工程师，你遭遇了年龄歧视吗？

对工程师而言，主管大都有年龄歧视的问题（除非你失业）。

在电子产业中，除非你正在失业，否则年龄并不会有负面影响。然而，以下的数字却不会说谎。

EEtimes在上周针对工程师的年龄及其对就业所带来的影响进行了一次简单的调查。

这项调查收到了800份回覆，其中63%表示他们从未感觉自己因为年龄而错过了晋升或其他职场中的机会。近90%的受访者表示，在工作场合中，他们从未被告知年龄会是一个问题（别惊讶，这是因为今天严格的人力资源规则所致，但反正我们只是想做个测试）。

在你的公司里，你是否感觉你因为年龄问题，被剥夺了晋升或其他、团队任务等）？

有──37.06%

没有──62.94%

真正让事情变得有趣的，是从这个问题开始：“在应征工作时，你自认都符合条件，但你是否感觉因为年龄而遭到拒绝？”

近45%的受访者表示，他们因为年龄而无法获得所应征的工作。

在应征工作时，你认为你是合格的，但你有没有感觉因为年龄而遭到拒绝？

有──44.43%

没有──55.57%

现在，很清楚，这两个问题都是很主观的，它们都直接询问受访者的‘感受’。在现实中，没有人会告诉求职者，他或她是因为年纪太大而被拒绝。

为了获得这个问题的真正答案，我们曾经尝试问受访者，是否曾经有人对你说，你已经‘超出资格’，这往往被视为一种委婉的年龄排斥。56%的受访者表示他们曾被告知这一点。但是这可能出于其他原因，如应征者本身的问题，是否为长期失业者，以及应征者是否仅为了获得一份工作，愿意应征一个远比他/她过去薪资来得低的职位。

依照年龄层来对此次的回覆进行分类，也同时揭示了一些转变。年轻的工程师们（介于20出头到30多岁），比较不相信他们已经获得一份工作或晋升。随着年龄递增，只有年龄列入60-69岁的族群强烈感受到他们因为年纪关系而无法获得工作（有58%受访者感觉他们已经通过了）；而在70岁以上的受访者中，只有48%有这样的感受。

种族问题

我们同时也想测试来自不同种族背景的各种专业意见，结果显示，在大多数情况下，种族都不会对进步或工作造成妨碍。只有约15%的受访者表示他们因为种族背景失去了工作或晋升机会。

这带给我们什么启发？也许唯有时间才能改变一切。我仅能想像在大约30~40年前或许有可能发生有关种族背景的问题。在未来几年内，有关这些问题的回应──对年龄的看法，是否会有所转变？（中国应该不存在民族歧视这个问题吧？）

数字中的真相？

或许如此，但对于那些急于在金融海啸后找到一份工作的年长工程师而言，这些改变却不够快。事实上，根据调查，有16%的受访者表示他们目前没有工作，其中有一半的失业时间至少两年。其中50岁以上的族群占了80%。

事实上，参与此次调查的受访者中，有60～80%的失业者年龄层在50岁以上。

以下，也许是数百份回覆所提及的主管评论中，最不客气的一些：

一位管理者说：“这是第一次有一个人年纪比我大的人为我工作。”而后，另一位不同的上司说：“你考虑退休吗？”

“工作37年，离开工作岗位并接受心脏手术后，收到HR的一纸通知，没有任何面对面接触，或是与任何管理阶层洽谈的机会。”

“世界是残酷的，生活是不公平的；而你，得适应它。”

中国的工程师们，年龄有没有对你们的工作产生影响？不妨分享下你的故事。

原文：Age survey results： Life‘s good if you’re employed

Age survey results： Life‘s good if you’re employed

Brian Fuller

For engineers， ageism is in your head （unless you‘re unemployed）

Age doesn’t appear to be a negative influencer in the electronics industry， unless you‘re looking for a job. And then， the numbers don’t lie.

That‘s the take-away from the latest EE Life survey we fielded last week， as part of a series of pieces on engineers and the workplace.

Nearly 63 percent of the 800 respondents said they’ve never felt they missed out on promotion or other opportunity at work because of their age. Nearly 90 percent said they‘ve never actually been told that age was an issue in the workplace （not surprising， given today’s stringent HR rules， but I wanted to test the question anyway）。

Have you ever felt you were denied a promotion or other opportunity （salary increase， team assignment etc.） at your company because of your age？

Yes 37.06%

No 62.94%

Where things get interesting is in this question：

“In applying for a job at which you believed you were qualified， have you ever felt you were turned down because of your age？”

Almost 45 percent of respondents said they have felt they didn‘t get a job because of their age.

In applying for a job at which you believed you were qualified， have you ever felt you were turned down because of your age？

Yes 44.43%

No 55.57%

Now clearly these two questions are subjective in nature because they ask how respondents “felt.” And no one in reality is going to tell a job applicant that he or she was turned down because they were old.

（We did try to get at this by asking whether you’ve ever been told you were “over-qualified，” which is often seen as a euphemism for age. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they have been told this. However that could be for other reasons， such as an applicant， long unemployed， applying for a job below his or her traditional pay grade just to get a job）。

Slicing the data by age reveals some variation in response. Younger engineers （those in their 20s and 30s） are far less likely to believe they‘ve been passed over for a job or a promotion. The delta narrows with age， but only those who listed their age as being 60-69 feel very strongly they did not get a job based on age （58 percent feeling they have been passed over）; Of those over the age of 70， only 48 percent felt this way.

Ethnic diversity

We also wanted to test how our exceptionally diverse profession views ethnic background， and the results suggest that， for the most part， ethnicity is little barrier to advancement or jobs. Only about 15 % of respondents to questions about losing out on a job or a promotion felt that happened to them because of their ethnic background.

What’s the lesson？ Maybe time will help. I can only imagine what the responses to similar ethnic-background questions might have been 30-40 years ago. Could it be that the responses on questions about the impact of age change as well over the coming years？

Truth in numbers？

Perhaps so， but then again it‘s never fast enough for older engineers who are struggling to find jobs after the Great Recession. In fact， according to the survey， of the 16 percent of all respondents who said they are currently out of work， half have been jobless for at least two years. Of that， 80 percent are over the age of 50.

Indeed， 60-80 percent of all survey respondents who have been unemployed for any length of time are 50 years or older.

This was perhaps the most poignant comment about the hundreds of responses：

“Quote from supervisor： ’”This is the first time I had someone older than me working for me.“ Later quote from different supervisor： ”“Have you considered retiring？”

Laid off after 37 years; after heart surgery; notified by HR; no contact or discussion or meeting with anyone in management chain.

It‘s a cruel world out there. Life isn’t fair; get used to it.“