I had a shower thought the other day. If you’re already hired and been with a company for a decade, with great reputation, etc. and during an informal internal ‘interview’ your age comes up. Is that illegal? You’re already been hired for 10+ years. Is it discrimination? Or potential suit? Assume US, (Cali/Texas) but other jurisdictions welcome. Would it matter if you were 35, 45, 55? And position? Chief of staff?
It shouldn’t matter, why would you ask? Yes I can stereotype that Americans that are older are lazy and won’t work hard but I focus on individuals not groups
No, you shouldn’t ask age in any kind of interview ever. Were you specifically asked about age? Or were you asked about tenure that could be used to infer age? Protected category information is easy to infer even if it isn’t asked. You can take a guess at a person’s age based on YOE, you can (typically) make inferences about race/gender by looking at someone. People often give information about these categories voluntarily (my husband/wife was telling me…) The part that is illegal isn’t that this information is available or even asked, it’s when it is used to make a hiring decision. Companies don’t want you have this info just so there’s no chance for bias, but if you are looking for grounds to sue, you’d have to prove that this information was used against you in some way.
It’s illegal and you likely will cross the line of so called protected class (age> 40). Having been at a company for a long time doesn’t make asking this right.
Your interviewee’s lawyer would love for you to ask that in an interview. Easiest payday they’ll get all year. No, of course you can’t ask someone’s age in an interview!
Forget about this being a transfer or an outside hire, or an "informal" vs formal interview. It is still a job interview, which is used to determine whether or not somebody gets a job that is new to them. An interviewee can reasonably expect that any question asked by an interviewer is done for the purpose of determining whether or not they should get the job. If you ask about age in an interview, then the interviewee can reasonably infer that you are going to factor their age into whether or not you will give them a job. Do not do this as an interviewer.
No and No
Super risky move. Stuff like age/gender/orientation/marital status cannot be mentioned at all in any interviews, period. Might face lawsuits.