When you’re described with words like “obsolete” and “too old to matter,” or told that you are “slow,” “fuzzy,” “sluggish” and “lethargic,” you might get the hint that your bosses think you’re having a little trouble adapting to the modern world.  Brian Reid, a 54-year-old former director of operations and engineering for Google, claims that the search engine and cultural monolith fired him because they believed he was too old to fit in at their company.  As such, Reid is suing Google for age discrimination.

Reid has a long history of performing well at his job, consistently meeting Google’s expectations for productivity and performance in spite of his age.  He was one of the primary developers of AltaVista before latching on at Google in 2002.  He’s also a former professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.  However, in spite of this, he says he was the constant victim of put-downs and insults by his coworkers and higher-ups, and believes he was pushed out of his job by Google co-founders Eric Schmidt and Sergey Brin directly.

“Brian Reid was not laid off based on his age,” said Google spokesman Andrew Pederson.  “We look forward to demonstrating in court the legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons why Mr. Reid was let go.”

Image: IMP Awards

Tags: Google, age discrimination lawsuit, AltaVista, Brian Reid, fired for being old, age discrimination, not a good cultural fit, lawsuits, employment, Google sued for ageism, stray remarks, Andrew Pederson

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