No, ‘OK boomer’ shouldn't be considered ‘workplace discrimination'

Old people are pretty mad about the new clarion call, “OK boomer,” offered up by millennials and Gen Zers alike to dismiss their out-of-touch elders. And in a hilarious display only further demonstrating the elder generations’ snowflake-y response to the slightest bit of viral mockery, one woke law professor is now arguing that saying “OK boomer” in the workplace should be considered an act of unlawful workplace discrimination.

Writing for the Conversation, University of Oregon professor Elizabeth Tippett argues that employing the remark, even as a friendly joke, violates federal law. She says, “Comments that relate to a worker’s age are a problem because older workers often face negative employment decisions, like a layoff or being passed over for promotion.” Tippett continues: “If a manager said ‘OK boomer’ to an older worker’s presentation at a meeting, that would make management seem biased. Even if that manager simply tolerated a joke made by someone else, it would suggest the boss was in on it.” Bizarrely, the professor also concludes, “It doesn’t matter if the target isn’t even a boomer.”

I’ll leave the interpretations of federal law to law professors, but any law that penalizes workplace joking as a form of discrimination, even when targeting a non-baby boomer, needs rewriting.

“OK boomer” is simply a funny way of laughing at an old person, or a young person displaying an outdated habit or opinion, in millennial jargon. Baby boomers are quick to decry young people as oversensitive “snowflakes,” and sometimes those criticisms are well merited. But any boomer who would report a younger person to human resources for joking about their age needs to get a grip and rein in their own snowflakery.

Critics are also wrong to view “OK boomer” as exclusively targeting baby boomers. In reality, it’s joking about a mentality, not at the expense of a specific generation. My friends have said the phrase to 22-year-old me when I can’t figure out some technological issue or express an out-of-touch opinion.

Additionally, it’s a bit rich that it should be considered “discrimination” to joke about older colleagues’ generational shortcomings, whereas older workers and company management have gotten away with joking about millennials for years. We didn’t sue CEOs who whined about millennials being lazy or joked about avocado toast. Boomers shouldn’t dish out intergenerational jabs if they’re going to cry foul when the favor is returned.

Of course, Tippett explains that age discrimination laws usually only protect those over 40, hence why she says it’s illegal to say “OK boomer” at work but not unlawful to mock millennials and their avocado toast. This alone shows you how silly our laws are.

Tippett concludes that, “It was just a joke,” is an “awful legal defense.” She might be right. But if so, the problem is the law stifling harmless conversation, not millennials with a sense of humor.