Ambivalent Inclusion: Older Workers,Diversity Agendas and the Persistence of the Ideal Worker

Abstract

This article explores how older workers experience inclusion and exclusion in two large Australian public sector organisations with strong diversity and inclusion (D&I) agendas. Applying detailed qualitative analysis and drawing on the concepts of the ideal worker and structured ambivalence, it examines how older employees navigate workplaces that promote inclusion while marginalising ageing workers. Participants benefited from certain policies but also encountered persistent age-based stereotypes that framed them as less capable and productive, based on chrononormative expectations and assumptions about older workers’ cognitive and physical capacities. These contradictions produced structured ambivalence – simultaneous experiences of inclusion and exclusion shaped by conflicting institutional norms. Consequently, the ideal worker norm, while more flexible for some groups, such as mothers of young children, remains stubborn for older workers, who may conceal their age or downplay their needs to maintain a viable worker identity. The findings call for age-inclusive D&I frameworks.