Blog_COVID-19

By: Maria Varlamova & Federica Previtali Telework, namely the activity of working from home, has become part of the everyday experience of many workers. The lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a change in work arrangements and forced many employers to provide the possibility or even obligation to work from home to their employees. The introduction of these modalities has been drastic, and many organisations, managers, as well as employees, were not prepared for this change. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is slowing down,...

By: Katri Keskinen & Maria Varlamova COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed our working lives and the labour market. Many workers have faced a digital leap in their working conditions as workplaces have closed their doors. At the same time, a number of workers unable to work from home have faced temporary or permanent layoffs. In the beginning of April 2020, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that COVID-19 will likely lead to a loss of 195 million full-time jobs globally by the end of this...

The Innovative Training Network Ageism is keeping up his interest and activity in analysing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our society. During this challenging time, on one side we can see an outbreak of ageism, even with overt manifestations and accounts, in public discussion, and on the other side, we can applaud the intergenerational solidarity that is helping younger and older persons to go through the pandemic. In some countries, collaborative efforts have allowed the government to lower strict measures of physical distancing, but...

By: Maria Varlamova & Katri Keskinen   COVID-19 has led to significant changes in our working and consumer lives. Many workers have been laid off either temporarily or permanently, and those able to work remotely have been encouraged to work from home, struggling with increasing work demands and decreasing efficiency. Holidays and other paid leaves have been rescheduled to minimize the economic losses of companies, and employees are unable to travel to their long-awaited destination holidays.  Businesses unable to function normally such as restaurants and...

By: Vanessa Steinmayer, Wenqian Xu Ms. Winschief worked as a Production and Shipping Administrator in her late fifties. In June 2017, her manager claimed that she would not be a “good fit” in a “younger team” which would be created. Her position was terminated, and two new positions were created in December 2017. She applied for both of the new roles, but was not successful, making her feel bad especially when thinking back to what her manager had said. This situation is a case of direct...

By: Hanna Köttl, Ittay Mannheim, Federica Previtali, Maria Varlamova The COVID-19 outbreak led to the emergence of various new political measures and initiatives aimed at controlling the pandemic - from policies established at the international and national level to efforts of organisations, communities and individuals. Although older age indeed increases the likelihood of comorbidity, drawing a direct link between chronological age and vulnerability should be criticised. Mere chronological age is no direct indicator for being in a precarious state of health, dependency or less socially...

By: Katri Keskinen The reigning COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in an outbreak of publicly visible ageism. Many individuals and organisations have rightfully taken a stance against ageist practices towards older persons in health care decisions and government-issued policies. However, as the focus is directed towards the most visible forms of ageism, we may become blind to the more subtle ways of everyday ageism that we might find ourselves even enforcing. In the beginning of April, the Finnish institute for health and welfare posted information...

By: Laura Allen, Wenqian Xu, Hanna Köttl Social distancing brought on by the novel coronavirus has suddenly interrupted the services that we routinely use, and hairdressing is no exception. Globally, many people do not have access to their regular hairstyling services, such as hair dyeing. This is problematic for people (especially women) who typically upkeep the coverage of their gray hair with hair dye. On one hand, this has prompted creative thinking from the grooming industry; hairdressers are creating tutorial videos and are organizing take-home...

By: Hanna Köttl, Laura Allen, Wenqian Xu   What happens if we are forced to stay at home over weeks or months? If we are not allowed to see our friends and family members in person? This sounds like a cruel “social experiment,” yet, the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic confronts us with exactly this unimaginable scenario.   Importance of Internet connectedness in the time of COVID-19 Within weeks COVID-19 totally transformed our everyday life. With people staying at home, schools and offices closed, coffee places and...

The novel coronavirus is changing the way we live our lives. International organisations, governments, local authorities, civic society and each of us is making unprecedented efforts to stop the spreading of the disease. It is now more important than ever to protect older persons’ rights now and refrain from ageism and ageist practice. We, the members of the EuroAgeism network, aim to raise awareness about older persons’ rights and the outbreak of ageism during the pandemic. Below you can find links to our partner organisations’...

By: Seyoung Kim   Minho: “안녕하세요. 만나서 반가워요. 저는 이민호라고 합니다.” “Hi, nice to meet you. I am Minho Lee.” Nara: “민호씨, 만나서 반가워요. 저는 김나라입니다. 혹시 나이가 어떻게 되세요?” “Nice to meet you, Minho. I am Nara Kim. How old are you?” Minho: “저는 28살이에요.” “I am 28.” Nara: “오! 나도. 우리 친구네!” “Oh, me too. We are friends!”   What do you think about this conversation? If you think it is a bit strange in your culture, why is that?   South Korea,...

By: Jovana Brkic, ESR 7 The time goes so fast while I am doing my two-month secondment at United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – UNECE. I have gained invaluable experience in a short time. The supervisors are committed to training and supervision, and as a result, I gained tremendous insight into the United Nations' policy framework on aging. Furthermore, I have broadened my perspective on different aspects of ageing. I had the chance to participate in several meetings: Side event at the Beijing+25 Regional...

By: EuroAgeism EuroAgeism aims to ‘set a gold standard for doctoral programs by advocating the integration of science and policy’. To achieve this ambitious aim it has devoted Work Package (WP5) to activities that will help Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) develop the knowledge, skills and experience that are necessary so that their research has an impact on policy development at international, national and local levels. From the outset ESRs have been asked to think about the policy implications of their research and to identify groups...

By: Federica Previtali One day I entered a room, as a researcher, conducting data collection in a company. I was wearing a pantsuit and I was setting up cameras for data recording. Two men entered the room, both of them clearly older than me. I explained to them the aim of the study, the privacy related to the data collection and handed them the informed form. I was leaving the room, when one of the man, already sitting at the table, called me “the girl”....

By: Jovana Brkic & Daniela Fialova As people get older they have more difficulties with recovering from minor injuries, are more likely to develop more medical conditions and consequently use more medications. We do not have enough information about how appropriate certain medications are for older people and therefore medication treatment plans in older adults are not yet adequately individualized. Older people are generally underrepresented in clinical trials, clinical guidelines are more focused on single diseases and are mostly based on results of trials on the...