Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
1–10 of 200 posts
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#2Not surprising. Years ago one of my (gray haired) mentors opened my eyes to ageism in this industry by asking me to pay attention to how many programmers in the office have gray hair. Once you start looking for it, it becomes obvious that age discrimination is rampant. Some blame the young workforce on the industry being young, but the industry is decades old at this point so I don't think that excuse holds water.
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#3While serious, this is still an accusation, and will be ultimately decided by the courts not EEOC.
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#4Not surprising. Years ago one of my (gray haired) mentors opened my eyes to ageism in this industry by asking me to pay attention to how many programmers in the office have gray hair. Once you start looking for it, it becomes obvious that age discrimination is rampant. Some blame the young workforce on the industry being young, but the industry is decades old at this point so I don't think that excuse holds water.
Older workers have experience. Experience is expensive. You can generate a lot of revenue with workers with less experience, even factoring in mistakes, lower productivity and output, etc. Age discrimination is rarely punished, and when it is, the penalties are minimal.
Incentives matter.
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#5While serious, this is still an accusation, and will be ultimately decided by the courts not EEOC.
I would rate this as "partly true".
We don't have a rabid pro-worker EEOC, we have an EEOC that is notoriously hard to convince of anything and that process itself requires production of evidence, so when the EEOC makes a determination, that is not just "an accusation", it is the result of a fact-finding process by a third party expert. It is true that an EEOC finding of fact is not the same as a judicial process and it will be ultimately decided by courts, but let's not minimize what has been accomplished here.
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#6I've seen it spun as a move away from the legacy stack into the new modern architecture. Of course the legacy stack programmers have a suspicious common element.
Also, of course, 2-3-5 years later the legacy stack is still what keeps the business running while all the new shiny toys have come and gone.
I had a boss who came over, asked me what was working on and then looked me in the eye and said, firmly and deliberately, "So you are working on transitioning to the new architecture". I shrugged, said "I guess", and he left. Only later did I realize that he was saving my hide.
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#7Not surprising. Years ago one of my (gray haired) mentors opened my eyes to ageism in this industry by asking me to pay attention to how many programmers in the office have gray hair. Once you start looking for it, it becomes obvious that age discrimination is rampant. Some blame the young workforce on the industry being young, but the industry is decades old at this point so I don't think that excuse holds water.
Older workers have experience. Experience is expensive. You can generate a lot of revenue with workers with less experience, even factoring in mistakes, lower productivity and output, etc. Age discrimination is rarely punished, and when it is, the penalties are minimal. Incentives matter.
Older workers have expectations of employers. Expectations are even more expensive than experience!
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Older workers have experience. Experience is expensive. You can generate a lot of revenue with workers with less experience, even factoring in mistakes, lower productivity and output, etc. Age discrimination is rarely punished, and when it is, the penalties are minimal. Incentives matter.
Older workers have expectations of employers. Expectations are even more expensive than experience!
Who knew it's outrageous to expect work life balance and reasonable compensation for experience.
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#9Fast growing industries tend to hire like there is no tomorrow. Eventually they hit a growth barrier. After a while the age structure of the company is a problem. Could not happen in the social media industry...
Re: Feds: IBM did discriminate against older workers in making layoffs
#10The actual letter from EEOC https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7206573/2020-09-0...