4 ms·
Age discrimination most widely known illegal employment practice in the entire US technology industry. We have the top executive of a major Valley tech company
by _m96l 8y ago
Age discrimination most widely known illegal employment practice in the entire US technology industry.
We have the top executive of a major Valley tech company, on the record, encouraging illegal discrimination against older people.
We have ongoing lawsuits by experienced engineers getting fired after their co-workers and superiors openly mocked their age.
Yet this practice openly continues, with CEOs like Zuckerberg feeling brazen enough to publicly tell their thousands of employees to break this law.
The legal prohibition is thus the most blatantly violated employment law in the book. Anyone who ever worked in the Valley knows that most folks over 40 can't get hired, certainly not by the many companies and startups routinely complaining about "talent shortage".
Incidentally, Mark, you are now 34 years old, which is "old" by Valley standards. Shouldn't you be quitting?
- zupzupper 8y ago> Incidentally, Mark, you are now 34 years old, which is "old" by Valley standards. Shouldn't you be quitting? Oh you know, this only applies to the rank and file. Management positions don't mind if you're a bit older, but if you didn't spend the last decade building out teams and people managing and just wanted to spend your career coding...tough cookies.
- SamReidHughes 8y agoWhy don't you start a software company that takes advantage of this market inefficiency by hiring people over 40? Why don't these unhirable 40-somethings band together and start a consulting agency?
- mikelevins 8y agoYou mean, respond to clandestine illegal age discrimination by openly advertising illegal age discrimination?
- SamReidHughes 8y agoLegal age discrimination, in fact. Or you could not discriminate. You'll have no problem slurping up all these high quality 40-50-somethings on the job market, right?
- mikelevins 8y agoForgive my ignorance; it's legal in the US to discriminate on the basis of age as long as you're preferring candidates older than a given age, rather than younger?
- SamReidHughes 8y agoAs long as you aren't discriminating against people over 40.
- mikelevins 8y agoI'll have to look into it. I'm an old fart myself, mostly self-employed since my mid 40s (because it suddenly got way harder to get hired as an employee), and I know a bunch of other old farts who are smart and have good skills. Thanks for the idea.
- skinnymuch 8y agoBecause that’s illegal?
- SamReidHughes 8y agoAge discrimination is illegal only in one direction in America (federally, at least).