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Age Discrimination, Indian-Style
theodp writes "In April, IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano told investors Big Blue hopes to dodge an estimated $6 billion in liability stemming from a judge's ruling that IBM violated U.S. federal age discrimination laws. In May, IBM closes on its $150-$200MM purchase of Indian outsourcer Daksh, whose age requirements for job applicants make Logan's Run seem progressive. On its Opportunities page, Daksh states that Customer Care Specialists should be between 21-25 years of age and Team Leaders should be no older than 27. Early Daksh investors included Citigroup and we-don't-need-no-stinking-unions Amazon."
Why do they want to make the age requirement public? This can be discretely discussed with the HR department and just filter anyone over xx age out automatically.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
1] People start to work and have kids at an earlier age in India, by ensuring people are between certain ages, you ensure they will be with the company a long time.
2] More resources on age descrimination
It is NOT because younger people are smarter or brighter than older people. That's true. I think it would be safe to assume that older people would have more applicable experience and be more effective at the job. I think another assumption usually made is that younger people are sharper and more on the ball. But then again, that's just a typical stereotype as well.
This poses a problem if they want younger crowds as the life expectancy in India is less compared to other countries See here
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
Which is why when jobs are outsourced like this to circumvent American worker protections, the products of such labor (or the gross, in case of service businesses) should be heavily taxed.
Another proud carrier of the $rtbl flag
If you want cheap tech support that just reads a script and you're supporting Some Random Game or How To Use Instant Messenger Brand X, then you probably aim for young, cheap people you can easily manipulate and strongarm into hard work, harder hours and little pay or other compensation with the false expectation that hard work pays off in corporations and doesn't just get you laid off when you are promoted into a position that they can no longer afford to keep.
However, if you are supporting mission critical software or hardware for a company with very expensive ($100k +) support contracts who expect reliable, professional, top-notch, respectable, hard-working employees who take sick days only when they're really sick and can be expected to return a page immediately and be on call like a responsible adult, you hire people with proven industry experience.
I work in such an environment and I'm almost the youngest person in our huge (thousands globally) support division at the age of 28. Almost everyone else is in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Almost all have college degrees plus five or more years of experience and many have masters degrees.
I've received quotes from Indian outsourcing companies where they could supply a staff of people who spoke (a) brittish, (b) southern/texas, and (c) american/california accents, and promised they'd adjust their style to match the caller.
They also quoted rates for having the staff read the local newspaper of key markets so they could make appropriate comments about the weather, ball games, etc.
This service was much more expensive than the competitor's heavy-indian accent bid, though.
I didn't know why they consider blood type as a hiring factor, so I found this:
Personality assessment through blood type analysis has been prevalent in Japan sine the early 1970's. The Japanese term for this theory is 'ketsu-eki-gata', and is taken surprisingly seriously by the people from that part of the world. Books have been published on the topic, selling very well. In fact, Toshitaka Nomi has published over twenty-five books, and is considered the worlds leading expert on the topic. The blood type categories are used in a similar way to astrology in the west, focusing mostly on relationship aspects of life. Nomi goes further in his books though, even using blood type make up within a country as a theory for that nationality's general national traits.
Japanese companies often take blood type into consideration when hiring employees, to ensure harmony throughout the staff. All the major car companies in Japan have reorganised themselves in order to attain positive blood type combinations in different working sectors. Surveys have been carried out to try and determine the preferences of different blood types, be it for food, clothes or any recreational activity. It is also a popular topic of conversation in social settings.
More can be found here.
His neutral accent sounded just like the "generic white guy" from any movie.
Frankly, in some industries, you're too young. I cut my teeth (as a teenager) on a KIM-1 and what I remember about the VIC20/ZX80 crowd is you're afraid of hardware.
We use to refer to you lot as the "appliance computer users".
I've found my familiarty with hardware/electronics to be an EXTREME asset in the embedded market.
plurvert
I never understood age descrimination. I've always sort of assumed that even in fast changing fields like high tech that experience would be a good thing.
If its because the older workers get paid more and won't work for less money then its a pay issue and not really an age discrimination issue. If you wan't the job that badly work for less; nobody owes you anything.
And before you think its just so much easier for us youngsters...
Age descrimination works both ways. I worked for a couple years in California at an orgization that would match 12% (Yes, 12) of your pay and put it in a 401K for you but they wouldn't do this for you if you were under 21. Thats age discrimination and apperently its perfectly legal.
Oh...Yeah, did I mention how much more us youngsters have to pay for our car insurance even if we have a clean record?
Or that the cost of college compared to the average income has skyrocketed making it much more expensive for us to get an education.
Or that the cost of a house compared to the average income has also been steadily increasing making it more expensive to get a foot in the door and buy a house.
Or that even with all of the above those of us starting out have to pay a higher percentage of our income in taxes making it harder for us to save up enough to put a down payment on a house.
Or how we have to pay tons of money into social security (a much higher percentage than previous generations) even though its possible (probable?) that we'll never see any of that back.
So I'm jump'n up and down screaming show me the money.
As an Indian I am happy to see this topic being discussed.
When I worked in India 10 years ago, it was common to see such ads. Some companies also asked for your marital status, the number of kids you have, and your driver's license number. There was no option but to provide this information.
Some pressure on them to discontinue such practices would be good.