Comments on: Aging in America http://acscareers.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/aging-in-america/ Career advice from the American Chemical Society Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:25:35 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Fenton Heirtzler http://acscareers.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/aging-in-america/#comment-480 Fenton Heirtzler Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:49:52 +0000 http://acscareers.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/aging-in-america/#comment-480 In spite of the large number of ageism cases that have been recently filed in the US, I think that we should be grateful that we can file them at all: ageism is LEGAL in other countries. For example: * Switzerland: although the Swiss are discrete enough to never write this into the texts of their advertisements, they will, indeed verbally confirm age limits of 35-40 to academic jobs at Swiss universities (e.g. the University of Zürich and the EPFL in Lausanne… name ‘n shame) *The People’s Republic of China: heck, they even specify a maximum age in the advertisements that they place in C & E N. Far more troubling than the 13,569 cases that have been filed in the US are the cases that not been caught, for example in hiring decisions where no statistics are distributed regarding the employment decisions of HR managers and selection committees. Also: we can not legislate ageism in someone’s head. In spite of the large number of ageism cases that have been recently filed in the US, I think that we should be grateful that we can file them at all: ageism is LEGAL in other countries. For example:
* Switzerland: although the Swiss are discrete enough to never write this into the texts of their advertisements, they will, indeed verbally confirm age limits of 35-40 to academic jobs at Swiss universities (e.g. the University of Zürich and the EPFL in Lausanne… name ‘n shame)
*The People’s Republic of China: heck, they even specify a maximum age in the advertisements that they place in C & E N.

Far more troubling than the 13,569 cases that have been filed in the US are the cases that not been caught, for example in hiring decisions where no statistics are distributed regarding the employment decisions of HR managers and selection committees. Also: we can not legislate ageism in someone’s head.

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