[seesaw]

So, I do have a discrimination lawsuit pending against my former employer, but I have to wait for the EEOC to make its determination on the complaint before we move to a formal court complaint. So it's going to be a few more months before something happens.

In the meantime, I found out that they just lost huge to another discrimination lawsuit, probably in the 6 or 7 figure range. Here's what happened, in vague detail.

Back in May, our CEO decided he wanted to fire a man who had been running a certain education program for 20 years and, in fact, had built the program from the ground up to now work with over 400 children, which is very large for this type of program nationally. They decided they were tired of working with him (he was no angel but he always acquiesced to their demands in the end).

Anyways, the man's contract stated that they had to inform him in writing by a certain date each year to let him know the status of his contract for the next season. So at the very last moment, they sent him a letter and an email saying they weren't renewing his contract. Which is fine, but here's where the problems arose.

The CEO decided to send out a letter to all of the man's students, the parents, staff, and other personnel, that he was "retiring" at the end of this season. The CEO also made the PR department send out a news release that he was retiring. This was a blatant lie. The man had never agreed to retire, and, in fact, the CEO refused to have a conversation with him before announcing all of this so they could at least discuss how to announce it publicly. Myself and other staff members urged the CEO to NOT put out that letter to the students and press release and to "do the right thing" and at least meet with this man and tell him to his face that his contract wouldn't be renewed. But the CEO has no ethical or moral backbone. He will do whatever it takes and whatever underhanded thing he feels like it takes to get what he wants.

So a student contacted the teacher to ask why he was retiring. To which the teacher replied, who said I was retiring? He hadn't even gotten the letter saying his contract wasn't going to be renewed yet. The teacher's students then went to the press about the lie the organization was perpetrating and the mistreatment of their beloved teacher, and the students starts an online petition to beg the organization to bring him back. The organization refused, even after almost every student and parent signed the petition.

This was huge PR mess for the organization, especially since it had just announced that 9 other performers were retiring...and the public began to question, are they really retiring or are they being pushed out. (Well, the truth was those performers were pushed out, many of them sued and settled with the organization -- all age discrimination lawsuits).

The teacher sued the organization, and I found out through the grapevine, from a very reputable source, that he just won a huge settlement from them. After he left the organization, they hired a young woman to replace him, and he could clearly prove the discrimination.

Having been on the inside, I know that they had cause to not renew his contract. He was difficult to work with and refused to cooperate with his supervisor. They were trying to take the program to the next level and he was often standing in the way by not taking direction. But because they lied to the public and handled it the way they did, they lost a big discrimination case.

This makes me hopeful because even though my case is taking longer, I have hard proof of the discrimination, and I know that I can win and make them pay.

My only hope is that the CEO finally gets what he deserves. He such a slimeball. He sleeps with subordinates and uses people in the worst way (I don't mind being used when my supervisor acknowledges and appreciates my talents and mentors me). The thing that pisses me off the most is that he accused me of being unethical, and I have extremely high ethical standards. He accused me of being unethical and having no integrity, with nothing to back it up, no evidence or instances of things I did that show such, when I can point to things he did that he was advised against because they were unethical and he did them anyways.

He will get his eventually. I know the board of directors can't be too happy with him at this moment, considering they just voted to pay this teacher a shitload of money to settle his lawsuit.

Seesaw

[hvert]

Ha ha, what an update! It's nice when a bad company starts to reap what they have sown.

[seesaw]

Originally Posted by hvert

Ha ha, what an update! It's nice when a bad company starts to reap what they have sown.

Yeah, I'm smiling on the outside and inside today, knowing he's getting his just desserts.

I refuse to believe that all executives are like that. I know they aren't. I've worked for plenty of super ambitious men, but none who acted so unethically as him. I mean, he acted illegally, not just unethically. Even when advised against it.

I wonder if he will be able to make his next career move with these settlements on his record? What kind of reference will he be able to get from the board of directors?

Seesaw

[reb569]

Wow. Your former CEO is not a smart man. How did he even get that position? If they end up getting rid of him, which they might now, I hope the board does a better job of vetting candidates to replace him.

But first things first. First the completion of your claim against them!

[seesaw]

Originally Posted by reb569

Wow. Your former CEO is not a smart man. How did he even get that position? If they end up getting rid of him, which they might now, I hope the board does a better job of vetting candidates to replace him.

But first things first. First the completion of your claim against them!

I honestly don't know. Apparently people in our field are very well versed with his 'doings,' but the board is made up of business people in finance and other fields but who aren't necessarily connected in our industry and it's a difficult situation to be put in to figure out how do you inform the board of someone's unethical behavior that will be brought in over you. I just hope that they get tired of paying out settlements for his stupidity. He is too much of a liability.

Seesaw

[reb569]

Originally Posted by seesaw

I honestly don't know. Apparently people in our field are very well versed with his 'doings,' but the board is made up of business people in finance and other fields but who aren't necessarily connected in our industry and it's a difficult situation to be put in to figure out how do you inform the board of someone's unethical behavior that will be brought in over you. I just hope that they get tired of paying out settlements for his stupidity. He is too much of a liability.

Seesaw

The CEO is the Face of a corporation (of course the employees are too, but if a CEO does unethical things it reflects on the entire corporation). Their behavior will either solidify a corporations good standing, or destroy it. The corporation I work for, the CEO is vetted for years before they get the position. The last CEO changeover we had, the person everyone thought was going to get the position, didn't, for one reason or another, and he ended up retiring just after the new CEO was announced. Personally, I think they made the right choice, our newest CEO is a great guy, smart, down to earth, friendly, really talks to you. The one who didn't get the position I always felt was kind of stuck on himself, only friendly to certain people, seemed kind of shady to me in some ways, not professionally, but personally. In the 13 years I've worked for the company, he never greeted me once, the former CEO and the new CEO did all the time.

Anyway -- that's my thought on CEO's. I hope you get the university job!

[seesaw]

I will be totally honest in saying our board DOES NOT vet executives very well. In the 18 months I worked there we had THREE chief financial officers.