Not so long ago, the bearer of bad tidings was usually an old pro, or at least someone old enough to know how to cope eith the emotions surrounding it.  Today, increasingly, the dirty work of dismissing employees is done by people a few years out of college for whom  management has mostly meant recruiting employees with stock options and playing the host at happy hours.  And their inexperience can create problems for companies.  For instance, several employment lawyers say they are noticing an increase in age-discrimination suits resulting from the way young managers dismissed older works.  According to Rosemary Alito, at attorney with McCarter & English in Newark, N.J., age discrimination "is becoming more an issue where 

WORKING WORLD

you have younger people in you have younger people in high-level positions."  Moreover, many Internet companies and other start-ups are likely to be targets for suits because they often do not have human-resources departments in place to conduct dismissals properly, she said.  Compounding the problem, many young managers are not practiced in politically correct office speak.  At one firm, a 25-year-old sales manager fired a salesman in his 50s, saying he wanted "a fresh approach" in the office.  That prompted an age-discrimination suite.  Aside from the legal implications, young exectives are often unequipped to handle the