Age-based decline in work performance

**somedeity** · 09-05-2006, 06:09 PM

Okay, there is an older woman who works for me (I'm the manager of a retail store that is corporate owned). She appears to be 'going' - lots of errors being made on things, etc. It has gotten notably worse in the past several months. The bosses that I report to (not in my store) seem to be starting to get an idea and I have a feeling they will want me to fire her.

Is that something that they can just do, fire someone because they're messing up because they're old? I know you can't fire based on age (or I didn't think so), and you can fire based on poor performance, but not sure if you can based on poor performance due to age.

**cbg** · 09-06-2006, 10:04 AM

Poor performancedue to age is still poor performance. The law does not give her a pass on performing her job because of her age. She's still required to perform.

The anti-discrimination laws do not entitle her to special privileges. You need to address this entirely on performance. Leave her age out of it entirely.

Just out of curiosity, how old is she and what kind of performance issues are we talking about?

**somedeity** · 09-06-2006, 08:08 PM

Unsure of age unfortunately... Quite past typical retirement age I know that for sure.

Used to make several errors a week, now many every day. Well, not necessarily many every day, but typically AT LEAST 1-2. Nothing very major, at least not yet, but it's getting worse and I am just dreading when it will come to the point of too much.

CBG, could you please check your pm's?