𝗡𝗼 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “𝗗𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝘂𝗽?“ Years ago, I started a new job as a program manager for a software development company. I’d been PMing for years, but this was a new company. I’d been paired with a peer to help me onboard. This happened in Week 1: 𝑃𝑒𝑒𝑟, 𝑗𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦: 𝐷𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑢𝑝? 𝑀𝑒: 𝐾𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑢𝑝 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ? 𝑃𝑒𝑒𝑟: 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑠. 𝐴 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑠ℎ 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝐼 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑦 𝑏𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑀𝑒: 𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑡. 𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝐼’𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒. —— When I was prompted with the statement: “No one would say ________ to a man my age”, I realized that my male peers have never shared such a story. It didn’t dawn on me to correct him, because of age bias’s subtlety. The tech industry is highly competitive, so as subtle as the -isms (including ageism & sexism) can be, they are also used as leverage, to pull high performance from employees. I have observed peers involuntarily pivoting their careers for “staff reductions”, while their positions are backfilled with younger & cheaper counterparts. I believe tech has work to do. Use of age as a performance lever, invites misuse. For more of my thoughts, see the full story on Medium (link in bio). Borrowed from @oshunsweetnsour: According to @aarp research, age discrimination in hiring & the workforce continue to plague mid-career and older women workers. Nearly 1/3 of job seekers identified age discrimination as an impediment to finding a job. A woman’s work is never done and her pay is always less than — doubly so for Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other women of color. Check out the Nov issue of @tuenight as they explore and address Equity & Gendered Ageism in the Workplace. Use this link to learn more! https://bit.ly/TueNightIssue #DisruptAging #GenXEquity #antiageism (at Information Technology) https://www.instagram.com/p/CWJlqP-pghE/?utm_medium=tumblr