4 ms·
> It is practically impossible to fire someone for the basic reason that you don't need this role any more or there is a better person out there or just plain o
by Pulcinella 6y ago
> It is practically impossible to fire someone for the basic reason that you don't need this role any more or there is a better person out there or just plain old - you are not doing a great job.
Wow I didn’t think I would ever see anyone openly state in writing that it is too hard to fire people for being old. (Age discrimination against those 40 and older is against federal law. It’s also morally wrong. I would also personally argue that the age cutoff should be a lot lower, but that is directly relevant to this article).
Edit: ahh that makes sense. He likely meant it as “or just plain ol’ ‘you’re not doing a great job.’ “
- 48271e 6y agoYou're misreading the sentence, he's not saying people should be fired for being old. He's saying at Google you can not fire someone for the "plain old reason" of "they're not doing a good job". Having worked at Google, it is extremely difficult to fire a low performer. It takes about 6-12 months, many visits with HR, and a ton of documentation. So there is a common practice of managers trying to offload their low performers onto other teams, as mentioned in the post.
- itsovermyhead 6y agoI think you're misinterpreting the sentence, I did too when I first read it. He's using plain old, as a reference to normal or regular. Like, I just wore a plain old shirt to the concert. Meaning, I just wore a regular shirt to the concert. In this sentence, it means, "or just the regular reason of 'you're not doing a great job'."