Woman Files Suit Against Employer Who Fired Her Hours After Cancer Diagnosis

[Matt1970]

Do you really want to be so small minded as to say something like that. I don't see anything in your post but cruelty. What a shame.

What he should have done was spend day after day, post after post telling a good portion of the population that they have a brain defect and all sorts of other names.

 

[child of wonder]

Similar thing happened to my father in law. He was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer and his employer of 20 years informed him a month after telling them that his position had been eliminated.

 

[soulcougher73]

Quit thinking employers have an obligation to be your friend.

If you call a plumber that gets paid strictly as an independent contractor for jobs - You want him to come out and fix your toilet piping next week. Next week rolls around, he says he has cancer and can't make it for a few more weeks. You say "Your services are no longer needed, I'll just hire a different plumber".

How is that in A-N-Y fucking way different?

Not sure if serious. That is 100% a different situation lol

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

How many of you actually employee people?

Let me speak from experience as I do employ people. And I have had an employee with health problems.

Initially she needed a little time off. It put us in a bind but we gave it to her. Then she needed more time off, but we didn't want to fill her position so we sucked it up. Then we started shuffling employees around...and she still needed more time off. Days turn into months and we are stuck holding our dicks in our hands while this person is not working. Bottom line - I am not willing to lose my house, investment, business, or do extra work because an employee has a problem. If my business folds they wouldn't have had a job anyway.

Be nice to a certain point... but don't let them take advantage of you. Don't just hold a place because I am sure if an employer offered them a buck and hour more they would jump ship.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Quit thinking employers have an obligation to be your friend.

If you call a plumber that gets paid strictly as an independent contractor for jobs - You want him to come out and fix your toilet piping next week. Next week rolls around, he says he has cancer and can't make it for a few more weeks. You say "Your services are no longer needed, I'll just hire a different plumber".

How is that in A-N-Y fucking way different?

Because one situation is an employer/employee relationship and the other is a client/contractor. Employers are not the same as clients, and they're bound by a different set of laws.

 

[Apple Of Sodom]

Because one situation is an employer/employee relationship and the other is a client/contractor. Employers are not the same as clients, and they're bound by a different set of laws.

While bound by different laws, employer/employee is conceptually no different than client/contractor. I am an employer who is contracting your time to do work. It is in my best interest to ensure you can do that work. If you can't then it affects my business.

I'm not saying to be hearltess, but if I have an employee I cannot simply go without them for 6 months. If I could I wouldn't need them.

 

[Moonbeam]

What he should have done was spend day after day, post after post telling a good portion of the population that they have a brain defect and all sorts of other names.

Your brain defect makes you incapable of understanding my points is a rational manner. I have said that the conservative brain will not see truths it finds offensive, threatening to the ego, so by attacking the conservative brain with words considered to be threatening, and watching the deflection go into overdrive, I simply demonstrate in reality what I claim in theory. You provide the evidence. I saw no such claims as I have made over and over for my use of the term brain defective in anything that Doppel has posted. In short, I saw in his remark only maliciousness. Owing to the gigantic resistance the conservative brain has to its own defensiveness, I use a two by four for effect, not because I'm vicious. I always explain there is nothing wrong with anybody, including Doppel, except for the hidden feeling there is. My aim is to demonstrate that the feeling is there because I upset folk so badly by claiming it's how they really feel. If I called conservatives a near devine form of mucmorgogessians, they wouldn't react so badly. They do react because they feel they are brain defective and don't like it. Facts are facts. If you react to facts with negative emotion, the problem is yours, not mine. It is denial, the refusal to face ones on inner reality that makes people mean. I know I hate myself and don't have to pretend I don't or find somebody else to take out my frustrations on.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

Yet more compulsive obsessive behavior ^ on display

 

[Slew Foot]

While bound by different laws, employer/employee is conceptually no different than client/contractor. I am an employer who is contracting your time to do work. It is in my best interest to ensure you can do that work. If you can't then it affects my business.

I'm not saying to be hearltess, but if I have an employee I cannot simply go without them for 6 months. If I could I wouldn't need them.

I know medical groups that only hire young single men, thinking that they arent going to be asking for sick leave, family leave, pregnant leave, or other random time offs.

If you can work without someone for a few months, you probably didnt need them anyway

 

[Sonikku]

Outrage not found. She was only fired for having Cancer. Now if she was fired for disparaging gays, that would be something different.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Because one situation is an employer/employee relationship and the other is a client/contractor. Employers are not the same as clients, and they're bound by a different set of laws.

It's not as different as you think. Plenty of companies hire by independent contractor based for the sake of things like commission and for whats best for the company. Often times hiring someone as a contractor is cheaper for the employer in the overall situation.

That does not negate the fact that someone that is hiring someone else has absolutely no obligation to continue to work with them. Please cite any laws in which someone is obligated to keep someone? You guys often keep saying differences in law, spill the beans.

Apparently you guys are excellent lawyers.




To sum it up: The company is a complete dick. Did they do anything wrong? Morally? Sure. Rules of the book wise? Nope. Morality comes into play when said company wants to make good profit margins and attract good employee's. They are shooting themselves in the foot overall with media situations such as this.

 

[Oldgamer]

Well I am sure she has filed a complaint with the FMLA and ADA. She was fired within hours of letting her employer know she had cancer, so I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with her performance. The ADA covers cancer as a disability by the way. The employer must make reasonable accommodations for someone who is going through chemo and still choosing to go to work.

 

[Doppel]

Your brain defect makes you incapable of understanding my points is a rational manner. I have said that the conservative brain will not see truths it finds offensive, threatening to the ego, so by attacking the conservative brain with words considered to be threatening, and watching the deflection go into overdrive, I simply demonstrate in reality what I claim in theory. You provide the evidence. I saw no such claims as I have made over and over for my use of the term brain defective in anything that Doppel has posted. In short, I saw in his remark only maliciousness. Owing to the gigantic resistance the conservative brain has to its own defensiveness, I use a two by four for effect, not because I'm vicious. I always explain there is nothing wrong with anybody, including Doppel, except for the hidden feeling there is. My aim is to demonstrate that the feeling is there because I upset folk so badly by claiming it's how they really feel. If I called conservatives a near devine form of mucmorgogessians, they wouldn't react so badly. They do react because they feel they are brain defective and don't like it. Facts are facts. If you react to facts with negative emotion, the problem is yours, not mine. It is denial, the refusal to face ones on inner reality that makes people mean. I know I hate myself and don't have to pretend I don't or find somebody else to take out my frustrations on.

Pretty sure nobody read this.

Whatever you think it is that you are doing on Anandtech with these loquacious diatribes--it isn't working. And as pointed out you are probably the last person who should take issue with nasty posts. In any case, my toxicity is reserved for chronic and highly anti-social offenders, like the OP. The bar of entry to receive your vitriol is substantially lower.

 

[glenn1]

Well I am sure she has filed a complaint with the FMLA and ADA. She was fired within hours of letting her employer know she had cancer, so I am pretty sure it had nothing to do with her performance. The ADA covers cancer as a disability by the way. The employer must make reasonable accommodations for someone who is going through chemo and still choosing to go to work.

Must make accomodations unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense for the employer, and the employee can still perform the core job functions after given the reasonable accomodations. It might even turn out the offer of 6 months COBRA was a pretty generous offer if was obvious she would be medically unable to perform, in which case she could be fired without recourse.

 

[Oldgamer]

Must make accomodations unless doing so would cause significant difficulty or expense for the employer, and the employee can still perform the core job functions after given the reasonable accomodations. It might even turn out the offer of 6 months COBRA was a pretty generous offer if was obvious she would be medically unable to perform, in which case she could be fired without recourse.

This same crap has happened before in the past and the news brought it to light, then the company was investigated by the ADA and in trouble, and a civil suit filed, and almost always they end up having to settle out of court. This lady will win her lawsuit. By the way, the Family and Medical Leave Act, employers are required to return workers to their same or an equivalent position after their medical leave is over.

 

[Thebobo]

Outrage not found. She was only fired for having Cancer. Now if she was fired for disparaging gays, that would be something different.

Lol

 

[simpletron]

This same crap has happened before in the past and the news brought it to light, then the company was investigated by the ADA and in trouble, and a civil suit filed, and almost always they end up having to settle out of court. This lady will win her lawsuit. By the way, the Family and Medical Leave Act, employers are required to return workers to their same or an equivalent position after their medical leave is over.

Both FMLA and ADA have employer minimum size requirements. For FMLA to apply, a private employer must have at least 50 employees in a 75 mile radius. ADA has a lower employee count of 15 or more. Her employer, S37, is property management company and property management company generally don't have a lot of employees at a location and contract out a lot of work. So I doubt FMLA will apply and there is a decent chance that ADA won't apply either.

 

[Oldgamer]

Both FMLA and ADA have employer minimum size requirements. For FMLA to apply, a private employer must have at least 50 employees in a 75 mile radius. ADA has a lower employee count of 15 or more. Her employer, S37, is property management company and property management company generally don't have a lot of employees at a location and contract out a lot of work. So I doubt FMLA will apply and there is a decent chance that ADA won't apply either.

Hmmm.. I don't know, I know that property management companies can be pretty damn big, overseeing huge skyscraper buildings and they can employ a whole lot of folks. Unless you think this is some little bitty management company. I know two very large property management companies, Transwestern and Hines.

I suspect she will win her lawsuit, and the ADA and FMLA have to do an investigation if a complaint is filed.

 

[glenn1]

Hmmm.. I don't know, I know that property management companies can be pretty damn big, overseeing huge skyscraper buildings and they can employ a whole lot of folks. Unless you think this is some little bitty management company. I know two very large property management companies, Transwestern and Hines.

I suspect she will win her lawsuit, and the ADA and FMLA have to do an investigation if a complaint is filed.

A settlement is much more likely. Regardless, the amount of the settlement is probably still less than the value of the paid work they would have gotten out of her while she was getting her "reasonable accomodations." I still think the 6 months COBRA offer might have been the better option for her unless she wins the lawsuit lotto.

 

[Oldgamer]

A settlement is much more likely. Regardless, the amount of the settlement is probably still less than the value of the paid work they would have gotten out of her while she was getting her "reasonable accomodations."

Well since we don't know what property management company she was working for nor their size, we could say that if in fact they were one of the larger firms then she is entitled to 3 months leave for illness, and they would have to ensure she keeps her position, or offer her a different position under the FMLA. If not then there is the ADA to contend with, and honestly I am sure the company isn't going to want to fight over this and just settle. But I agree with you that if they just allowed her to do what she needed to do for chemo and get better, she could have still been a very productive employee, and she would have been far better off with a steady employment check. The reasonable accommodations can be anywhere from reduced hours, to part time work temporarily, and things such as this. They could have assigned her to some other area of work if she was unable to keep up job performance due to being sick in her current position.

Anyway, I hope she gets a good settlement, and I feel sorry for anyone who gets cancer or some really bad illness like this. It is bad enough getting the bad news about your health and then get fired on top of it.

 

[Matt1970]

Your brain defect makes you incapable of understanding my points is a rational manner. I have said that the conservative brain will not see truths it finds offensive, threatening to the ego, so by attacking the conservative brain with words considered to be threatening, and watching the deflection go into overdrive, I simply demonstrate in reality what I claim in theory. You provide the evidence. I saw no such claims as I have made over and over for my use of the term brain defective in anything that Doppel has posted. In short, I saw in his remark only maliciousness. Owing to the gigantic resistance the conservative brain has to its own defensiveness, I use a two by four for effect, not because I'm vicious. I always explain there is nothing wrong with anybody, including Doppel, except for the hidden feeling there is. My aim is to demonstrate that the feeling is there because I upset folk so badly by claiming it's how they really feel. If I called conservatives a near devine form of mucmorgogessians, they wouldn't react so badly. They do react because they feel they are brain defective and don't like it. Facts are facts. If you react to facts with negative emotion, the problem is yours, not mine. It is denial, the refusal to face ones on inner reality that makes people mean. I know I hate myself and don't have to pretend I don't or find somebody else to take out my frustrations on.

I understand you perfectly. Your response to me accusing you of consistently attacking others with made up bullshit is to attack me with even more made up bullshit.

 

[theeedude]

This woman suing because she got canned for having cancer is like Kristallnacht for free markets. We need tort reform.

 

[simpletron]

Hmmm.. I don't know, I know that property management companies can be pretty damn big, overseeing huge skyscraper buildings and they can employ a whole lot of folks. Unless you think this is some little bitty management company. I know two very large property management companies, Transwestern and Hines.

I suspect she will win her lawsuit, and the ADA and FMLA have to do an investigation if a complaint is filed.

If you watched the video in the OP's article, at 25 to 40 seconds they show the exterior of her work place and a picture of her in her office and it looks like the main office for an apartment/condo complex. Through google search and BBB search, It appears the S37 management manages two complexes, The Mansions Apartments and The Mansions of Mountshire, neither are super large and combined around 600 units.

http://shiremanagementgroup.com/Apartment-Properties.aspx

If the management company uses 1099 contractors for cleaning, landscaping, and possibly maintenance, then the employee count for the management company will be very low(possibly under 15 for both complexes) because 1099 contractors don't count as employees.

 

[D1gger]

How many of you actually employee people?

Let me speak from experience as I do employ people. And I have had an employee with health problems.

Initially she needed a little time off. It put us in a bind but we gave it to her. Then she needed more time off, but we didn't want to fill her position so we sucked it up. Then we started shuffling employees around...and she still needed more time off. Days turn into months and we are stuck holding our dicks in our hands while this person is not working. Bottom line - I am not willing to lose my house, investment, business, or do extra work because an employee has a problem. If my business folds they wouldn't have had a job anyway.

Be nice to a certain point... but don't let them take advantage of you. Don't just hold a place because I am sure if an employer offered them a buck and hour more they would jump ship.

I was in the same position. I have short term disability for all of my employees, so when it came to be too much of a burden on my staff to cover for the sick person, we hired a temporary worker from an agency and covered for her. When the sick employee was ready to come back, we sent the temp worker back to the agency.

 

[MagickMan]

Your brain defect makes you incapable of understanding my points is a rational manner. I have said that the conservative brain will not see truths it finds offensive, threatening to the ego, so by attacking the conservative brain with words considered to be threatening, and watching the deflection go into overdrive, I simply demonstrate in reality what I claim in theory. You provide the evidence. I saw no such claims as I have made over and over for my use of the term brain defective in anything that Doppel has posted. In short, I saw in his remark only maliciousness. Owing to the gigantic resistance the conservative brain has to its own defensiveness, I use a two by four for effect, not because I'm vicious. I always explain there is nothing wrong with anybody, including Doppel, except for the hidden feeling there is. My aim is to demonstrate that the feeling is there because I upset folk so badly by claiming it's how they really feel. If I called conservatives a near devine form of mucmorgogessians, they wouldn't react so badly. They do react because they feel they are brain defective and don't like it. Facts are facts. If you react to facts with negative emotion, the problem is yours, not mine. It is denial, the refusal to face ones on inner reality that makes people mean. I know I hate myself and don't have to pretend I don't or find somebody else to take out my frustrations on.

Hypocrite.

"If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless." - James 1:26

I understand you perfectly. Your response to me accusing you of consistently attacking others with made up bullshit is to attack me with even more made up bullshit.

He's an abuser and bullshit artist, that's all.