this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Reddit Taken To SF Court for Firing Worker With Anxiety: Lawsuit::A former Reddit staffer was fired for "poor performance" after taking three months of sick leave, a lawsuit filed in San Francisco alleges.

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[–] foggy 132 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Lol that's like the only time you can't fire someone in the US, is after unpaid FMLA sick leave.

[–] fubo 65 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Or in retaliation for reporting sexual harassment, or for whistleblowing to OSHA¹, or for getting pregnant, ...


¹ Or to the SEC, IRS, EPA, NRC, etc.; but not "whistleblowing" on your blog.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Don't forget for trying to form a union too!

[–] peopleproblems 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yep.

FMLA doesn't just protect the time off, but the arrival back to work. You do need the physician to document that there will be restrictions on job functions. This can be done retroactively as I learned.

Reddit fucked that up badly

[–] Zeshade 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would they have been better off firing the employee (on their return to work) without providing any reason?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Would they be able to convince a jury that the firing had nothing to do with the medical leave? I doubt it. The lawsuit still would have happened.

[–] peopleproblems 3 points 1 year ago

No. While at will employment protects an employer against most forms of wrongful termination, FMLA, from my understanding, superscedes it.

I am not a lawyer so I'm not certain.

However, after your work restriction period ends, then your employer can fire you.

[–] LaunchesKayaks 2 points 1 year ago

My work has a client who has an employee that can't be fired because he is disabled and on permanent intermittent FMLA. Dude has so much porn on his work computer and nobody can do anything about it.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Damn more echoes of Xitter, this is almost exactly what they did as well lmao

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suppose spez did say he looked up to Elon. I wonder when he'll install an illegal "Reddit" sign on the roof of his HQ?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] 3laws 9 points 1 year ago

On the same level of shitty SEO of "X".

[–] ofk12 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Are we pronouncing Xitter like 'shitter'?

Makes sense to.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Well I am now

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I have been.

[–] SinningStromgald 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At this point working for any form of corporate social media seems like a bad idea.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I disagree, I think this kind of firing is very common and most workers don't have enough power to fight back, unlike tech workers. Can you imagine how much this court case is going to cost them if they don't win?

[–] SinningStromgald 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

True, but I thought most employment lawyers worked on contingency when it comes to employees.

[–] ohlaph 2 points 1 year ago

That's generally the case.

[–] eek2121 1 points 1 year ago

They do, and the government has lawyers that review your case for free as well. The very first step in the complaint process is to file with the EEOC or a state agency. If they decide not to sue, you hire a lawyer on contingency and go to court.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

The fact that it took public outcry for them to begrudgingly fire an admin who was using reddit as their own personal pedophilic hunting ground is a coincidence, I'm sure.

[–] assassin_aragorn 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've been in a situation similar to this but it wasn't clearly illegal of my employer. The pandemic exacerbated my depression and anxiety significantly (and unmasked ADHD), so my performance fell considerably. They didn't take any of that into consideration however.

Lesson learned -- self identify as having a disability. Employers are required by law to ask that, and depression and anxiety are considered disabilities for it. Get it on record so you have a stronger legal case if they do fuck you over.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

Oh hey, I was also fired because of my anxiety. Fun stuff. And by that I mean fuck them.

[–] Tolstoshev 15 points 1 year ago

We can’t treat people like human beings, we have to make money!

So glad I didn’t get hired there.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

It's not that easy to "ban" people in the real world, bitch.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

And that's my friends, an employee burndown.