Have a rant…age discrimination

I am 19 years old and constantly feel discriminated against. I have worked in the HR team of a huge company for more than two years now, but I can’t get a job anywhere else.

I have applied for lots of jobs, but I have never even got an interview.

You could say this was down to a bad application, but when I altered my age on an application form I was surprised by the results. I got selected for interview, but I turned them down because I was worried I would probably be discriminated against at interview.

Even in my current workplace, people constantly discriminate against me and don’t even realise they’re doing it. For example, when my manager heard about the new age discrimination legislation, she called me in to her office and informed me that anti-ageism laws would soon be coming into force. But she only informed me – which was discriminatory in itself. The first thought that came to my mind was: “Doesn’t everyone else need to know about this as well?”

I understand that people think this is discrimination gone too far, but with so much being written about age discrimination at the moment, the focus is mainly on older people. But younger people face discrimination too.

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I don’t think the new legislation will make much difference, to be honest, because no-one even realises when they are discriminating against the young.