Tag Archives: human resources

This week, there has been much talk about the Donald Sterling interview on CNN. The Clippers owner continues to make outrageous statements and accusations. It is easy to dismiss him as a crazy, racist old man who has not embraced modern civilization.

But then his wife, in another interview, stated that she thinks Sterling has dementia. Now, the wife is desperately trying to retain her stake in the team, so she may just be doing damage control and trying to drum up sympathy. Still, it raised an interesting question for me.

What do we do about dementia in the workplace?

I wrote an article asking the same question on LinkedIn. I am curious to know what laws or regulations exist in the area you live in, or if the company you work for addresses the topic of dementia in any way. Dementia isn’t a new disease, obviously, but my guess is that in past generations, older people who started having difficulties on the job were just encouraged to retire sooner. Most probably did. But in today’s economy, retirement isn’t an option for many older people, or at best, they delay their retirement by several years. There is also the growing number of early-onset Alzheimer’s cases to contend with, so those in their career prime, in their late 30’s and 40s, could also have to tackle this issue.

I’d also like to know what policies you think should be put in place to deal with this sensitive issue. I’m trying to gather perspective from both sides, from the more business-focused people on LinkedIn, to the dementia awareness advocates that I follow here on WordPress.