CF: Do you think that stigma associated with age is strongest in the tech industry?
DL: Yes. Mark Zuckerberg said that young people are smarter. Now, he said that a long time ago, he probably would be more diplomatic and discreet about it now, but I bet he still believes it. I think in tech there is a plentiful supply of people in their twenties and they are all looking for work. It may be that we are in this period where technology is erasing jobs faster than we are creating them, so we have a net loss of jobs. So that means that you have a surplus of workers. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t you just hire people in their twenties who are cheaper and younger and don’t have distractions?
I’m not even sure what to add here, but this is absolutely the truth. All things being equal, why wouldn’t you hire younger workers who don’t expect as much money, have fewer outside responsibilities, and will probably leave before you need to pay them much more, allowing you go back to the start of this process again?
Because things are not always equal. Sometimes, when you follow that practice, it’s bad for your business. (Sometimes it’s also you know, illegal.) I’m not sure many of the people who run tech company’s have figured that out yet. They don’t have a long term vision beyond the IPO or acquisition. 😉
Do you admit to being “old” when working in a tech company? Would you?
Some interesting thoughts on how to thank people for sharing your blog posts or other content without sounding trite. I may have to start coming up with more creative ways to thank the people who share things I write. What’s the best “thank you” you’ve gotten from social media? Thank You (Yawn), For Sharing Follow…
The article makes this sound like a bad idea. “Legislation in New York City would make it illegal for employees to access work-related email outside their regular work schedules.” Actually, I agree with the article, because it is too broad and is just a knee-jerk reaction to what is actually a very large problem. But…
I was reading Doug Cornelius post about Compliance Lessons from the Tour de France, well, because I enjoy the Tour, and had to see what sort of compliance lesson was being learned. 😉 I’ll let you go read it yourself rather than try to rephrase Doug’s point, but the last paragraph of his post really…
Another reminder from the New York Times that organizations will get more of what they measure with their employees, so be careful what you measure. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/05/upshot/how-some-men-fake-an-80-hour-workweek-and-why-it-matters.html Some people fully embraced this culture and put in the long hours, and they tended to be top performers. Others openly pushed back against it, insisting upon lighter and…
If you’ve ever been in one of my training classes, it’s likely you’ve heard a story or two about how badly you can get burned when you agree to search terms without testing them. My favorite story that I like to tell has to do with the word “environment”, because no one bothered to test…
This is an interesting thought. “For attorneys that can’t keep up with what becomes generally accepted as standard practice for lawyer tech, like email, there could be an ethical issue with charging clients for tasks that take twice as long due to antiquated business practices.” I think this is something that we could very easily…
