At Google, You're Old and Gray At 40
Google faces an imminent California Supreme Court decision on whether it engaged in age discrimination. But that hasn't kept the internet company from patting itself on the back for how it supports old "Greyglers" — that's any Googler over 40.
At a company of about 20,000 full-time employees, there were at last count fewer than 200 formally enrolled Greyglers working to "make Google culture... welcome to people of all ages." But Google has been keen to highlight the group on its "diversity and inclusion" Web page, where the poster boy for the Greyglers is a 46-year-old cycling enthusiast from New York named Scott.
Athletic in build and, per his bio, philanthropically hyperactive, Scott is much in the mold of Marissa Mayer and other members of Google's young inner circle. The significantly older fellow now suing Google had more trouble fitting in; before Google higher education executive Brian Reid was let go at 53, he said he was called an "old fuddy-duddy" who was a weak "cultural fit" at the overwhelmingly young company. The California Supreme Court is to rule on his appellate case by the end of August. In the meantime, old 40+ Googlers who want to fit in might take their cues from Scott; he definitely won't ever be mistaken for a fuddy-duddy."
