Google Settles Age Discrimination Lawsuit, Highlighting The Proliferation Of Ageism In Hiring
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/07/23/google-settles-age-discrimination-lawsuit-highlighting-the-proliferation-of-ageism-in-hiring/#2f1bd3465c67It's incontrovertible that ageism is a prevalent issue in corporate America.
It was reported Monday that Google settled an age discrimination lawsuit concerning its hiring practices. More than 200 job seekers over the age of 40 who applied for positions at Google will receive a settlement of $11 million. The company will be forced to train employees and management about age bias, form a committee focused on age diversity—with respect to recruiting—and ensure age-related complaints are fully investigated to comply with the settlement terms.
Cheryl Fillekes, the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, claimed she was not offered employment at Google despite her “highly pertinent qualifications and programming experience.” Fillekes asserted that she was denied a job because of her age and accused the company of “a systematic pattern and practice of discriminating against older people.
This is merely one example in a litany of other lawsuits filed against large corporations over allegations of age discrimination, which is emblematic of a frightening trend.
An advertiser who wants to reach a target demographic on Facebook can use the company’s portal to pinpoint with great accuracy the type of people they desire to reach. They could also exclude other groups from seeing an ad. A class-action lawsuit was previously filed alleging that large corporations utilized Facebook’s platform and analytics to share jobs with only younger prospective job seekers. Older potential applicants never had a chance to view the ad and, therefore, were unable to apply to the company.
In a fairly recent reorganization, IBM terminated the employment of roughly 20,000 American employees over the age of 40, amounting to more than 60% of its total U.S. job cuts. A class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of former IBM employees asserting age discrimination in its job cuts.
In a cost-cutting initiative, Verizon Communications, the largest telecommunications company, offered a “voluntary separation program” to its employees that was alleged to be a thinly veiled massive layoff of older workers.
The career section of the investment banking giant, Goldman Sachs, not so subtly shows happy, attractive-looking employees in their early 20s. The investment bank glaringly downplays one major class of people—anyone over 35 years old.
These and other numerous examples illustrate the comfort level of corporations with targeting older workers for downsizings and the avoidance of hiring this group. To be fair, I believe it's a little more complex than pure ageism. In my recruiting practice, I’ve noticed a certain trend related to this matter. There is a nexus between the age of a professional and compensation level. A large percentage of senior management is comprised of employees over 40 years old. These executives earn substantially more than their younger peers. When it comes time for layoffs and cost cutting, the older workers are a convenient target due to their higher compensation levels. For instance, I’ve communicated with several dozen Wall Street professionals, earning a total compensation of $200,000 to $500,000, that have been let go from their respective firms. Their positions were either relocated to lower-cost cities in the U.S. or abroad to other countries to save money. Younger employees sometimes took on the laid-off professionals’ responsibilities—albeit at a significantly lower salary and corporate title.
The reluctance to hire older workers could also be attributed, in part, to economics. A person who was downsized and seeks out a new job is accustomed to a certain salary level. After actively seeking a new job for a while without receiving any offers, they’ll tell a manager that they’d gladly accept a lower compensation. This should be an enticement to the hiring manager, as she is getting a bargain—it's not. In fact, it frightens off human resource professionals and managers. They worry that the person will be a flight risk and take the first higher offer from another company and quit.
An experienced professional also represents a potential existential threat to the current manager. Although seemingly perceived as a bargain, the manager may regard the experienced person as a rival wolf in sheep's clothing, biding their time to climb the next rung of the corporate ladder and then push the manager aside. Even if that doesn't happen, there will be concerns that other employees and executives will turn their attention toward the senior person for advice and counsel, as opposed to the manager creating an awkward and uncomfortable situation.
Unfortunately, any way you look at the current situation, it's a real problem and an exceedingly hard challenge for older workers.
