Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Age Bias: Twitter Di Twitter Dumb

I just read a short opinion by a management attorney stating that recruitment of new employees by job announcements on Twitter could be a violation of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. 


 As a plaintiff's attorney, I consider myself more creative than many of my colleagues on the defense side, whose sole task is to take a key brick out of the elaborate edifice I strive to construct as a monument to justice.  But this Twitter Bias Theory most certainly takes the ether cake.  The premise of this madcap article is that folks over 40 don't rely on Twitter in the same ratios as those under 40.  Now while that may be true, the disparity is not so great as to justify the idea that recruiting on Twitter negatively impacts the opportunity of older workers to be hired.  


Is it that we who are over 40 have not heard of Twitter, or quake in our calcified minds at the thought of posting a message under 140 characters?  It is ageist to judge that persons over 40 are less able or less willing to participate in trends on the internet.  For example, the biggest growth in the use of social media is among older  users.  social media user age demographic  So while I like the writer's creativity, creative age bias is still unappealing.  

"If the pink slip doesn't fit, get redressed!"
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