1. The phrase, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks," lies at the heart of the stereotypical conceptions of old people as inept, inefficient and most significantly, untrainable. In reality, this phrase should be dismissed as a fallacy because many studies have shown that older people are highly trainable well into the seventies, long after the age of retirement. Due to their commitment, discipline and experience, older people are often able to acquire new skills and apply their new knowledge more effectively than immature and inexperienced young employees. Even in areas involving computer technologies where older generations of employees are considered to be highly untrainable, the truth stems from the fact that many start the training knowing less than their younger counterparts. However, their actual rate of learning matches the pace of younger employees.
In addition, this phrase is also a justification for evaluating individuals and their performance based solely on the criterion of age. Contrary to prevalent beliefs about the relationship between age and work performance, differences in skills, knowledge and performance vary more from individual to individual, than from one age group to another. Therefore, this justification constitutes a form of workplace discrimination against older people, which is no different from sex or race discrimination.
At the same time, one cannot deny the fact, that in time, some older people will suffer a decline in their physical and mental faculties, or be afflicted by chronic diseases. However, this inevitable reality cannot be used as the paradigm for determining the trainability of older employees. Until they exhibit the inability to perform their tasks, older employees should not be discriminated against, based on the tacit premise that it is not worthwhile for the company to train older employees.
Therefore, it is important for companies to modify present and future e...