When life hands you a steaming poo...

oulton

oulton

oulton

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Ok,

So I work as a consultant for a decentralised european agency which makes pan european environmental assessments and communicates this information to the European Parliament so that they can make informed decisions when addressing environmental policy - for example the 2020 20% reduction in green house gas emmissions...

I have been working as a consultant here for over a year, and have a great working relationship with my peers, many of which are much older than me. Im a geospatial analyst / developer, so I work mainly with mapping systems and a lot of the work I do is published, goes to brussels, and is even circulated by my seniors at UN, World Bank and IMF meetings...

But as a consultant I enjoy very few of the perks of the job, because I don't get all the benefits of my colleagues (they earn on average double, and have many more holidays, training, travel budget etc etc)

At 26 im the youngest person in this role by around 5 years, most of the agency staff ar mid 30's upwards...

So 5 months ago a position opened which suits me down to the ground... I have spent sooo long preparing for the testing, which was last week. Today my boss has told me that I aced the interview, but wont be considdered for the position because of my age... Im absolutely gutted...
 
yes, I happen to think this is purely ageism... but this is government... I can argue that I have 5 years experience including my masters for which I was given a distinction, etc etc... I'm so ****ed off about this, even though i dont feel bad because I gave the interview 100% effort and really impressed the whole panel... The only thing which is holding me back is my age god darn!!!

Pervious to this I worked as a developer for the australian government managing my own team... I think that my 4 years of post edu experience are much more valid than most peoples 10 years of experience...
 
oulton said:
yes, I happen to think this is purely ageism... but this is government... I can argue that I have 5 years experience including my masters for which I was given a distinction, etc etc... I'm so ****ed off about this, even though i dont feel bad because I gave the interview 100% effort and really impressed the whole panel... The only thing which is holding me back is my age god darn!!!

Pervious to this I worked as a developer for the australian government managing my own team... I think that my 4 years of post edu experience are much more valid than most peoples 10 years of experience...
Click to expand...

Honestly, contact CAB or a solicitor. The company/department has stated you will not get the job because of your age. That is illegal.
 
Yes definately take this to an employment solicitor. If you have been told you aced the interview but you wont get the job because of your age then you have VERY valid grounds to take them to a tribunal.

This kind of thing disgusts me. Please take it further.
 
Did your boss email this to you or say it to you as an off the cuff kind of remark?

Email = hard proof, spoken = more difficult to prove.

It might be worth emailing him first before doing anything else, just commenting how you're disappointed about how they have come to their decision regarding your age. If he replies denying that he said that then it'll get hard to prove, if he says "sorry thats just the way things are (etc)" then you have some proof.

Good luck.
 
oulton said:
So 5 months ago a position opened which suits me down to the ground... I have spent sooo long preparing for the testing, which was last week. Today my boss has told me that I aced the interview, but wont be considdered for the position because of my age... Im absolutely gutted...
Click to expand...

Did he, absolutely literally, tell you that you aren't being considered as you are too young?

If so, CAB time. He shot himself in the foot with that one.
 
BDEE said:
Yes definately take this to an employment solicitor. If you have been told you aced the interview but you wont get the job because of your age then you have VERY valid grounds to take them to a tribunal.

This kind of thing disgusts me. Please take it further.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice... but im pretty sure ageism is designed to protect old people from descrim, not the other way round...
 
Indeed. If this was only said verbally to you, and isn't written down in a letter or email for example, then how can you possibly prove to a tribunal that this was ever said? It sucks, but I can't see how you could possibly proceed with what would be a "his word versus yours" arguement.
 
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