Since John McCain became the presumptive Republican nominee for President, he’s also become the butt of late-night comedian jokes. Check out YouTube for a litany of “old people” jokes directed at McCain. To be a good sport (or something), McCain has even told a few ageist jokes of his own. The old guy finally has some company in the person of Joe Biden. Though McCain is older at 72, Biden at 65 isn’t even young enough to be a baby boomer. In the world of employment, both are so far into the protected age group that it would be dangerous for an employer to think about taking adverse action against either.

In workplaces across America, however, hardly a day goes by that adverse action isn’t taken against a person the age of McCain or Biden. He/she isn’t hired, is passed over for a promotion, or is fired. The perception is that he/she is too old for the job. No one will say that, of course, but it happens. With the expanding bubble of baby boomers in their 60’s, I continue to believe that we are headed toward a wave of age discrimination cases in the next five to ten years. Regardless of which ticket wins the election this year, we’re going to have an old guy at or near the top. If the age discrimination litigation wave does arrive, it’s likely that you’ll hear lawyers who represent your former older employees making arguments to juries that include references to the age of President McCain or Vice President Biden.

Right now, my concern is that managers and supervisors retell the late-night jokes at work. They wouldn’t dare tell an Obama joke that had racial overtones or a Palin joke that had gender overtones. But a joke about McCain’s or Biden’s age may not receive a second thought. If you have a bunch of these jokes floating around your workplace and you get sued by an older employee for age discrimination, those jokes will receive a second thought–in court. They were told all the time. No one in management did anything to stop them. Everybody had a good laugh at the expense of the candidates and the older employee who has now sued you.

You need to have a meeting with supervisors and managers at all levels and talk about the workplace issues involved in this year’s presidential election: gender, religion, race and age. They need to understand that if these issues become a regular part of your workplace in a negative way, the discrimination stage is being set against you.