IBM exec called older workers “dinobabies” who should go “extinct,” lawsuit says

Enlarge / Earl Sinclair and Baby Sinclair (not actual IBM employees). (credit: Disney)

A former high-level IBM executive wrote an internal message calling older workers “dinobabies” who should go “extinct,” according to a plaintiff’s filing in an age-discrimination lawsuit against IBM.

“In arbitration, Plaintiff’s counsel have obtained evidence showing high level executive communications demonstrating highly incriminating animus against older workers by” two former IBM executives who left the company in 2020, said the court filing submitted on Friday. The executives’ names and their positions were redacted. In one communication, an executive “applauds the use of the disparaging term ‘dinobabies’ to describe the older IBM employees” and described a “plan to oust them from IBM‟s workforce,” the court filing said.

In the message, “he describes his plan to ‘accelerate change by inviting the “dinobabies” (new species) to leave’ and make them an ‘Extinct species,'” the filing said. “In another email, [name redacted] describes IBM’s ‘dated maternal workforce—this is what must change. They really don’t understand social or engagement. Not digital natives. A real threat for us,'” the filing said.