Google’s hit the corporate big time — and I’m not referring to the IPO
Small businesses — even after they grow quite large, but still retain the entrepreneurial spirit and personal leadership that created them — are often shocked and outraged when they first become the target of a discrimination lawsuit.
“We don’t discriminate against anyone,” they say. “We’ll fight all the way. We won’t pay that ungrateful, lousy employee a nickle,” they say.
Wake up and face reality, I say. This has nothing to do with whether you intend to discriminate against anyone (though obviously if you do, the problem’s much worse).
It’s all about numbers and money. The numbers being that even the best employer will see a certain percentage of discrimination claims filed. Why? Probability. Because this is America, land of the (lawsuit) lottery, and sooner or later as an employer your number comes up.
Normally, I don’t report mere allegations; anyone can file a lawsuit alleging anything. But today I’ll pick on Google, whose product/service I love dearly, to illustrate a few points.
This was in today’s news: AP (via law.com) reports: “Lawsuit Alleges Google Discriminates Against Older Workers” (by Michael Liedtke)
Online search engine leader Google Inc. casts itself as an enlightened employer . . . But a lawsuit filed in California by a recently fired Google manager offers a less flattering picture, contending the company has cultivated a culture that discriminates against older workers . . .
The civil complaint, filed Tuesday in Santa Clara Superior court, alleges Mountain View, Calif.-based Google fired Brian Reid, 54, as its director of operations in February 2004 because he didn’t fit in a culture emphasizing “youth and energy.”
Google denied the allegations. “We believe Mr. Reid’s complaint is without merit and will defend against it vigorously,” spokesman Steve Langdon said. He declined to discuss why Reid lost his job.
Wrongful termination suits alleging age discrimination are common in corporate America, but Reid’s complaint could prove awkward for Google, an unorthodox company that has depicted itself as a progressive employer since its founding nearly six years ago. . .
Reid said company executives initially gave him no reason for his termination before Shona Brown, vice president of business operations, told him he was incompatible with Google’s youthful atmosphere.
Hmm. . . He’s the director of operations; she’s a VP of business operations. Sounds like he’d be her boss, not vice versa. So did she really know the reason? Was she a decisionmaker? How many layers of hearsay?
Reid also contends he was discriminated against for having diabetes. He was diagnosed with the disease — a condition that “substantially limits his ability to engage in major life activities,” according to the lawsuit — shortly after being hired in June 2002.
I’ve not done the research lately, but my guess is it would be a rare case indeed where a judge could be convinced diabetes met this threshhold test for an ADA claim.
And I always love these “one from column A, one from column B” discrimination claims. Which was it: age or diabetes? The presence of each claim weakens the other, IMHO.
During his tenure at Google, Reid said he gathered evidence that Google purposely avoids hiring older workers.
Hate to say it, but some of the most explosively successful discrimination claimants are those with inside views of HR administration. Handle these with (extra) care.
The average age of Google’s male workers was 29.7 years old and the average age of women was 28.4 years old when Reid left. The suit doesn’t mention that most members of Google’s senior management team are at least 40 years old.
So when they filled jobs requiring more experience in the business world than the young founders had, they looked for the wisdom and experience that (may) come with age; when they wanted cutting edge geeks not influenced by the way IT used to be done, they hired young comers.
Might be a great case for the same-decisionmaker defense–if these guys hired him just a few years ago (2002), he was already “old”; so how could just a few more birthdays and grey hairs make him suddenly too old in the eyes of the same people?
