Absolutely, if we believe the individual's quoted comment as a fact,then certainly this points to discrimination. The problem is that HN isn't a court of law, a

Absolutely, if we believe the individual's quoted comment as a fact,then certainly this points to discrimination. The problem is that HN isn't a court of law, and quotes made by litigants haven't been litigated for accuracy. As I stated, the IMHO opinion of ageism usually comes down to value/cost == worth-keeping. I'm in my 40s and still very productive. I work with some people in their 50s and they're great workers. That doesn't mean that all employees working for a company 20 years can or choose to keep working at peak performance. Seniority is often a carrot which can retain employees with deep company wisdom, but it can also inversely over-compensate an employee per their available talents. Maybe they're tired of working there, but forced to because working anywhere else is a 20%+ pay cut. Despite being miserable they could stick it out but just coast. That general pattern (which I have certainly seen with peers over the years), can lead to employees that have b en at a company for so long that their compensation is just completely out of whack with current market rates.