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Oh I’m sure they’ll end up hiring again. And I’m also sure C-suite comps won’t go down. I just don’t think it’s a crusade against old people. It’s just that old people have more experience and demand higher pay. But I mean, if one wants to argue that it’s ageist to fire them then I can make the same stupid argument that it’s ageist for them to be paid more than younger people.

And it’s clearly a stupid argument because there are other factors and not just age.




If younger people in the same position were paid less, yes, that would be ageist. Nobody's arguing against that.

But, as you said, C-suite comps won't go down. Neither do VP comps. But the people rehired, oddly, are all younger. And that is ageist.

Not if they axe the position. Neither if it's in a single instance. But if, at scale, older people are fired, younger people are rehired, and comp doesn't change significantly - yeah, sorry, that's ageist.

There's a reason many companies instead offer folks a juicy "if you leave, have a chunk of money" package - they do want younger people for one reason or another (and I don't think it's fundamentally wrong to want a change) and this a way to do this in a way that does not discriminate.

IBM's leaning hard into being an asshole instead. There's a reason they've had reams of discrimination lawsuits. Significantly more than comparable companies. Let's not make excuses for them, they have lawyers for that.


> But the people rehired, oddly, are all younger. And that is ageist.

Is it though? Or is it just that younger people are just cheaper to hire? It’s the same reasoning in reverse. Older people with more experience demand a higher pay. And if you’re motivated—again, wrongly—just by money you probably will end up hiring younger. Because it’s cheaper.

And again, I think it’s dumb. Just not ageist. It’s probably greed which is not uncommon in the business world.


Again, as I said in my message: Pay for position stays the same, independent of age. Firing is disproportionately old people who get replaced with young people at the same pay

That's the issue.


Does pay stay the same? Genuinely asking. Like is someone with 15 years of experience not getting paid more than someone with 1, even if hired for the same position? And we can obviously argue how that’s even possible but that’s a separate issue altogether.


I mean, that's the same as saying "are elves paid the same? We can obviously argue how that's even possible, but that's a separate issue altogether"

It's a nonsensical hypothetical.


I think your argument is reasonable. Having done two tours at IBM, they only see numbers (and not productivity ones).




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