowhere, especially if your performance hasn’t dipped.
Gordon & Gordon is one of the top law firms in NYC for many reasons. When it comes to age discrimination, we caution our clients to look around at their overall workplace environment closely to get a sense of patterns taking place. Sometimes it may seem like a coincidence that a younger employee gets a particular promotion, but other times it could be a clear age discrimination case. Be sure to contact us for a free evaluation as soon as you identify any signs of age discrimination in your workplace.