Age Discrimination

[James Garrity, BSN, RN]

Hello every one.

I want to ask if any one has ever had to deal with age discrimination or suspect that they have.

I am 50,a very young and healthy 50(back pack,mountain bike, ect) I know by law they cant ask you your age,as well as some other questions,but,as I have discovered,there is a loop hole,its called the aplication,especaly,the "on line aplication",(if you dont enter any thing,your aplication cant be proccesed)Where after you enter your SS#,"date of birth",once HR or nursing recruters see that on the aplication,you may never even get to the interview,the same goes for race,nationality and gender.They can decide if they want you,without ever having to meet you.

So,has any had any experence in this area?

Thanks,James

[pinkcupcake712]

Hi. I had that experience applying at Piedmont Hospitals in Georgia. At the end of the application they ask a "survey" of sorts and it says you can choose not to respond, which then makes one look "difficult" (in my opinion). The questions say "Are you under 40" "Are you over 40" "Prefer not to answer". Then again for vet status, race, and ethnicity. I agree with you that it feels like they see the answer "Over 40" and decide not to call. It's not a proveable situation and yet it is frustrating. :) Anyone else have a similar situation?

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Wow - I didn't realize that the online apps were asking for that info. It is clearly illegal to require anyone to divulge age as part of the employment process. I wonder how they are getting away with that?

[elkpark]

The application forms I see (on-line or on paper) have a separate section asking for demographic info (inc. DOB, gender, ethnicity, any disabilities), which you can choose to fill out or not, which is supposedly separated from the rest of the application after you submit it and has nothing to do with the hiring process -- the statistics are collected for EEOC purposes. I don't know how true that actually is ...

Of course, even if it is illegal to ask an applicant's age (which it is), there are other ways to get a general idea -- nearly every application I've ever seen asks for the dates of graduation from schools you've attended, and that makes it pretty easy to approximate someone's age (unless you graduated from high school at 6 yo ).