It’s hard to ignore stereotypes in the workplace, and there have been a whole heap of them aimed at the Millennial generation over the last few years.

For instance, I wrote last year about a study looking at how employees are perceived in terms of their innovative capabilities.  Perhaps not surprisingly, it emerged that younger employees are regarded as much more innovative than their older peers.

How do such stereotypes actually impact the way we feel and perform at work though?  That was the question posed by a recent study conducted by academics from the University of Kent.

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 37 distinct studies into so called aged based stereotype threat (ABST), consisting of both published and un-published studies.

They found that the performance of older workers is affected by the stereotypes they encounter in the workplace, whether those stereotypes are merely perceived, or indeed even situations that remind them of stereotyping in their past.

They discovered that this negative impact was particularly pronounced when the threat was induced by stereotypes rather than by facts.

What’s worrying is that performance dropped even if the perceived ageism was only hinted at.

It would be interesting to learn more about how they measured the performance drop.  The pygmalion effect, for instance, suggests that performances often end up reflecting how we perceive they should be.

In other words, if we perceive older employees to be poor performers, then they often end up being that way.

The researchers highlight how many of the prejudice aimed at older people are quite subtle, such as speaking slowly or being patronizing in some way.  Nevertheless, these things are often enough to cause performances to drop.

Such stereotyping has already been identified as a performance drain for other social groups, whether based on gender or ethnicity, but this analysis shows how age is just as important.

If we’re to ensure older employees remain an active and productive part of the workforce, it’s clear that some changes need to be made to erode some of the subtle stereotypes that appear to be persisting in our workplaces.

Whether that’s a challenge we are up to meeting remains to be seen.