As people age, they are seen less and less as a societal asset and more and more as leeches. People think older people can no longer be productive and need assistance with everything.

Stereotypes exist for a reason. It is up to us to look beyond them. It is a well-known fact that many people can age significantly and still be productive. You’ll hear many people talk about that 80-year-old aunt who walks two miles to the bakery every day to get bread or that grandpa who is out in the yard every day tending to his garden.

With any change comes the need to adapt to that change. Aging doesn’t mean the person can no longer function. It simply means his or her needs have changed.

This becomes extremely important in the workplace where, sadly, age discrimination is not uncommon. As workers age, employers think of ways to start replacing them. But, in reality, there are still many things they can provide, such as understanding and years of experience.

Employee training programs often fail to take this into account. It is assumed that older people can’t learn as quickly or that they will not be comfortable with new ways of doing things. These assumptions also carry with them the capacity of convincing older people they are no longer capable of their jobs.

When you get down to it, it is the older workers who should be doing the training. They are the ones who have been with the company the longest. Even with the addition of new technology and other such advancements, they know the company inside and out and can be invaluable help when the company attains new hires.

Sometimes, age discrimination is not the only problem older people face in the workplace. For example, an older African American is four times as likely as an older white person to encounter problems in the job market. This “layering” of stereotypes is dangerous, not only to the people they are directed at but also for the companies that act on them. It truly is sad that in a society that claims to be democratic, in a workplace that claims to provide equal opportunities for all, we still can’t look beyond the superficial.

Gerontology sees aging as a disease process that leads to physical and mental dependency and fragility. This may be true in some ways, but in wrenching opportunities away from them, we may actually be forcing them to be dependent on others. We may be convincing them of their own marginalization – domesticating them, in other words. This is true of any societal class that doesn’t have a real voice when it comes to the issues that matter.

What older people need is empowerment. Without some form of motivation, nobody would want to do much of anything. It is up to them to take responsibility for themselves at work and elsewhere and to rethink assumptions about their capabilities.

Everyone ages. It may sound cliché, but employers need to start thinking about how they would like to be treated in the same situation. Ability is the key factor here, not age.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.