“Hang Up Your Superman Cape!” and “Hang Up Your Spurs!” What Will Older Employees Do About This?

Isn’t this a way of saying “retire now” or “you’re too old,” without sounding tooo crass? But still pretty direct though, huh?

Age discrimination in the workplace is very much alive and well, and employers better pay attention.

According to the AARP (and they should know) research shows that “about two in three adults ages 50-plus in the labor force (64%) think older workers face age discrimination in the workplace today. And among them, nearly all (90%) believe that age discrimination against older workers is common in the workplace.”

Moreover, “One in five adults 50-plus (21%) report that they have experienced age discrimination since turning 40 years old.”

If the history of the Baby Boom generation is any indication, these older workers may be easily mobilized to do something about age discrimination since “The survey reveals strong support for change with more than four in five adults age 50-plus (86%) agreeing that older Americans should be protected from age discrimination. …[and] nine in ten (90%) support (with about half saying strongly support) efforts to strengthen the nation's age discrimination laws. (emphasis added).”

Attention must be paid!

Against this backdrop, you may recall that in my prior blog posts of yesteryear I collected court cases or complaints of age discrimination where employers referred to older employees (who they fired or were trying to push out) with not-so-nice ageist comments. 

Maybe these comments were not very well disguised ways of noting the employee’s age, but they could very well be seen as direct evidence of age animus in the context of their cases.

In 2018 I wrote that:

“For example, you do not call an employee ‘old’ or ‘ancient’ (I once had a case where the boss referred to another employee of the same age as the one he fired as “ancient”) since that is direct evidence of age discrimination. You stay away from calling an employee ‘old school,’ or ‘set in his ways,’ or ‘not a proper fit for the “new environment,’ or ‘lacking in energy.’ And, oh yes, ‘ Hang up your Superman Cape,’ and  ‘get it together you f…. old people’ should also be avoided (although the latter remark can hardly be considered particularly well “coded”).”  The same with ‘looks old,’ ‘sounds old on the telephone,’ and is ‘ like a bag of bones.’”

Now comes a newly-filed lawsuit which alleges a new (to my growing list) ageist comment which was allegedly made by an employer to an employee who claims that he was forced to retire: “hang up your spurs.” 

Similar to my old favorite (forgive the pun) “hang up your Superman Cape,” but it may, in context, be deemed direct evidence of age animus if the allegation can be proved to have been said. And it’s a nice addition to my pantheon of ageist remarks.

Takeaway

For employers, the next wave of discrimination complaints may very well be age cases, as the population rapidly ages. Beware: Don’t get caught making stupid remarks which you think are a clever or a funny/cute way of saying “old.”