Facebook claims employee “didn’t move fast enough”
Los Angeles, CA – Facebook faces an age discrimination lawsuit alleging the social media giant made the work environment hostile for its older employees. According to the suit, Mark Zuckerberg never responded to the Plaintiff’s complaints of age bias against older employees in the workplace. The 52-year-old former employee alleged he was fired in 2015 because of his age.
Gary Glouner alleged that he was discriminated against because of his age, retaliated against because of his complains, wrongfully discharged and that Facebook’s conduct intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Glouner. In his complaint, Glouner is seeking unspecified damages in connection with his suit.
While the suit didn’t name Glouner’s job title, the suit stated that Facebook discriminated against him because he suffered from a physical disability that caused seizures, clinical depression, anxiety disorder, and reduced cognitive abilities. According to his complaint, during his time at Facebook, their motto was “move fast and break things.” Glouner states that he was terminated because he “didn’t move fast enough.” Glouner’s younger coworkers explained that he was terminated because he was a “poor cultural fit,” and that he “didn’t get it.” Glouner took the terms to mean that older workers were considered “culturally awkward within Facebook’s work environment.”
In New York City, age discrimination is prohibited under both the New York City Human Rights Law and the New York State Human Rights Law. Further, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the federal level. Age discrimination is a form of employment discrimination where employment decisions are made based on an employee’s age, including a change in job duties, a promotion or having a job in general.
In Glouner’s suit, he alleges that he was terminated because he was old. He points to a 2007 speech where Zuckerberg stated “young people are smarter.” This attitude is pervasive in the younger generation, often ignoring the decades of experience these older employees have in the workplace. Over the years, Glouner had sent numerous emails to Zuckerberg complaining of the discriminatory culture at Facebook. However, Zuckerberg never responded to any of Glouner’s emails. Glouner claims he was accused of poor performance and being unfocused. He further alleges that he was given complex tasks that he had never done before in an attempt to make him fall short and give the company grounds to fire him.
Age discrimination is a pervasive problem in modern American workplaces. Every year an operating system updates, a new phone is released and a new “hot app” dominates American workplaces. Many younger employees don’t believe older employees can keep up in the workplace, despite having years of experience in the field, these older workers still face various forms of employment discrimination.
Being discriminated against on the basis of your age is prohibited, at the Federal, State and City levels. The New York City sexual harassment attorneys at the Derek Smith Law Group, PLLC, have years of experience litigating claims of employment discrimination. If you feel you have been discriminated against on the basis of your age, please give our talented attorneys a call at (800) 807-2209 for your free consultation.
