Posted on 03/07/2007 2:34:46 PM PST by qam1
What happens when a twenty-something manager tells an older worker to turn up her hearing aid or take an herbal memory medicine? In this Oregon case, it got the employer in trouble with the feds.
Scott and Patty Corp., formerly Woodburn Fertilizer, Inc., agreed recently to pay Carolyn Arzino, a former longtime 55-year-old accounting secretary, $85,000 to settle age discrimination claims brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The case arose, agency trial attorney Teri Healy told The Oregonian, from the actions of a female manager in her 20s, who criticized Arzino's work, telling her, among other things, that she should take ginkgo biloba, an herbal memory tonic, and turn up the volume on her Miracle Ear.
The manager gave Arzino a poor performance evaluation, withheld her raise and placed her on a 30-day probation before firing her on July 20, 2004, according to the EEOC's complaint. But EEOCs investigation revealed that Arzinos coworkers said she was an exceptional performer.
Scott and Patty Corp. denied liability.
This case, noted EEOC district director Joan Ehrlich, illustrates a phenomenon of today's workplace: It spans four generations -- Millennials, Gen Xers, Baby Boomers and the last of the Silent Generation born before the end of World War II -- and their members don't always speak the same language or work quite the same way. Employers need to be aware and sensitive to those dynamics.
I have nearly 3 years towards a 4 year degree and it amazes me how much more I know than these young whippersnappers just out of college with 4 year magna cum laude degrees.
They don't teach enough real things in college. One kid I work with took a class in Psychology with a chapter on the psychology of the Cub fan (and loves to harp on me about it I want to punch him in the nose.) what does that have to do with business?
You are lucky, most bosses (and I don't mean just female ones) would do that. Mrs Mag. maintains that most women in the workplace hold that "if you can't look good, make the other person look worse". That quote is by me and was first used to describe certain people in my all male work place. That attitude is not unique to women but does seem in Mrs Mag's estimation to be more common in women who do move above the pack and mentoring is rare between women.
Congratulations and good luck in the new job!
BTW, welcome to FR.
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A right proper spanking, and one well deserved.
Thanks. I was pointed over here in a Cubs discussion group when I said I wanted to find a good conservative site on the web.
Things are sort of rocky here right now, but I have hopes people will settle down and start looking at what we can do to keep the democrats from ruining the country.
You're making my point about treating 39 year olds like kids so that you don't feel so old, boomer.
I have been promoted, I am successful. Now try to refute my points instead of just crapping on me personally, M'kay?
And, you asking for civility is a joke.
OK, now try to refute my point. Why so defensive?
Some of us boomers spent decades in the military, covering your worthless butt while you just trundled on in your mindless, selfish personal pursuits.
Think about that before you let your alligator mouth write a check your hummingbird ass can't cash.
Got 16 years in the Army. Just re-upped for another 6. Please try again.
Think about that before you let your alligator mouth write a check your hummingbird ass can't cash.
Oooo, that's good.... Did you make that up? Keep reading, you'll really enjoy the rest of my posts!
Well in this case it looks like the manager was more of a brat than anything else... at least whats reported here.
You need to grow up.
You say you are 39 and act like a little 5 year old that wants to get his way.
I am only a couple of years older then you and my parents taught me to respect my elders.
All you have said was disrespectful and rude.
Do your parents know how you talk to people that are older then you?
I have you know that you can learn a lot from people that are older and you still have a lot to learn.
Do you mean the bo-toxed Summer of Love weirdos? We need a better crop of oldsters.
Do your parents know how you talk to people that are older then you?
I don't know, mommy left 'to find herself' when I was 12 and pop died when I was 22.
I have you know that you can learn a lot from people that are older and you still have a lot to learn.
Like dope smoking, war protesting, Maoist philosophy, blame placing and weaselling out of accountability?
If Carolyn Arzino, the former longtime 55-year-old accounting secretary exhibited poor performance, than that should have been the focus of the young female supervisor's comments.
Because the female manager instead chose to focus on Arzino's age as she tried to deal with Arzino's performance, she only ended up giving Arzino ample evidence for an Age Discrimination Complaint.
Arzino's performance may, in fact, have been substandard, and may in fact have been so bad that she should have been fired.
But by making comments that Arzino should take ginkgo biloba and turn up the volume on her Miracle Ear, the young femal supervisor provided a third party with evidence that her firing of Arzino might have been based upon Arzino's age.
Sounds like what happened in "Mr. Mom".
Were the brillant managers fired or they just keep moving up.
This wasn't very nice, but I'm not sure it was worthy of a suit (as I think there are too many suits anyway).
OK, maybe it was age discrimination based on the firing?
Because while the comments are brazen and cruel, they're just not any more worthy of lawsuit than any other insult. And this article seems to hang its hat on the insults.
You sound like you have a great family!
I too am a GenReaganer (:D) who was NOT raised by old boomers but by, uh, "Silent"?
I get tired of being associated with hippies - everyone assumes people our age are the illegitimate children of the free-love hippies. My parents were 30+ when I was born.
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