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A lot of strong opinions here based on one vague article. The CEO says the plaintiff was fired for violating a workplace violence policy. Obviously the court di

A lot of strong opinions here based on one vague article. The CEO says the plaintiff was fired for violating a workplace violence policy. Obviously the court disagreed. Why? The lessons for the wider world will be found in the case details themselves, few of which are actually in this article.

js2 4y ago
The original reporting is much clearer: https://linknky.com/news/2022/04/14/man-awarded-450k-after-firing-over-birthday-party-at-gravity-diagnostics/ https://linknky.com/news/2022/04/14/man-awarded-450k-after-f... 1. Kevin Berling didn’t want Gravity Diagnostics, his former employer, to throw him a birthday party. 2. “The person who was responsible for the birthday parties who he talked to flat out forgot about his request. She didn’t do it to be mean. She said she would accommodate it and she just forgot.” 3. The party was thrown anyway, and Berling began to have a panic attack. He went to his car and worked through some breathing techniques. He then went back upstairs and finished his workday. 4. The following day Berling was called into a conference room to have a discussion about the party. According to Berling, she started reading him the riot act and accused him of stealing other coworkers’ joy. 5. He started to have another panic attack. At this point he starts employing other coping techniques that he’s worked on for years with his therapist. “The way he described it is he started hugging himself and asked them to please stop.” 6. The two employees in the conference room asked Berling to stop, and when he didn’t, they walked out. Once the panic attack had subsided, Berling walked out of the conference room and was asked to leave the building. He was let go a couple of days later. On points 5 and 6: Berling's attorney: "They way [the Gravity Diagnostics employees] say it, they believed he was enraged and possibly about to get violent. They made assumptions that he was dangerous based off of his disability and not off of any evidence that he was violent. If he had made violent gestures Gravity Diagnostics would have had grounds to fire him, but he didn’t do anything threatening." Gravity Diagnostics COO: "My employees deescalated the situation to get the plaintiff out of the building as quickly as possible while removing his access to the building, alerting me and sending out security reminders to ensure he could not access the building, which is exactly what they were supposed to do."
- scelerat 4y ago
  thank you
stjohnswarts 4y ago
The actions of the company don't support that statement though. If someone gets violent you aren't ever going to let them come back to the company and would probably have security or cops around for a couple weeks just to make sure they don't come back with a gun and kill a bunch of people.

js2 4y ago

The original reporting is much clearer: https://linknky.com/news/2022/04/14/man-awarded-450k-after-firing-over-birthday-party-at-gravity-diagnostics/ https://linknky.com/news/2022/04/14/man-awarded-450k-after-f... 1. Kevin Berling didn’t want Gravity Diagnostics, his former employer, to throw him a birthday party. 2. “The person who was responsible for the birthday parties who he talked to flat out forgot about his request. She didn’t do it to be mean. She said she would accommodate it and she just forgot.” 3. The party was thrown anyway, and Berling began to have a panic attack. He went to his car and worked through some breathing techniques. He then went back upstairs and finished his workday. 4. The following day Berling was called into a conference room to have a discussion about the party. According to Berling, she started reading him the riot act and accused him of stealing other coworkers’ joy. 5. He started to have another panic attack. At this point he starts employing other coping techniques that he’s worked on for years with his therapist. “The way he described it is he started hugging himself and asked them to please stop.” 6. The two employees in the conference room asked Berling to stop, and when he didn’t, they walked out. Once the panic attack had subsided, Berling walked out of the conference room and was asked to leave the building. He was let go a couple of days later. On points 5 and 6: Berling's attorney: "They way [the Gravity Diagnostics employees] say it, they believed he was enraged and possibly about to get violent. They made assumptions that he was dangerous based off of his disability and not off of any evidence that he was violent. If he had made violent gestures Gravity Diagnostics would have had grounds to fire him, but he didn’t do anything threatening." Gravity Diagnostics COO: "My employees deescalated the situation to get the plaintiff out of the building as quickly as possible while removing his access to the building, alerting me and sending out security reminders to ensure he could not access the building, which is exactly what they were supposed to do."

scelerat 4y ago
thank you

stjohnswarts 4y ago

The actions of the company don't support that statement though. If someone gets violent you aren't ever going to let them come back to the company and would probably have security or cops around for a couple weeks just to make sure they don't come back with a gun and kill a bunch of people.