Would you apply for a job which requires you to be “dynamic” or a “digital native”? If you’re over 40, it might not be worth bothering. Until recently, it looked as though Generation X had never had it so good. But age discrimination is alive and well — and the exodus of older workers in the pandemic may be more of a Great Clear-Out than a Great Resignation. As the diversity and inclusion agenda spawns a million training courses and reports into race and gender, age remains taboo. Amazon has agreed to audit its racial diversity, under pressure from shareholders, following similar moves at Apple and JPMorgan. But discrimination against older workers rarely features. Even though Google and other companies have been successfully sued for it, a 2020 survey of global employers revealed that most do not include age in their diversity and inclusion policies.
你会申请一份要求你“富有干劲”或者“自幼就熟悉信息技术”的工作吗？如果你已经过了40岁，这可能就不值得你费心了。直到最近，X一代看似从来没有过这么好的生活。但年龄歧视仍然存在，而且还很严重。疫情当前，年长员工大批离职可能更像是一场“大清理”，而不是一场“大辞职”。