Remember that AT&T ad campaign a few years ago where the mobile network provider touted how cell phone users should not have to settle for mediocre phone service? “Just ok is not ok.” In the workplace, however, “just ok” may be good enough when responding to employee complaints of harassment.…
“Uh, Eric, don’t you mean the superior candidate?” You’d think I would, but I’m reading what the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in this recent opinion. The plaintiff, a black woman, applied for a job. The company conducted two rounds of interviews, with separate panels in each round, to…
Some people in Dallas do some dumb stuff. For example, every year, many locals hold out hope into late December or early January that the Cowboys will win the Super Bowl. After their hopes get dashed when the team inevitably chokes, the fans irrationally board the bandwagon the following Summer.…
I’m not the biggest fan of progressive discipline policies, which can often be too restrictive. Plus, deviations and inconsistencies in their application are ammunition for a plaintiff claiming discrimination to get to trial. But, when companies apply these policies to the letter, they create a formidable defense to these claims.…
Some jobs stink. But that doesn’t make the office a “hostile work environment.” For example, last night, I read about a manager whose employer transferred her to a unit facing a backlog of 12,000 cases. Following the transfer, the manager claimed she endured “constant negative treatment,” was the only one…
Discrimination claims are not easy to prove. But, it doesn’t take much for a plaintiff to at least allege in her complaint that her former employer discriminated against her. Except when all you plead are “vague and conclusory” allegations. For example, in a Fifth Circuit decision I read last night,…
I’ve been practicing law for over 20 years, and I must concede that I did not know this. Here’s how it works. Let’s say two companies bid for a public contract. One is minority-owned; the other is not. The minority-owned company submits the lowest bid by a million dollars. However,…
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Hold that thought while I tell you about someone who probably wouldn’t believe me. The plaintiff in the federal court decision I read last night had worked for the same employer…
How some of her coworkers spoke at work deeply offended a hospital nurse. One of them said that “Michelle Obama looks like a monkey” and the “President is a piece of s**t.” Another said President Obama was “stupid,” was the “worst president ever,” and “needs to go back to Africa.”…
Last night, I read about a black female educator and school administrator who claimed that her employer agreed to pay for her to attend a training session but later reneged, instead offering to pay for her to attend in two years. So, she paid for it herself. And then she…