Making 'Dinobabies' Extinct: IBM's Push for a Younger Work Force

In recent years, former IBM employees have accused the company of age discrimination in a variety of legal filings and press accounts, arguing that IBM sought to replace thousands of older workers with younger ones to keep pace with corporate rivals. From a report: Now it appears that top IBM executives were directly involved in discussions about the need to reduce the portion of older employees at the company, sometimes disparaging them with terms of art like 'dinobabies.' A trove of previously sealed documents made public by a Federal District Court on Friday show executives discussing plans to phase out older employees and bemoaning the company's relatively low percentage of millennials. The documents, which emerged from a lawsuit contending that IBM engaged in a yearslong effort to shift the age composition of its work force, appear to provide the first public piece of direct evidence about the role of the company's leadership in the effort.

'These filings reveal that top IBM executives were explicitly plotting with one another to oust older workers from IBM's work force in order to make room for millennial employees,' said Shannon Liss-Riordan, a lawyer for the plaintiff in the case. Ms. Liss-Riordan represents hundreds of former IBM employees in similar claims. She is seeking class-action status for some of the claims, though courts have yet to certify the class. Adam Pratt, an IBM spokesman, defended the company's employment practices. 'IBM never engaged in systemic age discrimination,' he said. 'Employees were separated because of shifts in business conditions and demand for certain skills, not because of their age.' Mr. Pratt said that IBM hired more than 10,000 people over 50 in the United States from 2010 to 2020, and that the median age of IBM's U.S. work force was the same in each of those years: 48. The company would not disclose how many U.S. workers it had during that period.

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