There's Snow on the Roof, But We're Still Valuable

We're on to you.

"You" in the above means "employers", and you have a dirty little secret that you might not even be aware of yourselves.  You don't like older employee candidates and don't know how to avoid hiring them.

Here's what is going on.  We're all aware that personnel departments, which somehow started being called "Human Resources" or "HR", are paranoid at the prospect of being sued for any kind of discrimination, while they're perpetually making themselves VPs and SVPs of HR or some other title too senior for their actual responsibility level.  So they start developing practices that insulate themselves against lawsuits.

Five years ago my wife was looking for a new job as a contracts manager.  You need to know, if you're not familiar with the contracting profession in metropolitan D.C., that "contracts managers" are the people who ensure that when the Government buys something, the seller (contractor) of the service or product complies with the myriad regulations associated with that purchase.  Openings for such people abound, and good ones are hard to find and seldom available.  One would have thought that one such as the Missus, with many references, long experience and an excellent work ethic, would have been snapped up in a minute.

Well, not so fast.  A funny thing happened on the way to employment.  She was repeatedly interviewed by a number of companies in need, certainly.  But then she noticed a pattern -- the company would bring her in for a second interview, the president or CEO would tell her how much they looked forward to working with her, and then ... radio silence forever.  Not a letter that they'd changed their minds, not an email that they were interviewing other candidates, or had closed the requisition, or been acquired by another company.  There was no communication, and no response to inquiries or returned calls.

The interesting thing is that these would be precisely the actions you would think a company would take if they had called references and came up with a felony conviction, or a history of lying or stalking or something.  Only one problem -- she had a sterling reputation in the industry, and her references were loud in their chorus of praise.  There were no mitigating circumstances, except for one little problem.  She was 58 years old.

I respect her viewpoint enough that when she started to see this pattern among companies that she'd interviewed and suspected age discrimination, I listened, but I couldn't imagine that it was true, given the tight market to find people with her background.  Yet after two years and no offers, it was difficult to come up with an alternative answer, even though I had never experienced that specific treatment in an interview.

Then, remarkably, my company was forced to lay off half its work force and I was in the searching mode myself.  Although I was almost immediately consulting privately to pay the mortgage, I was avidly interviewing for permanent employment.  Funny thing -- I started to experience the same peculiar treatment, the great words from executives followed by total cessation of contact, that my wife had.  At 59, I was startled to discover that there was a pattern, and I didn't like it.

Having never discussed this with anyone to prejudice their answers, I started polling my colleagues about their experiences in the job market -- and I have many friends in the business to ask.  Rather surprisingly, I discovered that the pattern of post-interview silence was almost universally experienced at some point by one group of colleagues, while another never encountered it at all.

The former group was of those at least 55 years old.  The latter group was of those colleagues under 50.  Eureka, and not in the good way.

I was logging onto a Careers site for a large company a while back, and found myself forced to put in the year of my college graduation.  I balked at that, and called the company, telling them that effectively they were asking applicants to state their age, which is illegal (if you graduated college in 1973 as I did, you can be assured they know you're over 60).  I'm getting a bit sensitive about that sort of thing.  LinkedIn has it if anyone's that interested.

I have to think there is a better way to deal with us, ye of HR.  I don't need to tell you that we bring experience, maturity, good work ethics, etc.; you know that.  You have chosen to pay less for less experience, less maturity, etc., and that's fine.  We get what a business decision is; we're not stupid.  But we're also human beings and Americans, and we deserve the respect to be treated in a reasonable manner even when you want someone younger and cheaper.

It is illegal to tell us that we're too old.  It isn't illegal to tell us that you don't need to pay extra for our experience and are going with someone more junior.  If that's the way you think, then for God's sake say so.  Don't blow smoke up our butts; don't stop talking to us because your HR Executive Senior Lord High VP doesn't know how to tell  people they're too old for their plans without getting sued.  Show us the respect our experience has earned.

I'm still consulting four years later, and just this week encountered the same silence pattern after an initial interview for a permanent position, which reminded me I wanted to write this piece.  It's not, as I said, about what we have to offer.  It's about honesty and honor.

We're big boys and girls; you can tell us.

Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton