Can HR rescind your ADA accommodations that your supervisor okayed because he didn’t get the approval from HR? I have been working under these accommodations for 6 months and was to go back to in office work in Sept . They reached out today for me to return to work tomorrow. I was told this was not approved by HR. The supervisor that okayed this was fired last month.
Chairman Comer sent a letter to OPM Director Kupor yesterday requesting documents covering January 1, 2020 to present, due May 25. Addressed to OPM but the document scope reaches OPM, MSPB, EEOC, FLRA, and OSC.
A few items that stand out on the federal EEOC side:
Given the recent NYT coverage and pending litigation, I’m curious how others are reading this — and what you see as the operational impact.
This is going to be a short post because IMO it’s an easy yes or no answer. I live in an at-will state.
I have epilepsy or another seizure disorder (still undergoing testing, no official diagnosis. I am medicated for my seizures. I will use “epilepsy/epileptic” just for convenience here)
I was given a job offer, and an orientation date. I woke up 70 minutes before I was supposed to be at the restaurant. I ended up having a focal seizure, so I decided it was not safe to drive until I felt normal again (which is what any epileptic should do)
Welp, what would have been right on time, I’m able to get up and get moving but instead of 25 minutes, it’s a 40 minute drive. I ended up being 11 minutes late (seizure + 40 min drive + no onsite parking + no working crosswalk signals)
Manager came out and told me to go home, and that he’d invite me to the next orientation. His attitude seemed off so I went back to my car and immediately contacted their disability department, aiming for reassurance of my next orientation date. That was the last I heard from anybody. It’s been 13 days and not even the disability team has contacted me. The law states you do not have to give out personal medical information beforehand, so obviously until I emailed the DAD they did not know I was epileptic. However they had more than ample time and ample opportunity to create an accommodation for me after being notified.
I won’t go into toooooo much detail for privacy so long story short I work for a large retail company, almost 2 years in. Since the very beginning I’ve been dealing with harassment from a supervisor I’ve reported many times and nothing has gotten done. It’s even went as far as her putting things on social media, bringing her family in to intimidate and HR still dismissed it. Anyways, I’m currently pregnant now 3rd trimester and they’ve ignored all of my doctors notes asking for accommodations since the beginning of pregnancy and instead have severely cut my hours by more than half. The excuse was “it’s better than just sending you on an unpaid medical leave”.
I have documentation for everything and put together a timeline. Also, my EEOC intake officer I think? Said it would be “prioritized” since I’m still pregnant. I got the right to sue letter already but I’m wondering what would be a good range to settle for more or less? I’ve never done this before and don’t want to settle for just anything because I don’t have knowledge or will that be something the mediator gives an estimate on based on findings? Sorry I don’t mean to sound dumb but this is literally my first time.
I was terminated from my five-year role with a major pharmaceutical company two weeks ago unexpected but they were decreasing my workload significantly and hiring new people in my group. They gave me a poor yearly review with a lot of reaching points that really didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but they stuck to their point and lower view so they based my termination on that. But I have a history of making a complaint on my former coworker and former boss at that time for bullying/not allow allowing me to take FMLA. And I was put on a pip immediately after my complaints were made. I reached out to a employment lawyer last week and they said that I have a solid case and to move forward with it, but my sister who works in HR for a major company said to go through the EEOC.
I told her I’m not sure I’m reading that it could take a while through them and like a lot of people don’t have success with going through the EEOC.
Thoughts?
I posted on EmployerLaw too
I honestly never thought I’d be making a post like this, but I could really use some advice.
I’ve been with my company for over 10 years. Never had disciplinary action, never been on a PIP, and never even took a leave before this. Last year I was the top performer on my team and got the highest merit raise. I genuinely loved working there and even referred people to work for the company.
Last year my mom was told she had less than 2 years to live without a kidney transplant. I started the donor screening process immediately. I wasn’t a direct match for her, but they gave me the option to donate to someone else on the transplant list so my mom could move to the top of the list faster. I agreed.
My kidney ended up going to a Navy veteran and literally saved their life. My mom then got her transplant a few weeks later and thankfully both are doing really well now.
My leadership knew about this entire process far in advance and at first were extremely supportive. Surgery was supposed to happen in January, so I went on FMLA. Everything was approved with proper medical documentation. The surgery got delayed twice because of ice storms since they had to transport the kidney by plane. During that delay, I actually came back and worked for 2 weeks because I didn’t want to leave my team hanging.
After surgery, I had some pretty normal recovery issues like extreme fatigue and lifting restrictions. Because of that, my leave got extended through early June under short term disability. My FMLA protections ended in April.
Around that same time, my old boss left the role and a new manager was basically lined up to take over. I emailed both the temporary contact and the incoming manager letting them know I’d be back in early June. They hired the new manager in April.
Here’s where things started feeling weird.
The incoming manager already had issues with me from past situations, and his boss had previously made comments about wanting to replace me. There’s even a witness to those comments.
Then in early May, I got an email saying my position was being backfilled and that when I return they’d either find me something similar or possibly demote me if nothing was available. I understand businesses have needs and FMLA protections end, but the timing feels crazy considering I’m literally coming back in June.
What really bothered me is this process isn’t automatic. Someone specifically has to request the backfill. I emailed leadership asking why they’d do this when I’m only weeks away from returning, especially since training someone for my role usually takes months.
The response I got was basically that even if my current role opened back up, I wouldn’t be guaranteed it. That part is in writing.
At this point it honestly feels like they’re using my medical leave as an opportunity to push me out. I know the personal issues with management are a separate HR issue, but from a legal standpoint this feels really questionable considering I’m on approved short term disability and dealing with an ADA covered medical situation.
A friend recommended I talk to an attorney and possibly someone with media connections because they think this could turn into a really bad headline for the company. This is a top 50 company with a stock price over $200, so you’d think they’d handle situations like this with a little more empathy and common sense.
I’m honestly heartbroken more than anything. I gave this company 10 years of my life, sacrificed my health to save two lives, came back to work during delays because I cared about my team, and now I feel like I’m being treated as disposable the second my protections ended.
I really don’t know what my next move is supposed to be. Has anyone dealt with something like this before or have any advice on what I should do?
I work in customer service, inbound/outbound calls, emails, chats and text, for a very large well known company. Our team had lost 2 team members to different departments, and 1 that went on maternity leave. This left 3 lower level employees and 2 upper levels. The 2 upper level employees had low priority in getting calls, which resulted in the 3 remaining team members getting back to back calls for months.
This became very stressful on our mental health, and during a team meeting, I cited our lower service level over a period of time and the support needed for the upper level employees, asking for relief. I was brushed off saying the service level averaged out YTD and the manager refused to provide the actual YTD score. I admittedly became a little teary eyed, and thd meeting was cut shortly after.
Another day, the manager said that all employees were to be on phones in the group chat. One upper level employees was doing something else, I stated in chat saying we were all supposed to be on phones. The manager jumped in saying that he told them to do something else not even minutes saying everyone was supposed to be on phones. I said something along the lines saying no worries, just wanted to make sure we were communicating things.
Less that an hour later, I was approached by the manager asking if I was interested in going on a last minute project for a different department. Other leadership stated it's where ghe company needed me. I do want to note, that I had expressed interest in this department in the past. I asked them for more details and said that I would let them know by end of day. I was never given any details on the project and within 10 minutes or so of being asked, the manager for the project reached out, saying that they were giving me access to their systems. So they were basically telling me, this is what I'm doing, not asking.
Later the manager met with me to take me to where I would be working on the project. I started the next day. I was given very minimal guidance reaching out to partners daily to ensure smooth operations and insight for that department. At the time. I felt like I was being set up for failure, and felt lkke this was a test to see if the team i was leaving could run even leaner. I was told this would last for 1 month before returning to my original team. In that last week, I had been told by the head of that department that the project would be extending another month. After another month, I still wasn't being told when it would end. A couple of weeks later I was told by leadership that my manager had been terminated.
10 days after finding out that, I received my worst performance review in the 5+ years working for the company. This seemed retaliatory to asking for support in the team meeting and my comment in chat about communicating properly prior to going on project, and damaged any career progression within the company. It attacked more so my personality vs any real metrics. The manager had only been over me 2 months for the year I was being reviewed for and canceled our professional 1:1 meetings both times. Also, our Jan - March meetings were canceled due to being backlogged and understaffed. I do not believe the manager was qualified to review me, as my prior manager to them was still on the team. I did have a 1:1 meeting with my manager before they were terminated. They asked where I saw myself going within the company and if my project team was as "fun" as them. I told them I would like to grow within the team I had been on project with. I felt the "fun" question was to discouage me from leaving.
Also noting another team member also received their lowest score with the company after advocating for team improvements.
As far as my performance review, I had messaged the director, who became my inherited manager, saying I was disappointed in my score. They set a date to go over the review, which would eventually become the date of my set return to my team. The week before my return, I asked the director, along with other managers on the team to confirm changes in processes on the team to confirm I was up to date. The chat was friendly, but short. I do need to mention that the team would be implementing automated AI assistance to help with the high workload. This was not to begin until another month.
I had planned on bringing up this retaliation claim to HR, but before I could, the day before my return to my team, I was invited to a "touch point" meeting by senior leadership where I was met by HR, where I was told my position was being eliminated due to "organizational changes." They claimed it had nothing to do with my performance and was strictly business restructure. I was told, I was eligible for rehire within the company, but that was damaged with the review. My termination came 10 days after letting the director know I was disappointed in my score. I think my performance meeting was moved out, knowing I would be terminated before it could happen or the HR claim could be submitted. My fellow team mate who had also been given a loww performance score was also terminated that day.
I feel targeted. So my question, is this personal, legal or shady business practices?
Hi all, I had mediation over a week ago. We did agree to settle. I am just curious how long it takes to receive the agreement to sign? I haven't heard a peep from my lawyer since. Does it normally take a while for them to get something together?
I'm so nervous, I could puke!😭😭😭 Send me good vibes please🙏🥹
Update: It went awful! They said they won't even give me $1 lmaoo. That they can rehire me though because they liked my work ethic... tf?!
When my employment ended I wasn’t worried at all about getting an attorney because I’d saved everything over 2 years. I wanted it all perfectly organized (chef mentality) with every single thing (I thought) an attorney would obviously need before I started reaching out to them.
After countless hours a day over approximately 3 weeks, I’d obsessively organized over 4500 “items.”
Folders, subfolders, with subfolders.
Gut-punch reality:
• I reached out to over 40 attorneys.
• Less than 10 asked for evidence/attachments before consultation.
• I got 5 offers. Only 1 asked for attachments.
• The attorney I originally chose only asked for a paystub.
• The attorney I hired 2 months later didn’t ask for anything, was incredible, and got it resolved successfully in only a few months.
I want to mention that putting everything together was a wildly painful task I don’t think enough people talk about. I had to relive it all, including the things I’d forgotten. All of it unnecessary at that stage.
The message here is NOT to stop documenting, but be organized from the start.
It’s also not, ‘attorneys that don’t want to review anything up front are bad.’ It could simply be because it isn’t necessary yet.
Live & learn!
I filed an EEOC charge a few weeks ago against my employer. The charge is now in the Investigation phase after the company declined/ignored early mediation (I signed the mediation agreement the same day it was offered).
-Discriminated of protected status
Quick Background / Timeline (6+ months of issues):
• Hired for a consistent Monday-Friday 40-hour schedule.
• Scheduling quickly became unstable. I was the only one repeatedly forced onto weekend shifts (often working 6-8 consecutive days) while junior employees and others with less seniority had their requested days and preferences honored.
• I raised concerns multiple times with my branch manager about fair rotation, transportation limitations (protected medical-related issue), and exhaustion from overwork. He initially acknowledged my situation and promised a more stable weekday schedule, but it never materialized.
• On weekends I am required to perform higher-paid duties while being coded and paid at the regular/lower rate. I have written admission from management that this work is paid at the higher rate on weekdays, but they refuse to apply it on weekends. I was told to stop asking about the higher pay yet still required to perform the duties. They pay others the correct pay when doing it- just not on weekends.
When I escalated these issues internally, things got worse:
• I received a Final Written Warning shortly after going above my manager to report that I felt targeted due to my gender for something many employees do without issue. (Which I did repeatedly over the 6 months she ignored)
• Regional HR provided false information during the internal investigation, co-signed and allowed a write-up that misgendered me (which they refused to fix).
• There appears to have been a confidentiality breach when my protected concerns were discussed with others.
• They claimed certain conversations never happened, even though I have them in writing via text. I also have audio recordings (legal in my state as one-party consent).
+ MORE it’s so detailed out that I don’t want to list everything I have.
I prepared heavily before filing so I could rebut their expected defenses by first seeking internal resolution. Now we’re in the investigation phase awaiting their Position Statement.
I have strong documentation: full text message threads, comparator schedules, paystubs, handbook excerpts, post orders, emails, and audio recordings.
PSA: I am already aware of their defense due to seeking internal resolve and not saying I’ll win-but it’s not looking good for them.
I’m nervous because this is my first EEOC case and I know it can be a long process. What should I expect ? Will cause be found ?
I have a documented disability and submitted a formal accommodation request supported by multiple treating providers. My employer took over two months to respond, partially denied the request, and has since engaged in what I believe is a retaliatory pattern. I have filed a federal complaint and an internal complaint. My charge has been identified as eligible for mediation. My employer has not responded to that.
I am still employed. I am in Illinois.
Every attorney I have contacted locally either does not handle this type of case or has told me they do not take cases until a termination occurs or a right to sue letter is issued. I understand the contingency math. The statewide disability rights organization is not an option due to a conflict of interest.
I am asking whether there are attorneys or firms that take ADA cases pre-termination, or whether anyone has resources for navigating this without representation in the meantime. I need to retain my health insurance and income to keep seeking medical care for the condition I asked for accommodations for.
If you have referrals or have been in a similar situation, I would appreciate hearing from you in any capacity.
For anybody who sent a demand letter after receiving right to sue, how long did it take employer to respond? I filed with an attorney and wondering if I need to reach out for status updates as it’s almost been a month but also unsure how this process works.
So let's starts off my me saying I didn't sign no NDA. i think it time for me to tell my truth about my previous employer. And its so much tea. Im not using no fake either. Yall better get together enjoy this time y'all have together because y'all will soon be enemies.
I just went through 4 and a half hours of mediation today with my current (soon to be ex-employer).
Long story short:
I worked for company for almsot 2 years. It's a kitchen job. I work in prep. I have had some "minor hiccups" or "corrections" just as most people do in kitchens. But nothing extreme. Simple stuff.
Jan 8th, announced pregnancy
Jan 15th, was suddenly demoted to one day a week (was 5 days/40hrs) due to "poor work performance"
Asked for proof of said performance issues. Recieved employee records, nothing showed documented issues. Nothing else was provided to prove it.
Was told other people on the prep team were also performing bad but their hours remained full time.
Reached out to HR. Took about 2 weeks for them to put me on the schedule for only 17hrs a week. Claimed they couldn't do more due to high labor and slow season. A week later, they hired a new employee in my role who they have had me training for the past 3 months. Gave him more hours than me even though its "slow season" and other team members remained full time.
I have some documents only stating there is no real performance issues documented. I never had employee reviews and signed nothing.
Mediation occured today. I wanted $30k. Do not have a lawyer. We were in separate rooms. Mediator said my number is high but will work from there. They wanted to do $1,000 cause I am still employed and they dont believe my losses were that severe.
End result is $12k. I know I shouldn't post anything about this but I did not sign the agreement yet and will delete this post once I do. But I feel I was coerced into this settlement and don't know if I should sign or let the investigation continue. I have 3 1/2 months left of pregnancy.
$12k, agree to quit job, they give a neutral reference so I can find employment elsewhere. And thats it. Any advice? anyone else have similar experience?
This number feels wayyy too low and I feel I could've gotten more. But I felt even the mediator was trying to low ball me. Idk what to do right now and need advice before signing. Thank you everyone.
They said there are work from home options, but there werent.
Saying that they will send a message to employees notifying shadowing training for me, but the message was not sent. However, I then asked myself, and the employee asked the supervisor, so I ended up being able to shadow
Say they will get me some patients, but they kept trying to delay and did not do it
Contract states that either party can terminate in 5 days. They terminated me within a day.
They did not pay me, although the position is supposed to be paid
I just do not know how to present this to lawyers or EEOC
Page 54 from https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2026-04/EEOC_APR_FY2025_APP_FY2027_508.pdf :
"The agency has experienced a reduction in the human resources available to meet operational requirements. The EEOC began Fiscal Year 2026 with a total of 1,809 (1,801 full-time and 8 part-time) employees, a decrease from 2,170 employees onboard at the beginning of Fiscal Year 2025. While staffing reductions affected multiple offices, the largest impacts occurred within the Office of Federal Sector (OFS) and the Office of Field Programs (OFP).
Remember - you cant sue your job without EEOC gatekeepers giving you are "right to sue" letter.
Because I have a meeting that would determine my career or whether I will get suspended from my program or not (students face suspension in my program if they are terminated from their site, no matter what reason), and I need a lawyer to represent me.
I think I may argue aiding and abetting protected class discrimination if they decide to suspend me?