Age-discrimination in the Google

Reid was hired at the age of 52 in 2002 as the director of operations and director of engineering. In 2003, he was demoted, and in 2004 he was fired, when he was 54, according to the lawsuit.

In his lawsuit, filed in July 2004, Reid said he worked closely with Google founders Sergey Brin, then 28, and Larry Page, then 29, and that he was fired because he was not a "cultural fit" with the company. According to the lawsuit, Page, who was almost 31 at the time, made the decision to fire Reid.

...one of Reid's supervisors, Urs Hoelzle, who is 15 years younger than Reid, and others, told him his opinions and ideas were "obsolete" and "too old to matter." He was also told that he was "slow," "fuzzy," lethargic," "did not display a sense of urgency" and "lacked energy," according to court documents. Reid said he was also called, "an old man" and an "old fuddy-duddy" by his colleagues.

Reid, who has a doctorate in computer science, said he was given a positive review by Google's vice president of engineering, Wayne Rosing, who wrote Reid's only written evaluation. Rosing, who was 55 at the time, described Reid in the review as having "an extraordinarily broad range of knowledge concerning operations, engineering in general, and an aptitude and orientation toward operational and IT issues."

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