After reading the conversation between Roger and Carl below, please write down your response to the question at the end.

CASE STUDY (partial)

Players: Roger Sheridan, Deputy Regional Director, Age 40

Carl Macomber, Examination Specialist, Age 42

Roger Sheridan and Carl Macomber are discussing the application of Brian Toomey, age 58, for a position as a Bank Examiner, Trainee, before conducting an interview with Mr. Toomey.

Roger and Carl have before them Brian Toomey's application for the position. He has been highly rated, and has veteran's preference. He is currently an Industrial Funds Specialist for the military and he was in banking for 10 years before he took his current position. There isn't anything negative on his record. He was numerically ranked first of the candidates you have been sent for consideration.

Roger:

Well, the numbers look real good. He has the highest ranking, and has veteran's preference. He has been out of banking for a while, though.

Carl:

Isn't this a pay cut for him? His current position is a 13. Does he say whether he's being phased out or the position is being vacated or anything?

Roger:

No, there isn't anything here that helps me on that. It would be a demotion. From the job record, he was a supervisor for a number of years, both in his current position and in his banking position. Do you think it might be hard to supervise a guy in a trainee position who is overqualified? I imagine he might have ideas of his own.

Carl:

We have a number of good candidates from the Outstanding Scholar Program who have been certified as eligible. They don't have his experience but they have excellent educational credentials and look like they could learn and respond to supervisor and training very quickly.

Roger:

Well, it's always better to start with a clean slate. It is easier to teach a new pup than to unteach an old dog with bad habits. Still, we ought to give him a hearing. We might be picking up a whole lot of experience for not a lot of investment.

Carl:

Or a whole lot of trouble. I always get nervous when the application seems to be way out in front of the job. I wonder if he would just be using us to get his foot back in the banking door. We'd invest in trying to get him up and running and in a year he'd leave. I'm going to ask him why he wants this job when we interview him. And I definitely think we ought to check his references and find out whether they think he's an easy guy to supervise.

Question:

Does the discussion between Roger and Carl suggest age bias? If you answer yes, list all the statements that seemed age-biased to you. Are the concerns reasonable? Any ideas on what should happen now?