“Enough runway?”   Need we say more?

Just the other day we wrote about a code phrase we had not heard of before used to disparage an older worker:  “hang up your cape, Superman!”   Lots of folks liked that one, especially because, as Lissa Robinovitz said, “Superman is ageless to me.  This case would be a great training tool for every supervisor.”

We therefore supplemented our list of such ageist phrases, and added a new one for good measure from a reader, Robin Benton:  “You mean they had cars when you started to work here?”

They keep flooding in, however.   Liza Ring clued us in to this age-related phrase:  “I would suggest an addition to your list–the commonly-used word “runway,” as in the phrase “we can’t promote him–he is over 50 and doesn’t have enough runway.  I haven’t seen or defended a discrimination case involving the use of the ‘r’ word, but think we will see one before too long.”

Thank you, Liza!  “Not enough runway” is certainly in the running for our annual ageist comment competition!