The following is an open discussion and recreational reading. You’re welcome to share this content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

• Are you surprised by the outcome of this case? Why or why not?

It doesn’t surprise me one bit concerning the outcome of the Verizon case and here’s why. She’s 56 years old taking an FMLA leave of almost 3 months. She’s been with Verizon for 36 years “which Joe Biden has been in the government for 36 years before transitioning to vice president of the United States and took Amtrak from Delaware to Washington.” Upon her return, her supervisor gave her a less than satisfactory rating. This is highly suspected that the company wanted to get rid of her and use the excuse of her taking an FMLA leave as a precursor to open-door wrongful termination. This is also the grand opportunity on Verizon’s behalf to rid themselves of her and alleviate the company of paying her pension, saving Verizon thousands of dollars in retirement costs. It wasn’t a surprise that in 2015, Verizon asked the supervisors to “select someone to terminate,” as part of a secret plan to save the company money.

A person would think that Verizon wouldn’t do something like this because there’s such a huge company and well-known. It doesn’t matter in today’s era how big or well known company is. They’ll do shady things on the table to employees and do everything they can to sweep it under the rug, even if it means wrongfully terminating someone and paying someone allegedly inside the Department of Labor to suppress an EEOC investigation.

I’m also not surprised by the outcome because the plaintiff did lose on the retaliation part. My guess is that Verizon needed to feel some sort of satisfaction knowing the plaintiff didn’t win on every claim made against them. An article from Forbes Magazine online makes an interesting mention saying “Although companies can fire any employee at will, it used to be that if you were terminated to save the firm money and were also older, there was an inference of age discrimination since senior staffers tend to be paid higher wages. As a result, courts might have ruled in your favor. Now, Zuchlewski says, the courts consider that when a company is doing a reduction in force it wants to eliminate higher-paid people.” (Next Avenue, 2013).

Things such as wrongful termination of an employee at will leaves many day jobbers to wonder about their future financial security and considering taking up a side hustle as a means of supplementing their existing income, or creating a diverse secondary source of passive stable income. The side hustle today is proving itself to be more stable than traditional employment and is making some people quiet millionaires in the making, some of which you possibly know.

• How could Verizon have prevented violating the law and subsequent lawsuit and penalty?

Simply allow the woman to finish out her employment and retire. They did not have to set her up for wrongful termination knowing she had 36 years in with the company. From Lake court judges and EEOC investigators’ point of view, it would definitely be seen as Verizon setting her up for termination due to the fact that she has a 36 year tenure with them. Common sense should of told Verizon to let her finish her career. This way, she would have been smoothly transitioning “out of the way,” though they probably would’ve had to pay her a happy healthy pension because she was an engineer.

Verizon could’ve prevented breaking the law by not immediately pursuing her after returning to work from an FMLA leave by giving her a less than satisfying review. That alone raises the eyebrow and suspicion of investigators and other legal professionals that leaves a virtual trail of wrongdoing and suspected age discrimination. Common sense should of told Verizon that if they would’ve stretched it out for at least six months to a year, then pursue the bad review and other disciplinary actions against the aging employee, they could’ve at least sugar-coated the age discrimination paying a little bit more before investigators and lawyers that they weren’t terminating the employee and age and insufficient job performance. But they were so quick to satisfy their instant gratification, by speeding up the process in getting rid of her with no virtual delay. That’s where, in my personal opinion, Verizon messed up big time and cost them not just money, but another mark on their record in deepening their tarnished reputation.

Reference

Avenue, N. (2013, April 30). What It Takes To Win An Age Discrimination Suit. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2013/04/30/what-it-takes-to-win-an-age-discrimination-suit