There's at least some level of tenured and management defending their privileges at any company. I was momentarily shocked when in a conversation with some mana

There's at least some level of tenured and management defending their privileges at any company. I was momentarily shocked when in a conversation with some managers at Apple who responded in a rather hostile manner about being too young to merit a window office. Yeah, I know they are limited, but it was the instant smack-down way of saying it that told me he was trying to make sure everyone knew not to even ask. At my current company a lot of things are based on tenure. Not the same as age, but at least slightly correlated. Sure, you gotta base it on something, but I would prefer it include more merit-based advances. (The reason for it, I think, is that this company hires swarms of recent graduates which tend to leave after a year or two, so basing things on tenure encourages people to stay longer. I'm not fresh out of college so sometimes I feel insulted by this. But they also don't have stock options which is the usual method for keeping people around.) BTW, I'm 30 and definitely in the upper percent age-wise of people working at this company. And with nearly 3 years I also am in the upper 25% of tenure on my team.