Prospective employer asked my age - Germany

I had an advertisement up to give English lessons and got an e-mail response from a professional translator who was looking for someone to help with her proofreading. She just had "3 small questions": 1) how much experience I have 2) how old I am 3) and whether I can work on short notice.

What the hell kind of question is "how old are you" in a job inquiry? Is this normal in Germany?? (the letter was in German). How would you react???

I'm 26 and said as much in my answer, which was polite, but what I really wanted to respond is "I'm in my twenties, how about you?", because WAKE UP. What the hell kind of question is how old is someone?

It might as well be : Just three quick questions: how much experience do you have, what is your race, and can you work on short notice. Come on.

I think there's nothing wrong with my age (26) but I want to not mention it just on principle, because there is NOTHING WRONG WITH 56 OR 66 EITHER.

I would never answer "I'm white" to the race question, so was I wrong to answer the age question? (even though it's not negative for me). Thanks for your input guys!

So, my questions to Toytown: is my reaction out of place, is it just a normal question in Germany? Why do people ask this? What do they really want to know? Have you gotten this question regarding work, totally "cold" (no previous contact)? What is the proper reaction?

It'd have been easier to have asked her! It may well have been nothing more than interest, particularly if it was not clear from the info supplied.

Bear in mind that this is nothing to do with "employment". It's a service, she's the customer, you are a supplier. Customers often have more leeway in exercising preferences / aims / prejudices than employers often can, these days. She's just making choices on how to spend her money, no different from (say) deciding whether a Nintendo or a Playstation is what she wants. Your age may be part of the spec / decision criteria. Self-employed, the way I see that is that if they (e.g.) don't want a younger / older person, well that's their risk, from limiting their choice (and the relationship would probably not be sustainable).

I sometimes get asked my age. In addition, either my DOB or something that roughly indicates it (x years' experience) is on all the credentials I supply. Anyone wanting to get work through an agency will probably be asked it. It's personal preference i think, doesn't bother me.

EDIT - When I got a 19 year old (female) and 70+ (man) pitch up to install my light fittings, I certainly asked their ages! No qualms...simple human nature (as the later post says)!

WTF? wtf, this is a normal thing in Germany. Don't ask me why but there are many little quirks we all have to be aware of, and that happens to be one of them. Your right, you should have said you are in your twenties which may have prompted more questioning. But that would mean more communication which is good right?

Yup, it's normal and perfectly legal for an employer to ask your age in Germany. And YOU might not think there's anything wrong with 56 or 66 (nor do I), but it can be really difficult for job-seekers to get employed at over 45 or so.

I guess you're lucky they didn't ask for a photo (also normal on a resume in Germany.)

Doesn't seem odd to me at all and I'm from the States. It's a matter of preference. I see where you're coming from, but I wouldn't get too worked up about it. It would probably have been a bit more reasonable for her to ask you for a brief description or some personal details. She probably just wrote it quickly and wasn't thinking straight.

It's normal here to include DOB, family status and picture on your CV so they can deny you the job based on your age, family status and level of ugliness.

However, I did see something on TV about employees rights the other night and they did say that some questions are out of line in job interviews and if asked such a question, it's ok to lie, it will not be held against you. They did an example of a visibly pregnant woman going into a job interview, the employer asking her if she's pregnant and her crossing her fingers and saying no. They said if it turned out later that she was, she would not be in trouble for lying because he didn't have the right to ask her that in the first place. I am not sure what the other questions are they are allowed or not allowed to ask.

Possibly she wanted to evaluate your experience based on your age.
Or she wants to hit on you and doesn't want to end up with a doddering old sot drooling around bifocal teeth.

Ageism is fairly widespread in the German labour market. It's not unusual to find adverts that explicitly state an age limit such as 40 or 50.

Now there's a figure of speech to chew on.

Or not

I knew that someone with an eagle eye-tooth would sink same into "bifocal teeth" Matter of fact, Linus said it in "Peanuts" [s]years[/s] decades ago.

I agree that it's a practice that seems weird to us, especially coming from the U.S., where such questions are illegal, but I also agree that it is something you will just have to get used to.

I can remember like yesterday sitting in my integration course, learning how to attach a photo to a German CV. I was shocked, appalled, offended. "What do they need to see my picture for? So they can discriminate against me based on my appearance? That's illegal!"

The teacher responded, "Well, what if it was an upscale shop in Unter den Linden?"

My reply: "And?"

"And they will be picky about how their prospective employee looks."

It hit me then that she had a point. Fair or unfair, an employer has an idea about who he wants to hire, and almost no one who isn't forced to by government quotas is an EOE. Knowing beforehand who he is meeting actually just saves time for the both of you. I started to think about how much time U.S. employers waste in interviews with people they know from the first second that they are not going to hire, but who they are obliged by law not to simply turn away.

The age thing is weird but even it serves some purpose. Although you can legally work in a bar here at the age of 18, many places advertise that they only want someone who is over 23. I have seen ads that were even more specific, saying that they wanted women between the heights of 5'4 and 5'9", between 22 and 30 years old, who are slim-to-athletic and take care of their appearance. Or eck-kneipes who only want women over 40. I swear it on my mother's grave. But the point is that they know what works best for them in their establishments, who brings in the most money.

As for something along academic lines, all I can figure is that there is often a professional and performace discrepancy between a "recent Oxford graduate" and a person with 30 years experience in that field.

By the way, how old is everyone posting?

As the Economist put it in an article in this weekend's briefing on the german election:

So, jaw-dropping german age-ism has multiple sources: 1) A person over a certain age likely has a higher statistical liklihood of dependent children; if it all hits the fan and the business has to downsize, a Sozialplan is often instituted where people's age and family situation rather than work effectiveness or tenure determine who stays and who goes. 2) A person over a certain age may feel the biological clock ticking more urgently than someone younger, and end up working for a year and then taking three years off for number one and three years off for number two and three years off for number three, and then show up on your doorstep nearly a decade later removed from the workplace and legally demand her job back. 3) A person over a certain age is more likely to catch cancer and inform you that she's going on an extended sick leave with the possibility she'll return declared with a certain disability level which makes her practically undismissable. 4) Since job mobility is so retarded, people over a certain age are assumed to be "damaged goods" unemployed for performance reasons rather than, say, having a former employer unlucky enough to have been in the buggy whip business.

Essentially, all the reasons why US-style ageism prohibitions exist in the first place.

And such a person is necessarily a woman?

P.S. Incidentally, how does one "catch" cancer?