Gender Discrimination?

[Mitchell!]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

I have a female friend who quit her job recently. She had been with the company for 6 years, and had been a supervisor for 2 years. It wasn't unusual for her to have disagreements with the immediate manager there, no one really cared for him supposedly. He had been a supervisor but was promoted to manager, and I guess its really gone to his head.

Anyway, my friend ended up getting demoted from her supervisor position by this manager. He replaced her with a male employee who has been with the company 4 months, one who has no previous experience with this particular job. Her request for a meeting with the manager and the GM (his boss) was granted, and they told her that it was a 'business decision', but would not offer any other reason for the demotion. She had 2 written disciplinary warnings in her personnel file over her 6 years of time with the company, and had not been told by any of her superiors (either spoken or written) that there were any issues with respect to her conduct as a supervisor. Would she have a discrimination case here?

This is a very male dominated work environment, only 1 other person in the 'department' is female.

 

[mlane58]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

I have a female friend who quit her job recently. She had been with the company for 6 years, and had been a supervisor for 2 years. It wasn't unusual for her to have disagreements with the immediate manager there, no one really cared for him supposedly. He had been a supervisor but was promoted to manager, and I guess its really gone to his head.

Anyway, my friend ended up getting demoted from her supervisor position by this manager. He replaced her with a male employee who has been with the company 4 months, one who has no previous experience with this particular job. Her request for a meeting with the manager and the GM (his boss) was granted, and they told her that it was a 'business decision', but would not offer any other reason for the demotion. She had 2 written disciplinary warnings in her personnel file over her 6 years of time with the company, and had not been told by any of her superiors (either spoken or written) that there were any issues with respect to her conduct as a supervisor. Would she have a discrimination case here?

This is a very male dominated work environment, only 1 other person in the 'department' is female.

Not based on what you posted here, but feel to contact a local attorney or the EEOC and ask.

 

[Beth3]

Your friend had disagreements with the boss on a regular basis. I get the impression they weren't handled very respectfully either. If they demoted her because of this (which would not be suprising), that's legal.

 

[Mitchell!]

Your friend had disagreements with the boss on a regular basis. I get the impression they weren't handled very respectfully either. If they demoted her because of this (which would not be suprising), that's legal.

So if they demoted her for being "disrespectful", then thats legal. But then why wouldn't they just say so in the first place, I wonder...

And what gave you the impression that the disagreements weren't handled respectfully by her? The 2 write-ups she had (over a 6 year period) were for tardiness. The manager in question was fired last week, not sure why just yet.

 

[Zigner]

So if they demoted her for being "disrespectful", then thats legal. But then why wouldn't they just say so in the first place, I wonder...

Your friend has a history of being argumentative - why would management give her something to "argue"?

 

[Mitchell!]

Your friend has a history of being argumentative - why would management give her something to "argue"?

You are assuming that it was she who was causing problems. An example of one of their 'disagreements' that I witnessed:

The manager held a brief staff meeting, and a memo to be signed by all was passed around afterward. Several workers noticed that a typo could make a sentence read 2 different ways, and mean 2 different things, depending on which spelling the manager had intended to use. When my friend went to his office and asked for clarification, he became angry, and yelled for everyone to come back into the breakroom for another 'meeting' ,in which he saracastically announced "it appears (friend's name) is a spelling expert here, and has decided to correct the memo i just handed out!!!"

A little over the top, wouldn't you say? A simple 'thank you', then a quick fix of the memo would have sufficed, instead he chose to berate her in front of the rest of us.

 

[ecmst12]

At this point, she doesn't have any evidence that her demotion was because of her gender. Moving her out of the position to move in someone the supervisor got along with better is legal. She can of course still file a complaint with the EEOC. It takes a long time (to get an answer anyway), but it's free and anyone can do it.

 

[Mitchell!]

At this point, she doesn't have any evidence that her demotion was because of her gender. Moving her out of the position to move in someone the supervisor got along with better is legal. She can of course still file a complaint with the EEOC. It takes a long time (to get an answer anyway), but it's free and anyone can do it.

Looks like the EEOC is the way to go, even if it won't do much for her in the end. Thanks.