Add this remark to our growing list of coded ageist comments used by managers.
This time it was allegedly made by the manager of the long-famous NYC jazz club, the Village Vanguard. The employee claims in a newly fired lawsuit that she was fired after working for 35 years and claims age discrimination and sexual harassment. She alleges that she was long the subject of unwelcome sexual advances including touching her breasts and buttocks, and that the manager complained that she and other waitresses were “a little long in the tooth.”
She quotes the manager as saying that “Certain waitresses were getting too old to work at the Vanguard and [don’t] look good anymore.”
The Vanguard has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
On December 11, 2012 we said that: “We have harangued our readers for a long time not to call an employee “old” or “ancient,” which is clear direct evidence of age discrimination, and not to use code words, such as calling an employee: “old school,” or “set in his ways,” or “not a proper fit for the “new environment,” or “lacking in energy,” or “not being up to date,” or “sounds old on the telephone,” or “is like a bag of bones. Some employers think that they are gaming the system by using these code words, and discouraging older applicants from pursuing positions. It usually backfires.”