"Google age-discrimination lawsuit may become a monster" (Computerworld)
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3090087/it-careers/google-age-discrimination-lawsuit-may-become-monster.html Just over a year ago, two people who had been turned down after applying for jobs at Google filed a lawsuit against the company. They claimed they were rejected because of their age. Both were over 40. A federal court in San Jose is now being asked to decide whether many others who sought jobs at Google and were also rejected can join this case. - - - I've been -- and continue to be -- skeptical of the veracity of this suit. Google's cultural milieu is unique, and key to coordinating the enterprise along a whole array of vectors. I've seen it and participated in it very close up, and while I believe it would be fair to say that Google puts a high value on a cultural fit, that fit is not (in my opinion) an age-related one per se. I'm not entirely sure how to express this properly, but I knew people who could fit Google's culture decades ago at UCLA, and years later at Bell Labs in its heyday, and now at various organizations. And while statistically it's likely true that more young people than older people have that cultural mindset -- I hesitate to call it a "hacker" mindset because the term hacker has been hijacked and the term would only scratch the surface of the aspects involved -- it most certainly is not always the case that there is necessarily a chronological age linkage involved. Culturally you can be a very old young person, or a very young old person. Does that make sense? I hope so. I think I'll leave it at that for now, except to note that (1) I'm obviously no "spring chicken" myself these days, and (2) The portrait in the attic does help some. My usual Google-related disclaimer applies. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone. _______________________________________________ pfir mailing list http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir
