Hybrid Seminar: Register via zoom OR attend the live in-person viewing session in L.R.Wilson Hall, Room 1003, McMaster Campus.

The traditional career arc is often organized around the assumption that the most productive “work years” are before the age of 65. As such, workplaces have the potential to engage in harmful age discrimination. As scholarly literature based in the Canadian context has been quite limited, this study aimed to gain a qualitative understanding of older Ontario workers’ lived experiences of ageism. Semi-structured interviews with older adults (55+) who were either currently employed, recently retired, or looking to gain re-entry into the labour market were conducted. Using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-stage framework for thematic analysis, five key themes that each mediate the varying experience of ageism in the workplace and labour market were identified. This seminar will highlight and discuss the nuances, contradictions, emotions, and realities that constitute the experience of ageism in the Canadian workplace. In-depth analysis of the results allows us to understand the importance of age in the workplace and labour market, as well as the role that age segregation throughout the life course plays in the perpetuation of ageist attitudes and behaviours throughout one’s working life.

Amanda Bull is a second-year MA student in McMaster’s Department of Health, Aging & Society. Her SSHRC-funded graduate work aims to build off of the work she completed as an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. By seeking to gain a more nuanced understanding of the lived experiences of older adults who face ageism in the workplace, the results seek to inform equity, diversity, and inclusion policies that often neglect age-related concerns.