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Potential Google Employee? |
People who are over 50 have a much tougher time finding a job, as liberal Silicon Valley is one of the most age-biased sectors in the country. It is widely understood here that older workers are treated as lepers. I once worked in a temporary assignment for a controller named Steve M, at a software company in Cupertino. Steve was very rude and disrespectful to me in staff meetings (probably because my superior accounting experience made him feel threatened), so I had a meeting with him to discuss it. When I brought up the topic of age bias, he told me that "one of his best prior employees was an older person [a secretary]," but that "the older you get the more rigid your thinking." I was astounded by Steve's ignorance, insensitivity and outright bigotry.
I have seen people with advanced
Tourette Syndrome who had more tact and social skills than Stevie boy. When I got up to leave, somewhat in a state of shock, his last mocking words to me were "Don't die!" This jerk had lawsuit written all over him, but was careful to voice these insults in a meeting that included only him and me.
I was happy to see that an appeals court has allowed an age-bias lawsuit against Google to go forward, brought by an over 50 manager, one Brian Reid, who feels he was fired for being "too old." The explanation that they gave him for his dismissal was that he was not a good "cultural fit." Sounds indeed like code for "too old."
Mercury-News.com says:
Google recruited Reid, who had managed the team that built one of the first Internet search engines at AltaVista and who has a doctorate in computer science, in the summer of 2002. But the company fired Reid, then 54, within two years, allegedly saying he was not a "cultural fit," after co-workers and a supervisor had described him as "an old man," "slow," "sluggish" and "an old fuddy-duddy," and made remarks such as that Reid's compact disc cases should be relabeled LPs, according to court documents. Reid's supervisor, Urs Hölzle, then 38, and currently a senior vice president and Google Fellow, regularly told Reid that his opinions and ideas were "too old to matter," according to the documents.
Google, age bigots extraordinaire. I hope they lose the suit. No room for anyone at Google who doesn't have green hair, facial studs and lots of tattoos. God knows, it isn't what you know that counts, but how fashionable and trendy you are. Now I know why they never acknowledged my resumes for advertised jobs that were well within my experience and expertise.
If I ever get an interview with Google, I will have to lie about my age, wear a T shirt with a liberal slogan on it, and paint my face with red dots using a felt tip pen, to simulate pimples. That and some water-based tattoos that can be washed off. I wonder if they have fake facial studs that you can put on with glue? I'll have to look into that. A nose ring, an ear ring, and maybe a dog collar with studs. That's the ticket! Google will take one look at me and say "Resume? You don't need no stinkin' resume. You're HIRED!"
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