http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071005/D8S3BO500.html
Ex-Google Manager Can Sue for Age Bias
Oct 5, 6:32 PM (ET)
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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – A 54-year-old former Google Inc. (GOOG) manager who claimed he was fired after a supervisor told him his opinions were “too old to matter” had his age discrimination lawsuit reinstated.
Reversing a Santa Clara County trial judge, the state’s Sixth District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that Brian Reid deserves to have a jury hear the evidence he amassed that he says shows Google routinely gave older managers lower evaluations and smaller bonuses than younger managers.
“Reid produced sufficient evidence that Google’s (stated) reasons for terminating him were untrue or pretextual, and that Google acted with discriminatory motive such that a fact-finder would conclude Google engaged in age discrimination,” Presiding Justice Conrad L. Rushing wrote.
The Mountain View-based search engine company has denied Reid’s allegations but also refused to say why he was fired. In court documents, the company said Reid was fired when the program he managed was canceled.
Reid, a former associate electrical engineering professor at Stanford University, sued Google in July 2004, five months after he lost his job as its director of operations.
He alleged in his suit that his supervisors did not initially tell him why he was being fired. Director of Engineering Wayne Rosing, 55, eventually said he was not a good “cultural fit” at Google, where some colleagues referred to him as an “old guy” and “fuddy-duddy,” Reid said.
Another supervisor, Urs Hoelzle allegedly said Reid, who is a diabetic, was too sluggish and “too old to matter” and his ideas were obsolete.
Reid is seeking back pay and punitive damages. He made $200,000 a year and lost stock options valued at millions of dollars when he lost his job.
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Now we all know that age discrimination is rampant.
But it’s rarely so blatant. Clearly FOWGs need to keep very good notes and paperwork. No one should want to go to court. That’s not only a crap shoot, but you’ll be stigmatized.
My advice is to use what you have to extract a better settlement.
You need to document both your contributions and the reactions to them on a contemporaneous holograph non-tamperable basis. Think about the old Bell Labs policy of keeping notes in bound books with numbered pages. Emails should be archived and indexed. With cheap online and offline storage with usb disk drives. At the very least, sending a bcc to a special email account is cheap and easy.
Better be prepared for treachery. We entering a brave new world of employment. If you don’t have a contract, then you are at risk. If one’s not offered, ask yourself why?
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Reinke Faces Life 