You Were Rejected by a Robot: The Quiet War on Job Seekers Over 40

“Thank you for your application… we regret to inform you…”

The Résumé Filter That Might Be Breaking the Law

Right now, a federal class-action lawsuit is blowing the lid off the secret hiring system that tens of thousands of job seekers never knew existed—and may have quietly kept them out of work.

The target? Workday , a human capital management software company used by more than 11,000 employers, including some of the biggest names in retail, tech, healthcare, finance, and more. Their software doesn’t just help HR departments manage employee benefits or payroll. It’s also the first line of defense between a job seeker and an actual recruiter. In some cases, it may be the only line.

And according to the lawsuit Mobley v. Workday, filed by five job seekers in federal court in San Francisco, that filter is not neutral. It’s allegedly discriminatory—and illegally so.

These plaintiffs claim that Workday’s AI-driven recruiting tools disproportionately reject candidates based on age, race, and disability status before a hiring manager ever sees their name. Sound extreme? A federal judge didn’t think so. In May 2025, she allowed the case to proceed under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and other federal laws. The court found there was enough evidence that Workday might be participating in a system of algorithmic discrimination—a system used to silently screen out millions of applicants.

That means this case could affect millions of people, including you.

The Man Who Got the Algorithm’s Cold Shoulder

Derek Mobley is a qualified professional. He's Black, over 40, and manages mental health challenges—anxiety and depression—that millions of Americans live with and work through every day. Between 2018 and 2023, he applied to more than 100 jobs at major Workday-using corporations like Comcast , Oracle , and Accenture.

He never got interviews. In some cases, rejection emails arrived within minutes, in the middle of the night, when no recruiter could’ve possibly reviewed his application. That’s because it wasn’t a recruiter. It was a robot. A machine-learning model that, according to the lawsuit, was trained on historical hiring data—data that may have reflected, and then replicated, deep systemic biases.

Workday’s defense? They claim they’re just a platform. That the companies using their software create their own filters. That the discrimination, if it exists, isn’t theirs.

But the judge wasn’t buying it—at least not yet. She ruled that Workday acts as an agent of its client companies, and that its software might indeed be participating in unlawful discrimination under federal employment law.

This isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s going to trial.

The Legal Bombshell at the Heart of the Case

Here's why this lawsuit should make every job seeker—and every employer—nervous:

1. Disparate Impact Matters.

Under federal law, intent doesn’t matter. If a hiring process results in a disproportionate exclusion of protected groups, it can be illegal even if no one meant to discriminate. That’s called disparate impact.

And when your gatekeeper is an algorithm trained on biased data, disparate impact is practically guaranteed.

2. Protected Classes Are More Than Race or Gender.

This case focuses on three protected classes:

• Age (40 and over) – covered under ADEA. If you are over 40, you're not an "at-will" employee in certain circumstances.
• Race – covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
• Disability – covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

You can’t legally be rejected for a job because you’re 50. Or because you’re Black. Or because you have anxiety.

But if AI is trained on past hiring data that undervalued those groups, it can—and allegedly did—continue the bias invisibly. That’s the entire premise of the lawsuit.

3. At-Will Employment Doesn’t Nullify Your Rights.

Let’s set the record straight: Yes, Florida (and most states) are at-will employment states. But “at-will” doesn’t mean “anything goes.”

Once you are over 40, you gain significant protections under federal law. Employers can still fire you, sure—but not for age, not for disability, not for race. The same goes for hiring.

The idea that “you’re over 40 and therefore replaceable” is not just outdated—it’s illegal when it’s used as a hiring or firing filter. But that’s exactly what this lawsuit suggests is happening on a national scale.

The Corporate Machine Behind the Filter

Let’s be very clear about what Workday is. It’s not just a software provider. It’s the core HR system used by thousands of companies, including some of the largest companies in the United States.

When these companies post job listings, Workday is the backend screening engine. Your résumé is parsed, scored, and—depending on your age, name, personality traits, or even email structure—potentially discarded before anyone human even knows you applied.

This isn’t speculative. It’s procedural. And it’s happening every day.

What Can Job Seekers Do About It?

If you're over 40, Black, disabled, or otherwise in a protected class, here's how to protect yourself:

✅ Track your applications. Log when you applied, what the posting said, and how quickly you were rejected. Suspiciously fast rejections can be a red flag.

✅ Ask for a human review. Don’t be afraid to email the hiring manager or recruiter directly. Just one human eye can make all the difference. If you think you got filtered by AI, ask the job poster or hiring manager to review your credentials.

✅ Use neutral formatting. Avoid triggering filters. Skip photos, avoid nonstandard résumé fonts, and don't include personal info like birthdates or graduation years. You don't need your full work history on LinkedIn, just use the past 10-15 years. Also, you can post the University you graduated from, just skip the year on your profile and your resume.

✅ Be careful with personality assessments. If you’re neurodivergent or have a disability, these tools can unfairly penalize you. You may have legal grounds to request accommodation.

✅ File an EEOC complaint. If you suspect discrimination, don’t just walk away. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission exists to help—and they’ve already filed a supportive brief in this case. As you can hear on the upcoming podcast, the EEOC has been at the heart of a lot of age discrimination cases in the United States over the last few years.

✅ Know your rights. Age, race, disability, religion, gender, and more are legally protected in the hiring process. That doesn’t disappear just because the rejection came from a bot.

Coming Up: The Happe Hour Podcast—This Saturday

On this weekend’s episode of The Happe Hour, we’re digging deep into employment discrimination in the age of AI:

• Are job filters legal?
• What’s “disparate impact” and how does it apply to you?
• Can you sue if AI rejected your résumé?
• Are workers over 40 still considered at-will?
• How do you protect yourself—and fight back?
• What to look for in a severance agreement.

You’ll hear what the law says, what your options are, and what nobody else is telling job seekers right now. If you've ever applied for a job online and felt like your résumé vanished into a black hole—this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen this Saturday and every Saturday to the Happe Hour podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/the-myth-of-at-will-employment-over-40…

🚨 Legal & Editorial Disclaimer

This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this article or listening to The Happe Hour podcast. If you believe you’ve been discriminated against, you should consult a licensed employment attorney in your state.

The views expressed in this article and the Happe Hour podcast are solely those of the author, David Happe, and do not reflect the views of any company, employer, brand, or organization mentioned. This includes, but is not limited to, Workday, any employers using Workday’s software, or any podcast platforms where The Happe Hour is available.

🚨 If you’ve ever been filtered out before a fair shot, you’re not crazy. You might just be a victim of AI-driven discrimination.

The war on workers over 40 isn’t loud—it’s quiet. And it’s already here.