US man wins $450k lawsuit after unwanted office birthday party | Hacker News Reader

US man wins $450k lawsuit after unwanted office birthday party

bbc.com

24 pointsamrrs9 comments

> The company's chief operating office, Julie Brazil, told local news outlet Link NKY that Gravity Diagnostics stands by its decision to terminate Mr Berling, whom she said violated a "workplace violence policy". "My employees were the victims in this case, not the plaintiff," she said, adding that the company is challenging the verdict and is mulling an appeal.

Seems like the company is doubling down on their defense and now saying the plaintiff was a violence threat could make it worse for them as defamation.

HR fascinates me sometime and this might be a good case study in workplace madness.

Company throws birthday parties so employee asks them not to throw one for him.

They throw anyway, he has a panic attack and leave.

In a group setting they say he was acting like a girl.

He has another panic attack.

They fire him.

They lose the case and say he’s a threat of violence.

It seems like they just keep doing weird things for no benefit to them unless they just really like birthday parties. Should have been the simplest thing ever to avoid all this.

> Mr Berling - who suffers from anxiety disorders - had asked his manager to not celebrate his birthday at work... Despite Mr Berling's request, the company, which conducts Covid-19 tests, threw him a surprise party in August 2019, triggering a panic attack. He quickly left the party and finished his lunch in his car.... Mr Berling was "confronted and criticised" at a meeting the following day, where he was accused of "stealing his co-workers joy" and "being a little girl". The tense meeting prompted a second panic attack, after which the company sent him home for the remainder of 8 August and 9 August. On 11 August, Gravity Diagnostics fired him, citing concerns about workplace safety. His lawsuit alleged that the company discriminated against him because of a disability and unfairly retaliated against him for asking that his request be accommodated.

What a profoundly strange way to handle a totally reasonable accommodation request. The company was clearly guilty of unfair retaliation against an accommodation request, and I don't blame the judge/jury for awarding harsh damages given that this manager's behavior was so egregious.

Big discussion last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31042383

He won $450k after being fired by his employer... because of an anxiety attack from an unwanted office birthday party

2 anxiety attacks and they fired him in retaliation for not appreciating their efforts.

I think the judgement was because of the firing. If he hadn’t been fired, it seems unlikely for any lawsuit.

Why did they double down on hi,? The first time he went into the car, but is the following meeting was unneeded.

It should have stopped earlier when he asked them not to celebrate his birthday. It's important to really listen to your employees, and it's pretty obvious in this case that he was not being listened to. It's something we probably all need to be better at--when someone is saying "No" to you, pay attention. If you don't, your relationship with that person is becoming unhealthy and they will eventually rebel.

This appears to be the company: https://gravitydiagnostics.com/contact-us/

They even have a Twitter: https://twitter.com/GravityCLIALab

Reply on news.ycombinator.com