對(duì)工程師而言，主管大都有年齡歧視的問(wèn)題（除非你失業(yè)）。

在電子產(chǎn)業(yè)中，除非你正在失業(yè)，否則年齡并不會(huì)有負(fù)面影響。然而，以下的數(shù)字卻不會(huì)說(shuō)謊。

EEtimes在上周針對(duì)工程師的年齡及其對(duì)就業(yè)所帶來(lái)的影響進(jìn)行了一次簡(jiǎn)單的調(diào)查。

這項(xiàng)調(diào)查收到了800份回覆，其中63%表示他們從未感覺(jué)自己因?yàn)槟挲g而錯(cuò)過(guò)了晉升或其他職場(chǎng)中的機(jī)會(huì)。近90%的受訪者表示，在工作場(chǎng)合中，他們從未被告知年齡會(huì)是一個(gè)問(wèn)題（別驚訝，這是因?yàn)榻裉靽?yán)格的人力資源規(guī)則所致，但反正我們只是想做個(gè)測(cè)試）。

在你的公司里，你是否感覺(jué)你因?yàn)槟挲g問(wèn)題，被剝奪了晉升或其他、團(tuán)隊(duì)任務(wù)等）？

有──37.06%

沒(méi)有──62.94%

真正讓事情變得有趣的，是從這個(gè)問(wèn)題開(kāi)始：“在應(yīng)征工作時(shí)，你自認(rèn)都符合條件，但你是否感覺(jué)因?yàn)槟挲g而遭到拒絕？”

近45%的受訪者表示，他們因?yàn)槟挲g而無(wú)法獲得所應(yīng)征的工作。

在應(yīng)征工作時(shí)，你認(rèn)為你是合格的，但你有沒(méi)有感覺(jué)因?yàn)槟挲g而遭到拒絕？

有──44.43%

沒(méi)有──55.57%

現(xiàn)在，很清楚，這兩個(gè)問(wèn)題都是很主觀的，它們都直接詢問(wèn)受訪者的‘感受’。在現(xiàn)實(shí)中，沒(méi)有人會(huì)告訴求職者，他或她是因?yàn)槟昙o(jì)太大而被拒絕。

為了獲得這個(gè)問(wèn)題的真正答案，我們?cè)?jīng)嘗試問(wèn)受訪者，是否曾經(jīng)有人對(duì)你說(shuō)，你已經(jīng)‘超出資格’，這往往被視為一種委婉的年齡排斥。56%的受訪者表示他們?cè)桓嬷@一點(diǎn)。但是這可能出于其他原因，如應(yīng)征者本身的問(wèn)題，是否為長(zhǎng)期失業(yè)者，以及應(yīng)征者是否僅為了獲得一份工作，愿意應(yīng)征一個(gè)遠(yuǎn)比他/她過(guò)去薪資來(lái)得低的職位。

依照年齡層來(lái)對(duì)此次的回覆進(jìn)行分類，也同時(shí)揭示了一些轉(zhuǎn)變。年輕的工程師們（介于20出頭到30多歲），比較不相信他們已經(jīng)獲得一份工作或晉升。隨著年齡遞增，只有年齡列入60-69歲的族群強(qiáng)烈感受到他們因?yàn)槟昙o(jì)關(guān)系而無(wú)法獲得工作（有58%受訪者感覺(jué)他們已經(jīng)通過(guò)了）；而在70歲以上的受訪者中，只有48%有這樣的感受。

種族問(wèn)題

我們同時(shí)也想測(cè)試來(lái)自不同種族背景的各種專業(yè)意見(jiàn)，結(jié)果顯示，在大多數(shù)情況下，種族都不會(huì)對(duì)進(jìn)步或工作造成妨礙。只有約15%的受訪者表示他們因?yàn)榉N族背景失去了工作或晉升機(jī)會(huì)。

這帶給我們什么啟發(fā)？也許唯有時(shí)間才能改變一切。我僅能想像在大約30~40年前或許有可能發(fā)生有關(guān)種族背景的問(wèn)題。在未來(lái)幾年內(nèi)，有關(guān)這些問(wèn)題的回應(yīng)──對(duì)年齡的看法，是否會(huì)有所轉(zhuǎn)變？（中國(guó)應(yīng)該不存在民族歧視這個(gè)問(wèn)題吧？）

數(shù)字中的真相？

或許如此，但對(duì)于那些急于在金融海嘯后找到一份工作的年長(zhǎng)工程師而言，這些改變卻不夠快。事實(shí)上，根據(jù)調(diào)查，有16%的受訪者表示他們目前沒(méi)有工作，其中有一半的失業(yè)時(shí)間至少兩年。其中50歲以上的族群占了80%。

事實(shí)上，參與此次調(diào)查的受訪者中，有60～80%的失業(yè)者年齡層在50歲以上。

以下，也許是數(shù)百份回覆所提及的主管評(píng)論中，最不客氣的一些：

一位管理者說(shuō)：“這是第一次有一個(gè)人年紀(jì)比我大的人為我工作。”而后，另一位不同的上司說(shuō)：“你考慮退休嗎？”

“工作37年，離開(kāi)工作崗位并接受心臟手術(shù)后，收到HR的一紙通知，沒(méi)有任何面對(duì)面接觸，或是與任何管理階層洽談的機(jī)會(huì)。”

“世界是殘酷的，生活是不公平的；而你，得適應(yīng)它。”

中國(guó)的工程師們，年齡有沒(méi)有對(duì)你們的工作產(chǎn)生影響？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.“