Posted on 10/05/2007 10:38:48 AM PDT by walkerk
A state appeals court reinstated a fired manager's age-discrimination suit against Google Inc. on Thursday, saying a jury should hear his evidence that a supervisor told him that his ideas were "too old to matter" and that the giant search engine company gave its older employees lower ratings and lesser bonuses.
The Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose overturned a Santa Clara County judge's dismissal of a damage suit by Brian Reid, who was hired by the Mountain View firm in 2002 as director of operations and director of engineering. He was demoted in October 2003 and fired in February 2004, at age 54.
According to published reports, the firing cost Reid not only his salary of $200,000 a year but also stock options worth as much as $10 million.
Reid, a former electrical engineering professor at Stanford, was given a glowing review by Google's vice president of engineering in his only written evaluation. But the same executive, Wayne Rosing, told Reid when he was fired that he was not a "cultural fit" for the company, the court said.
Rosing was three years older than Reid. But another of his supervisors, Urs Hoelzle, who was 15 years younger than Reid, told him that his opinions and ideas were obsolete and "too old to matter," and that he was sluggish and lethargic, the court said. Some colleagues referred to him as an "old guy" and "fuddy-duddy."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
54 isn’t old. At least I hope it isn’t. I’m 51.
Did anybody see “The Office” last night? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe he’s a Republican, which is antithetical to Google.
They used him to help build the company, then launched him. Cost him 10 million too. I hope he prevails.
“Maybe he’s a Republican, which is antithetical to Google”
Not a “cultural fit” ? Very likely!
Their Health Insurance or HMO risk pool is driven up as average age increases.
The differences in costs are amazing when comparing Age 30 to Age 60.
It could actually interfere with Managment Bonuses and Stock Options.
(I just started paying for my own. Two people 60+, $1744 a month.)Kill the Aged!
How un-multicultural of them. I'm no fan of Google. I confess I'd enjoy seeing them suffer a little.
If he was a Sikh, or a Ba’hai or a Muslim I’m sure no manager would ever fire him and attribute it to the employee “not being a cultural fit.”
What about Schmidt. He’s no spring chicken. Probably office politics.
Sounds like a slam-dunk to me. Hey Urs! It sounds like you're not smart enough to be in such a responsible position...
What if his ideas were “too old to matter?” What if he was going around telling everyone they needed to make sure Google was compatible with Windows 3.1?
Frankly, I think people should be allowed to hire and fire who they want. The only time lawsuits should be allowed is cases of fraudulent hiring. For example, if you need someone for a month-long project, and you advertise a permanent position, then make up a reason to fire the employee at the end of the month, that should be grounds for a lawsuit. But otherwise, if someone doesn’t want to hire the young, the old, the black, the white, or whatever, that’s their business. They might have a hard time attracting enough good workers, but discrimnation is not free.
These are the same people screaming for more H1B visas every year. They probably fired him to make room for a visa holder. It saved Google $200k and a $10M bonus.
>>>I think people should be allowed to hire and fire who they want.
I agree 100 percent.
The owners of a company are not slaves of an employee, thus an employee has no right to a job. He, however, does have the right to start up his own firm.
The tougher Europe makes it for employers to terminate someone, the higher the unemployment rate goes. One of Europe’s most humorous blunders was France’s 35 hours a week fiasco.
Capital goes where its treated best. Employment restrictions sends jobs overseas or results in increased unemployment.
Age discrimination is a fact of life. This guy needs to get over it, and start his own small company or become a Wal-Mart greeter if he can not provide value.
Good point on the H1B visas. I don’t agree with those either, as it depresses wages and makes the HIB visa holder a bit of a slave to the company.
I know I came out in favor of free labor markets a few posts ago, but I do believe in regulation of who gets to come in this country. Thus, I’m not a pure libertarian.
Me too, to all your points.
I believe companies should only employ those they deem worthy, but it really galls me that companies throw away “oldsters” like so much trash. I hate age discrimination (can you tell I’m at that age as well ?) primarily because so much experience goes out with the ones fired.
I was in the middle of a huge telecommunications project some years ago when Verizon had a mass layoff/early retirement. I can tell you the project was almost 6 months behind schedule simply because the new workers Verizon put on the job didn’t know squat about analog lines.
Geez, at least give the guy his $10M in stock options and then call it quits.
I’m 51 and work in IT also. It is a bitch to keep up. I stay more current than my contemporaries here. I am kind of torn by this. I had to really struggle to jump from electronics where my skill set was becoming obsolescent into IT and really learn enough to do the job. I am 20
years older than most of the young IT people in my office.
But if this guy wasn’t keeping up and got himself marginalized then what are you going to do? Give the guy a newspaper and a window seat? They probably could have paid him enough to retire him but they thought they were going to get out cheap.
A good friend of mine was let go under much the same circumstances. He had really become disconnected with what was happening today and wasn’t very effective. They gave him a pretty good severance package and a recommendation. I think thats the way to do it.
A guy being let go with a 10 million dollar separation package is probably a lot more willing to hear the truth about his performance than one being kicked to the curb.
You are right about the severance - in this case his 10M in stock options, maybe.
If you read the story, however, he did a great job the first year, then it was taken away and given to one of his workers - office politics/wrong cultural fit probable, not lack of skills - and Google itself sidelined the guy for a year with no staff and no budget. If I were that guy, the handwriting on the was was plain to see.
At that price, isn’t it more economical to get catastrophic insurance instead?
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