Let's say the CTO said "I'm concerned the candidate won't fit in because he's not into video games or partying with coworkers or working on the weekends, all the things that help us bond and keep a cohesive team". While not directly mentioning his age, such criteria would still make it very unlikely that the older candidate would be hired.
Would you consider this to be age discrimination (from a moral perspective; let's ignore legal considerations since those are incredibly vague and convoluted)?
Of course it is ageism. The CTO confused finding an employee with finding a fk buddy. The company is toxic, and is certainly discriminating unlawfully in multiple axis.
Also, none of the things you mentioned contribute to team cohesion, they are all detrimental to it.
Basically you are describing a CTO that has no idea how to CTO. We can take solace in the fact that his startup will fail hard.
> Would you consider this to be age discrimination (from a moral perspective; let's ignore legal considerations since those are incredibly vague and convoluted)?
It's straightforward (disparate impact) age discrimination from a legal perspective. The law in this area isn't that vague and convoluted.
> The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit did not agree. In a ruling this year supporting CareFusion, it stated that recruiting practices that have the effect of screening out older applicants — what is known in legal terms as having a “disparate impact” — did not violate the law.
I am not a lawyer, but it appears to me that the law is convoluted enough for the 7th court of appeals to offer an alternate decision.
Disparate impact is not a violation of the US law (neither federal nor state). If the disparate impact is related to the job, it's legal. (For example, a movie studio that turns away old actors who apply to play young characters will most likely win in court, if sued.)
What is reasonably related to the job, is far from clear; the rules are vague, and the previous rulings are complex and inconsistent.
In addition, I didn't want to make my question specific to the US. And the laws across different countries (even the Western developed countries) are not the same.
Come on now. It should be perfectly clear that playing video games and beer pong with colleagues is not a requirement for a job as a software developer.
Would you consider this to be age discrimination (from a moral perspective; let's ignore legal considerations since those are incredibly vague and convoluted)?