Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

qualifications instead of re-training current older workers or older applicants. That opinion
was voiced explicitly by personnel managers from firms with foreign investment.
Neo-classical arguments of too short depreciation period of investments in initial and
further training, too high labour costs or wages were named by interviewees from about half
of the studied firms.
An argument in favour of hiring younger persons was the mounting challenge of
accomplishing know-how transfer from retirees onto successors. In this context, I recorded
an interesting conversation between the head of the personnel department (HRM-1) and her
subordinate personnel administration manager (HRM-2) in a chemical company; both were
females. HRM-1 was a proponent of a selection of new recruits on the basis of purely
economic criteria, while her subordinate pleaded for a social and supportive approach
towards older applicants:
HRM-2: Rejuvenate, rejuvenate. Why?
HRM-1: But Z., in our case, we have to rejuvenate our staff…
HRM-2: There you see!
HRM-1: … because there are women, who will retire soon, and there are no workers left, there is
no young staff, in fact. So, that´s the problem.
HRM-2: But look: They will retire (…), and for their position, we will not hire a 50-year-old
woman. But a young girl.
HRM-1: A more versatile person.
HRM-2: Exactly, therefore we should not delude ourselves. We should not delude ourselves that
older persons have – I do not speak of our firm, I speak in general – that they have the same
chances as young persons. Because they don´t.”
(…)
HRM-2: A 60-year-old woman, or a 59-year-old one, she´s for sure, she´s for sure maybe [sic!] less
efficient.
HRM-1: Exactly!
HRM-2: And she´s not as creative, and she does not have such [zeal]. It´s no use talking. So, that´s
how it is with older people… Youth is beautiful, you know, really, but there are also some older
people around. And they are left like this, you know, to fend for themselves.
That conversation shows that older workers are regarded by both managers as less able.
The personnel manager who is more sympathetic towards them (HRM-2; she was 47 and
already considered herself an older woman) was a proponent of equal recruitment chances
for applicants of all ages, which however appear in this line of reasoning as affirmative
action, where older workers are hired for social reasons despite their assumed deficiencies.
In my view, the belief that older workers and applicants are less able and effective than
younger persons constitutes an equally big barrier to their recruitment as direct ageism in
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