Beneath the Surface of Ageism: What’s Really Going On?

Workplace ageism isn’t just about bias or bad hiring habits. It’s telling what is going on beneath the surface - unspoken power struggles, unconscious anxieties, and the stories different generations tell themselves, and each other, to defend against their fears and anxieties.

In a systems psychodynamic view, we see such tensions as signals of what’s really going on beneath the surface of the organisation. Anxieties about relevance, status, authority, and belonging, for example.

“Fixing” ageism takes more than policy — it demands we bring curiosity and courage to the discussion and be committed to exploring the invisible forces shaping behaviour.

Ageism Is Alive and Well in our Workforce

It’s no secret: getting work after 50 can feel like shouting into the void.

Despite decades of experience, industry knowledge, and emotional intelligence, older professionals are often overlooked — not for lack of skill, but because of something more systemic. And the data backs it up.

In Australia in 2015

• 58% of job seekers over 50 report experiencing age-based discrimination
• 44% of hiring managers over 50 admit to factoring age into recruitment decisions
  (AHRC, 2015)

Ten years later in 2025

• Nearly a quarter (24%) of respondents consider workers aged between 51 and 55 to be older
• 28% hirers report being open to hiring those aged 65 and older and 18% report that they are not open at all to hiring people aged 65 and over

And this is despite the fact that older workers are overwhelmingly viewed as more loyal (74%) more reliable (64%) and better able to cope with stress (62%) than younger workers (AHRC Report 2025).

Generations at Odds

There’s a simmering tension between generations in many workplaces — a lack of mutual respect.

👉 58% of Australians over 50 say ageism is "reasonably prevalent" in the workplace
👉 83% feel undervalued
👉 78% say their efforts go unrecognised compared to younger peers
(HCAMag, 2024)

In today’s workforce, where agility and disruption are prized, experience is too often mistaken for inflexibility. Nearly a quarter of HR leaders now label people in their early 50s as “older workers” (AHRC, 2025) — despite the reality that many professionals in their sixties and seventies will continue to contribute meaningfully.

Why Don’t We Value Age?

We revive 70s fashion, retro music, and vintage clothing — but not respect for age and wisdom. Why?

Here are a few hypotheses:

Speed is the new currency
In a real-time, always-on world, depth and reflection (hallmarks of experience) are undervalued.

The digital divide is overemphasised
Tech fluency is often equated with capability, overlooking the deep strategic insight older workers bring.

Stereotypes cut both ways
Boomers are seen as resistant. Gen Z is seen as entitled. These narrow views limit collaboration.

Expertise is now decentralised
Anyone can "Google it" or ask AI about it— but do they have the skills and experience necessary to contain themselves and their peers as they work through the complexity?.

We idolise youth
“Disruption” is in. “Wisdom” is out. But at what cost?

Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?

As an older worker, I’ve made trade-offs:

🚗 I avoid driving in peak hour
✈️ I over-plan my travel
🎉 I skip the after-party

But I also coach more intuitively. I ask better questions. I see nuance others often miss.

Slowing down isn’t the same as becoming irrelevant.

What Age Brings to the Table

With age comes:

-Strategic insight
-Tolerance for complexity
-Emotional maturity
-The ability to hold multiple truths

Yet bias remains. In 2023, 90% of Australians acknowledged ageism is a problem. Only a fraction of organisations act to fix it (NSCA Foundation, 2023).

Looking Beneath the Surface: A Systems Psychodynamic View

In the NIODA Master's program, students learn to apply a systems psychodynamic lens to workplace dynamics.

By adopting the depressive position (a term from systems psychodynamic theory), they learn to hold multiple perspectives without personalising conflict. They begin to ask:

🔍 What’s really going on here?
🔍 What unconscious roles am I playing in this system?
🔍 What anxiety might I and others be defending against?

My own doctoral thesis explored this across the different generations in an engineering consulting firm. What did I find?

🔹 Baby Boomer bridge builders feared they’d become irrelevant.
🔹 Younger engineers feared being exposed as imposters.
🔹 Both groups saw the other as deficient in some way, yet both deeply wanted to be valued.

No one respected what the other brought to the table and everyone feared being left behind or left out.

A Call for Curiosity, Not Criticism

When we move from blame to understanding, we open space for growth - across generations.

Our workplaces should be able to honour experience. If we’re brave enough and committed to looking beneath the surface, we might rediscover that everything/one old really can be new again.

💬 What do you think?

• Have you experienced ageism in your industry?
• What’s helped bridge generational divides in your workplace?
• How can we move from “either/or” to “both/and” thinking?

Let’s keep the conversation going.

#Ageism #Consulting #IntergenerationalWorkplace #OrganisationalDynamics #LeadershipDevelopment #NIODA #Inclusion #FutureOfWork

References

• AHRC . (2015). National Prevalence Survey of Age Discrimination in the Workplace. https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/AgePrevalenceReport2015.pdf
• AHRC & Australian HR Institute. (2021). Older Workers at Work: A Survey of HR Professionals.
• AHRC & Australian HR Institute. (2025). Older and Younger Workers: What do Employers Think?.
• HCAMag. (2024). Why is ageism still such a big issue in the workplace? https://www.hcamag.com/au/specialisation/diversity-inclusion/why-is-ageism-still-such-a-big-issue-in-the-workplace/505791
• https://www.agediscrimination.info/news/2021/6/3/australian-report-identifies-an-increase-in-workers-in-their-50s-being-perceived-as-older-workers
• NSCA Foundation. (2023). Age Discrimination Affects Workers of All Ages. https://www.nscafoundation.org.au/news-item/7684/report-age-discrimination-affects-workers-of-all-ages
• Kent, J.H. 2012 Envy or a Simple Lack of Respect? Why all the Hype about Generational Differences? Socioanalysis 14: (105 - 117)