I am not acusing target of Age Discrimination but want to see what other folks think about this. Based on what we know so far, do you think that age played any role in the layoff selection process? My group was completely spared but being 59 this is one of the things I've been thinking about recently. I believe that age is a category that needs to be reported when mass layoffs are taking place, hopefuly we'll share numbers too. In the meantime, please chime in if you have any info or personal observations.
14 replies (most recent on top)
@cs Always
@OP My observation is that if you personally retained employment during this time, what I or anyones else thinks about whether age played any role in the layoff selection process is irrelevant. My observation continues that I was retained though several rounds of layoffs during my long career, my best course of action was to put my best energy forward in contributing to the new plan - show your leaders how they made a wise choice in retaining you rather than futzing around with what-ifs.
White males over 50 is the target.
@ce
I apologize...my reply...those over 50 years old ...critical information to that post
I believe it's so hard to prove in firing and hiring these companies are not even worried about it at this point. I was watching a news episode they stated 30-50% of individuals laid-off now will never be back in the workforce...those that are able to gain employment will be at a 30-40% reduction in previous salary.
@a6 100% truth... although I think the Severance Agrement documents were not shared with my team until our Day 60.
I looked at list and it's all over the place. There is no pattern aside from what the other poster said - it was skewing older given the level of positions they were after.
Age may not be the direct reason for layoffs but they find legal work-arounds to pushing out those who are over 40/50 without giving them a severance: Three letters: PIP
I have the list for obvious reasons and that was the first thing I looked at in tech. Hard to make a case for it.
@OP if you were laid off you would have received a document listing every position that was laid off alongside the positions that were spared. That data include title, pay level, and age.
The layoffs skewed older because they were targeting L6 and L7 employees, with larger salaries.
3rd party consultant firms are hired for precisely this reason and must weigh those fired and those retained (across job title), to ensure there is not a skewed distribution. That said, some higher up job titles naturally skew older (like directors). Also, you only get severance if you sign the agreement which waives your right to sue.
That’s why Target is obsessed with hiring directly from Intern programs
@OP if they lay someone off for restructuring/role elimination and then hire someone new to do the same job, that could be illegal. Doing so could imply that restructuring wasn’t the real reason for the layoff.
I know 2 people that got cut, both are in early 40s