International recruitment outfit, Robert Walters, has issued a blanket ban on using a whole raft of words and phrases in any of its recruitment ads for fear of falling foul of the UK's increasingly foolish-looking new legislation designed to combat age discrimination.
According to the Daily Telegraph, it isn't just the obvious words like "young", "old" and "mature" that the company thinks will fall foul of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations.
Energetic, youthful, vibrant, quick-learner, self-starter, high-flyer, gravitas, newly-qualified, soon-to-be-qualified, dynamic, experienced, ambitious, hungry, fit, energetic and recent graduate are also on its proscribed list.
Thankfully, however, the Telegraph hasn't lost its sense of humour, pointing out that it feels that "literate" and "knowledgeable" should be added to the list because they would surely deter most applicants under 30.
Meanwhile, the first of the new generation of recruitment ads, commissioned by the Government itself, has fallen into our hands."Someone needed to redraft sloppily worded legislation that will subject thousands of employers to needless inconvenience and make the law a laughing stock. If you can read this without moving your lips, you might just be the person we're looking for."