Investment banking is definitely a young man’s game, consisting of long working days in a high pressure environment. A very very long time ago, I used to work as a trader for a firm of Swiss private bankers and one if its investment management companies and thus experienced this lifestyle to some extent myself before quitting the industry at the ‘tender’ age of 42.
Niels Kirk, an investment banker who had worked at Citi (a US bank) in London for 26 years and earned over $1 million in his heydays, has sued his former employer for almost £10 million in compensation after being fired in November 2017. He is alleging that Citi was ‘institutionally ageist’. Mr. Kirk was 55 when he was told by one of his bosses that he was old and set in his ways two months before he was made redundant.
Mr Kirk also alleges that there was a “pervasive culture of age discrimination within the bank”, with managing directors over the age of 55 receiving consistently lower performance rankings than younger colleagues, and more likely to be fired or made redundant. And this is not a first: already in 2016 another Citi banker (58 years old) brought a case against his former employer for ageism.
Back to Mr Kirk‘s case: a London employment tribunal ruled on 2 January that he was indeed wrongfully dismissed. But that’s not the end yet as Citi is likely going to appeal.
It is a well known fact that jobseekers over the age of 50 find it much harder to land a new role and since they are maybe — but not necessarily — less performing along some measures than a younger colleague, they are an easy prey for employers. And this applied not only to investment banking.
So employers listen up: older folks such as I are maybe not as fast and keen on working 12—hour days as the youngsters, but we brings loads of experience and problem solving skills to the table, not to mention a certain credibility when talking to other seasoned people at clients and suppliers who too have been ‚around the block‘ a few times. And if you don‘t take note there may well be more of such cases being brought.
As far as being set in ones‘s ways is concerned, well I get to hear that not from my boss but my wife. She can count herself lucky that she‘s not my employer…
The grumpy older man 