
Yelp Fired Manager After He Didn't Take Calls, Check Email 24/7, Lawsuit Claims - gnicholas
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/02/20/yelp-fired-manager-after-he-didnt-take-calls-check-email-24-7-365-lawsuit-claims/
======
frankwiles
We ALL need to be against 24/7/365 “on call”. I did it for 10 years. It not
only sucks, but I’m confident hurt my overall productivity. If it’s not
important enough to hire a backup or two, it’s simply not important.

~~~
commandlinefan
What I can't reconcile is the prevalence of this type of abuse (along with
many other types of abuse) when we're supposedly hard to find, hard to replace
and hard to retain. I don't expect the rock star treatment, but there are a
lot of positions that are MUCH easier to find people to fill who are treated
with a lot more respect or, failing that, at least not with utter contempt.

~~~
ohithereyou
>hard to find, hard to replace and hard to retain

You only get this line if you're a US citizen as justification as to why H1B
visa quotas need to be increased. If you're here on an H1B visa, you get
reminded daily that your replacement is waiting back in your home country, you
can be replaced with a single phone call, and you better have a plan to get
all of your things and family back to your home country quickly when you get
bounced.

~~~
iceninenines
Sounds like slavery.

~~~
Frost1x
Indentured servitude with a new name basically. My friend works in the health
industry and I can confirm this. The second he got his greencard, everything
changed as far as employer abuse. Now it's just the typical abuses we all deal
with.

------
cdoxsey
Being a backend engineer with occasional on-call responsibilities, this is an
unfortunate reality I've had to deal with.

My religious tradition (reformed evangelical christian) takes the sabbath
pretty seriously, as stated in the Westminster Confession of Faith:

> VIII. This Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due
> preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand,
> do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words,
> and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are
> taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship,
> and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

Notice the last statement makes an allowance for acts of mercy and duties of
necessity, which would certainly include things like being a Doctor or a
Policeman, but I've always considered my duties as a Software Engineer being
on-call to be borderline on whether or not they meet that standard. Certainly
my employer(s) have thought they were necessary... But who are we kidding.
Most of this stuff isn't life or death and waiting till Monday to get it fixed
probably wouldn't be that big of a deal.

(I should probably mention that although these are the standards of the Church
I attend they're rarely enforced in any meaningful sense - being treated more
as a matter of personal conscience than of discipline... and particularly when
it comes to the Sabbath)

Still I wrestle with it... not having a firm enough conviction to quit a job
where I've had to do it, though if it were an every week thing, particularly
if I had to regularly miss the Sunday service, I almost certainly would.

If I could make one plea, it would be for tolerance and compromise. I realize
religious beliefs can be pretty weird in this day and age, but they're often
sincerely held, and there's usually a solution available if the company is
willing to consider it. (for example I'm just fine being on-call any other day
of the week, and a surprising oddity of the reformed tradition, we don't
really have religious holidays: [https://heidelblog.net/2017/03/the-
westminster-divines-on-ho...](https://heidelblog.net/2017/03/the-westminster-
divines-on-holy-days/))

~~~
jtmcmc
having on call responsibilities and being available 24/7 are significantly
different. On call is a structured rotation that is usually explicitly part of
a job description.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Unpaid work is unpaid work (wage theft), full stop. You're not paid for 40
hours and then "heh, you're on call outside of 9-5 for the next week, but
that's what you're paid for". Call it what it is: wage theft.

~~~
zbentley
That's not how many employment opportunities work. Allowances, expenses--hell,
even salaried compensation are all ways in which non-40hr-work-week positions
are handled. Whether compensation/interaction in these circumstances happens
ethically versus exploitatively depends on many things, but not "whether or
not someone works more than 40 hours a week for a non-hourly-wage position".

~~~
toomuchtodo
Indeed, I’m pointing out the labor law deficiency that needs remediation. Your
employer should never be able to have unconstrained demands on your time for a
fixed wage.

~~~
wutbrodo
I'm not sure I understand. You're saying that it's not possible for someone of
sound mind to decide to trade a technically-unconstrained probability
distribution of demands on their time (with exit rights) for a fixed wage, no
matter how high? And that two parties should be prohibited by law from making
this exchange?

I'm not making a general-purpose argument against regulating nominally
consensual labor agreements, but this specific example is an awfully weird
context to decide that people need to be protected from themselves. I've had
jobs where the exact hours of oncall rotations weren't explicitly spelled out
in the contract, and I made the decision that the oncall rotation was worth
the fixed pay. Trading fixed amounts of money for probability distributions is
all over the economy (this is what insurance is), and you're the first person
I've ever heard suggest that it should be prohibited.

Would you mind elaborating on why you think this is so egregious that people
need to be protecting from themselves so they don't engage in it?

~~~
toomuchtodo
We’re not talking about unique agreements. We’re talking about below or at
market rate compensated roles where you’re expected to be available after
hours, on top of a 40 hour work week. No, I don’t think that should be allowed
unless you’re compensated specially for the time you’re on call, as well as
when you need to actively engage while on call (removing exempt employee
status for technology professionals). This is no different than roles like
nursing, or IT in developed countries with robust labor regulations.

People don’t need to be protected from themselves. They need to be protected
from employers, who have more power than labor (through at will employment and
a lack of collective bargaining). Simply because some are willing to work for
free does not mean that technology professionals as a whole should accept such
a poor arrangement, because it’s been normalized as such by employees who
accept it.

European countries are moving in this direction (prohibiting email access
outside of business hours), and I hope to see more progress on this front in
the US over time.

~~~
nrki
The attitude that salaried employees are expected to be available at all hours
is such a US labour market thing.

So much so that a (US headquartered) multinational I worked for gave up trying
to get their EU employees to do weekend on call, as the team didn't want to
get treated that way.

------
time0ut
The article says he claims he was fired based on his religion, but it doesn't
sound like it was related to religion. It just so happened it was a religious
holiday. Maybe there is more to the story, but it sounds like he could just as
well have been golfing.

Either way, Yelp sounds absolutely toxic if they required him to be available
like that. Expecting anyone to be available 24/7/365 is absurd. Set up an on-
call rotation. Establish escalation chains. Designate backups. These are basic
procedures. If this guy was so critical that there was no-one else in the
company that could do whatever it was, hire someone else.

~~~
harimau777
Companies have an obligation to make reasonable accommodations of employee's
religions. Not expecting them to be available during major religious holidays
is well within the bounds of reasonable accommodations _. In addition, unless
there is more to the story, it doesn 't seem believable that someone acting in
good faith wouldn't be able to work something out; I mean Christianity only
has two major holidays.

_ This is excluding extreme cases like if someone claimed that their religion
has dozens of major holidays a year. To my knowledge, no major religion does
that.

~~~
threatofrain
I hate to sound like whining, but I feel jealous and cheated that people with
professed religions get special benefits. It's not as though people who don't
profess their religions, or those without specific religious affiliation don't
have inner needs of their own which they also need time to tend to.

I feel like there should be an "average" compromise and everyone should get
the benefit. That way there is no awkward incentive in any direction.

~~~
maxxxxx
I feel the same. Everybody should get the same benefits independently of
religion.

------
meritt
If the lawsuit fails he could always create a employer review site, post a
bunch of negative reviews of Yelp, and then offer to remove the offending
reviews if they purchase an annual subscription.

~~~
randycupertino
Sooo.... Glassdoor?

~~~
badfrog
Is there evidence of Glassdoor charging companies to get better reviews?

~~~
calvinbhai
I personally know that Glassdoor magically vanished my not so critical review
of my past employer (I said nice things about the company and employees, but
called out how they mislead/screwed me in immigration matters)

------
kokokokoko
We should all spend a moment to really take in the fact that Yelp is a website
that has reviews of restaraunts and other services. That this person needed to
be on call 24/7 for a review website.

Not a hospital. Nothing was burning down. Not even transportation or
infrastructure related.

A review website. 24/7/365\. For a review website.

~~~
mikeash
It’s a big site, so any downtime is a lot of lost revenue. I’m sure the cost
of 24/7/365 coverage is justified.

The trouble is that they apparently don’t want to pay for actual 24/7 coverage
with a defined on-call schedule. They just try to declare it into existence.

~~~
jka
I think you're sending this same message, but just to rephrase it - 24/7
coverage _is_ important to the business due to the continuous traffic they
receive, but 24/7 coverage has to be provided by multiple people and/or teams;
it shouldn't and can't be an individual responsibility.

~~~
mikeash
That is indeed what I was implying, but it’s good to state it explicitly.

------
bsg75
> On Good Friday last March, Weathers’ boss, head of security Rick Lee, sent
> him an email about an employee in Yelp’s Phoenix offices seeking after-hours
> access to a building, the suit said.

Expecting employees to respond to non-emergencies off hours is an excellent
way to get them to become less responsive.

When everything is urgent, nothing is.

------
NoblePublius
Who would have thought that the company that extorts businesses to bury
negative reviews isn’t very nice to work at?

~~~
onemoresoop
Yelp is terrible. They actually extort business to show good reviews as well

~~~
toss1
Indeed!! Yelp specifically makes me glad that I'm in a B2B sort of business
and not subject to their extortionate behavior.

------
rdtsc
What did his job description say? Did it clearly specify having to be on call
24/7/365\. That would be key especially for a position that seems to require
that kind of response.

Otherwise this is a bit like "unlimited vacation". Yes you can take it, but
you never know when they'll come back and say "looks like you're not applying
your full potential, so we're gonna go ahead an put you on probation".

> Lee also told Weathers [...] that he didn’t care about Weathers’ religious
> holidays or children, the suit claimed.

I think this is mostly about naming and shaming. As the lawsuit could involve
a discovery phase, Yelp might want to settle to avoid revealing to the whole
world their management "culture".

~~~
titanix2
Even if it is written on a contract isn't being on call at every seconds of
your life against human rights? It seems to be near slavery condition.

------
tschwimmer
The headline is at least somewhat misleading. The plaintiff did not work in
software, they seemed to have worked in physical security. It sucks that there
was work to be done on a major religious holiday, but it seems reasonable to
me that there's an expectation you are 'on-call' outside of normal work hours
for a role like that. I'd really like to know what the job expectation was
going in.

~~~
reaperducer
_it seems reasonable to me that there 's an expectation you are 'on-call'
outside of normal work hours_

24/7/365 isn't considered "reasonable" outside of the SV bubble. If you need
that kind of coverage, you have two or three people available, sometimes on
rotation. Even doctors — people who save lives, not tally reviews — aren't on
call 24/7/365.

No company should have a single employee that essential. Will Yelp shut down
if he gets hit by a bus?

------
DevX101
Forgetting the merits of the suit for a minute, if Yelp really needed 24/7
access, why not hire another security manager to work nights? If his job is so
mission critical do you really want to risk him not being able to wake up at
3am in the morning from a phonecall?

~~~
sdinsn
> why not hire another security manager to work nights

Money

------
root_axis
Is it really religious discrimination though? It's pretty clear that the
plaintiff's boss didn't care _why_ he was incommunicado, only that he was. It
doesn't appear that he displayed any religious hostility or intolerance, the
outcome would have been the same if the employee was an atheist who decided to
spend time with his family on a Sunday.

~~~
aeturnum
Yes, it is.

You're correct that any employee who decided to not answer their phone for a
period might attract the same displeasure, but we have laws in the US that
protect people who are observing religious holidays and he was, in fact,
observing one. I guess Yelp could argue that his observation was unreasonably
extreme, but that seems unlikely to pass muster.

~~~
everdev
> we have laws in the US that protect people who are observing religious
> holidays

Do we?

From:
[https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_Holidays.htm](https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_Holidays.htm)

> California law does not require that an employer provide its employees with
> paid holidays, that it close its business on any holiday, or that employees
> be given the day off for any particular holiday

~~~
reaperducer
United States > California.

[https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm](https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm)

"The law requires an employer or other covered entity to reasonably
accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so
would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of the employer's
business. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable
adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice
his or her religion.

Examples of some common religious accommodations include flexible scheduling,
voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and modifications
to workplace policies or practices."

~~~
everdev
> unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of
> the employer's business

No employer is required to approve PTO for religious holidays if something
needs to get done.

There are tons of employees who get scheduled to work on Christmas all the
time.

~~~
kayfox
So, if an employee was not at work, not expected to be at work, do they need
to apply for and get PTO to avoid getting calls in that off time?

It seems pretty clear that if the employer expects response in a certain time
frame, the employee is engaged, and there may be issues even for salaried
overtime-exempt employees with keeping an employee engaged 24/7/365.

~~~
everdev
That's the more important point in my opinion. The demands weren't reasonable
regardless if it was a religious holiday or not.

Saying you were observing a religious holiday will definitely earn you
sympathy from the public but probably not legal relief from the courts.

~~~
klodolph
If the plaintiff is saying that they are observing a religious holiday, then
it is up to the defendant to show that this is a hardship for the business or
otherwise not a reasonable accommodation. This is pretty standard stuff, with
lots of case law to back it up.

------
dev_dull
The language from Yelp pretty much spells out their case:

> "Yelp respects religious and personal responsibilities and makes reasonable
> accommodations _when requested_ " (emphasis added)

I haven't read any court papers. My guess is their defense will hinge on them
trying to prove the plaintiff didn't adequate accommodations.

Doesn't pass the smell test if you ask me. If it's important enough to fire
somebody over, it's important enough to have a clear escalation strategy in
case one person isn't available.

------
avar
No comment on the merits of the case, but the headline is really hiding the
ball. Instead of "Manager" they should say "Man Tasked With Granting Out-Of-
Hours-Access to Office".

I.e. this wasn't just some random manager, but evidently someone they needed
to be available to grant out of hours access to their offices.

~~~
doktrin
Unless that was his only job function (unlikely), I dont see why the headline
should be that granular.

~~~
avar
Because it means one of two things.

One, Yelp is incompetent enough to make it someone's literal job to open the
office in a timely manner at all hours without thinking to have a conversation
first that establishes an SLA for that.

Two, they did have such an agreement, but the employee is claiming a religious
exception supersedes any such agreement.

Both would be interesting to discuss, but the article doesn't have any
details.

~~~
michaelt
If there was an important function that relied on the availability of a single
employee, with no bus factor, that rather implies Yelp is incompetent to me.

------
heelix
True 24/7 can be really disruptive. I've had consulting gigs where some people
would rather call me at 3AM then talk with the person next to them in the Ops
room. Irritating as all can be, having a sleep schedule disrupted. Same
customer ended up having you come in for a normal work day, cater supper, have
you do evening deployments/change control/bug fix, then the late night/early
AM stuff on prod would start till 5/6AM. You could possibly grab a couple
hours of sleep before starting the 'normal' next day - but it was easier to
just pound through a 32 hour day and then collapse on the airplane home.
Nothing productive happened from those long days. Just like water skiing, more
and more mistakes happen the longer a person is at it.

------
stuart78
Posts like this make me want to remind people that there ARE good places to
work. If you’re stuck in this kind of BS, there ARE alternatives. Just like
relationships, there are many job fish in the sea, so don’t get discouraged,
just find a way out.

~~~
thatoneuser
The problem is finding them. The job search sites are trash as far as being a
competent mediator to make the hiring process smoother. And companies are way
too standoffish to hire quickly. It's a frustrating process.

------
CaliforniaKarl
[https://outline.com/pHSqZN](https://outline.com/pHSqZN)

------
minikites
We can thank labor unions for the concept of weekends and the 8-hour workday.
The decline in labor union participation tracks with the erosion of the
benefits our predecessors fought so hard for.

------
jqcoffey
I am the manager of a decent sized R&D org in a company on the order of Yelp’s
size and not only do I find this inexcusable on Yelp’s part, but where I work
we would put the firing manager into a training/coaching program to sensitize
him to the work life balance needs of his team. If he refused he would
probably be removed as a manager and perhaps shown the door.

I work for large adtech company in France and out here oncall is paid (even if
you’re not called) and we never intrude on personal time unless there is a
major disaster, and even then there are almost always enough folks being paid
to handle the oncall event to take care of things.

We do have R&D offices in the US and I don’t know the specifics of HR policy
wrt oncall there, but everyone rolls up to the French HQ so I know it remains
human-first.

------
rpmcmurphy
I take the approach of telling people to call or text me if something is
urgent (my number is in the company directory), because I likely won't notice
an email quickly, and will ignore Slack/IM completely so soon as I walk out
the door. The only time my phone buzzes is when something is actually on fire.

I remember previous jobs where late night emails demanding edits to someone's
slide deck were routine (and anything is not urgent, it is editing some
product manager's slide deck). That shit can wait until Monday, and if you are
throwing it on me because you procrastinated, that's your problem.

------
sjg007
Yelp will lose this lawsuit and this is a PR nightmare.

~~~
wyclif
Yelp seems like a super toxic workplace and essentially a pay-to-play
extortion racket.

------
nythrowaway
In nyc there are Orthodox Jews who work in medicine and finance and law who
will not answer the phone or work on the sabbath. These are people who can
make millions a year and are otherwise slaves to their jobs working 80 hour+
weeks. They have backups during the day they are off. The jobs they do are
much more intense then tech work

------
epx
My guess is that religion thing was added to make the case more robust.
Unfortunately the meat of the case (having to be on call 247) might be
considered "less outrageous" these days :(

------
azinman2
My question is what were the expectations? Did he agree to be on call then? Or
did he inform that he wouldn't be available? There's a lot of context missing
here...

------
nartz
I like the yelp service - but working for yelp has always seemed like a
terrible idea.

------
phonon
The case [https://imgur.com/a/qp57XAP](https://imgur.com/a/qp57XAP)

COMES NOW PLAINTIFF MARK WEATHERS for causes of action, and alleges as
follows: I. ALLEGATIONS

1\. Plaintiff Mark Weathers ("Mr. Weathers" or "Plaintiff") resides in
California and is a former employee of Defendant Yelp Inc. At all relevant
times herein, Mr. Weathers worked for Defendant in San Francisco.

2\. Defendant Yelp Inc. ("Yelp" or "Defendant") hosts an online database of
user-generated reviews of local businesses and is headquartered in San
Francisco, California.

3\. The true names and capacities, whether individual, corporate or otherwise,
of DOES 1 through 10 are at this time unknown to Plaintiff, who therefore
sues* said Defendants by such fictitious names. Plaintiff will ask leave to
amend this complaint for damages to reflect their true names and capacities
when* the same have been ascertained. Plaintiff is informed and believes, and
thereon alleges, that each of said Defendants is responsible, jointly and
severally, for the events and injuries described herein and caused damages
thereby as alleged herein.

4\. Plaintiff is informed and believes, and thereon alleges, that at all times
mentioned herein each and every co-Defendant was and is the predecessor-in-
interest, successor-in-interest, agent, counselor, employee, servant, partner,
franchisee and/or joint venturer of each of other co­ Defendant, and in doing
the actions hereinafter mentioned, was and/or is acting within the scope of
its authority within such agency, employment, counseling, service,
partnership, franchise and/or joint venture or single enterprise, and with the
permission and consent of each co-Defendant. Plaintiff alleges that each of
said Defendants is responsible, jointly and severally, for the events and
injuries described herein and caused damages thereby to Plaintiff as alleged
herein.

5\. In October of 2016, Yelp offered Mr. Weathers the position of Security
Manager starting on November 14, 2016, and reporting to the Head of Security
Rick Lee.

6\. Mr. Weathers' duties included overseeing several site managers located
throughout the country. His compensation included an annual salary, an equity
award, a relocation bonus, and a benefits package that included health,
dental, vision, life insurance, long term disability, and 401(k).

7\. At all times, Mr. Weathers fulfilled the expectations of his . position.
In January of 2018, Yelp increased Mr. Weathers' compensation and granted him
stock.

8\. On Saturday, March 31, 2018, which was Easter weekend, Mr. Lee called Mr.
Weathers about an email he had sent the previous night (Good Friday) at 11:49
p.m. Mr. Lee wanted to know why Mr. Weathers had not yet responded to an
email. Mr. Weathers indicated that he had not checked his email because it was
Easter weekend and he was spending time with his family and attending church
services. In fact, Mr. Weathers was attending a church-sponsored event when he
answered Mr. Lee's phone call. Mr. Lee was upset that no one, including Mr.
Weathers, had responded to an employee's ticket request for after-hours access
to Yelp's offices in Phoenix the prior evening after normal business hours.
Mr. Lee said Mr. Weathers needed to be responsive, even while he was attending
church services.

9\. At 12:40 p.m. on Easter Sunday, April 1, while Mr. Weathers was attending
church services with his family, Mr. Lee emailed Mr. Weathers and the site
managers regarding this situation. He instructed Mr. Weathers to contact each
of the site managers to find out what had happened with the ticket request and
how to prevent the situation from recurring. He demanded that Mr. Weathers
provide an "after action review" to him by the close of business the following
day, necessitating that Mr. Weathers contact each of his co-workers on Easter
Sunday. In addition, Mr. Lee admonished, "Each leader on this email should
make a regular practice of checking email and setting cell phones to take
inbound calls 24/7/365 ... so that your phone still rings even if you set it
to 'do not disturb' mode." Otherwise, he threatened to "make some changes" if
employees could not "commit to being attentive to [their] inbound
communiques."

10\. On April 2, Mr. Weathers timely provided the information that Mr. Lee had
requested. As part of this information, Mr. Weathers explained to Mr. Lee
that, "I made a choice to focus on Easter Weekend (Good Friday, Easter
Sunday), a very important weekend for me ... I did not check email as I
usually would on other weekends." Mr. Lee responded, "You should be checking
emails and vmails/inbound calls every day (regardless of weekend or holiday).
I understand that church services likely require you to turn off devices.
However, a 12-hour gap of non-checking is not acceptable. (Recall that I
worked on an incident for 4 hours on Christmas Eve when my personal priority
was to be with my family.)" Mr. Lee also verbally told Mr. Weathers, "I don't
care about your PTO, religious holidays, your kids or your birthday. I expect
a response to my emails." He made this statement despite knowing that Mr.
Weathers is a person of faith who is pursuing a degree in ministry leadership
and whose son is severely autistic.

11\. On April 3, Mr. Weathers approached human resources. He told a human
resources representative about the incident that had occurred over Easter
weekend, and specifically that Mr. Lee demanded that employees be responsive
to work issues even during religious and family commitments. Mr. Weathers also
conveyed that his direct reports had expressed concerns about being required
to work on Easter Sunday or during paid time off. The human resources
representative said she would follow up on this issue. She also suggested that
he could include this information as part of his feedback in the manager's
survey-a companywide anonymous survey completed by all employees, which he
did.

12\. On May 15, the day after the manager's survey results were published, Mr.
Lee met with Mr. Weathers for their quarterly conversation. During this
meeting, for the first time, Mr. Lee was critical of Mr. Weathers performance.
He accused Mr. Weathers of needing 'recognition." He said that Mr. Weathers'
work on a physical security review the previous month had been disappointing,
even though at the time, he commended Mr. Weathers for having done a "great"
job. When Mr. Weathers pointed this out, Mr. Lee claimed that his earlier
positive feedback had been a "miscommunication." Mr. Lee also said that there
had been a "ranking meeting" in February of 2018, and that he and Yelp's CFO
had ranked Mr. Weathers as "third or fourth" in ''performance and potential."
He never mentioned before that such a meeting had taken place, or that
supposedly there were issues with Mr. Weathers' performance or career
potential. In fact, Mr. Lee previously had been complimentary of Mr. Weathers'
performance and told him that the CFO had praised Mr. Weathers for having a
"growth mindset." Finally, Mr. Lee said that he did not like Mr. Weathers'
response to the situation that had occurred over Easter Weekend-in which Mr.
Weathers stated, "I made a choice to focus on Easter Weekend (Good Friday,
Easter Sunday), a very important weekend for me ... I did not check email as I
usually would on other weekends"-and reiterated that he was not concerned
about Mr. Weathers' ::hurch or family obligations.

13\. After this meeting, Mr. Lee all but stopped communicating with VJr.
Weathers and sidelined Mr. Weathers from participating in work matters.

14\. On May 25, 2018, Mr. Lee and the* human resources *epresentative met with
Mr. Weathers. Mr. Lee advised Mr. Weathers that he Nas "not a good fit for
this role" and presented him with three options: a performance plan, one
month's severance, or termination. Mr. Weathers pointed out that Mr. Lee had
previously told Mr. Weathers that "people do not survive [performance plans]."
In fact, Mr. Lee said this on numerous occasions about various employees. Mr.
Weathers pointed out that, in light of this, a performance improvement plan
did not seem like a viable option.

15\. On May 29, the human resources representative told Mr. Weathers that the
company was "concerned" about how Mr. Lee had managed the situation and,
therefore, would be investigating whether there was retaliation. She
interviewed Mr. Weathers over the next few days, including about Mr. Lee's
statements that Mr. Weathers and other employees are required to work during
paid time off and regardless of church or family obligations.

16\. On May 31, 2018, the human resources representative told Mr. Weathers
that she had "looked into" the situation but supposedly determined that Mr.
Lee had not said anything illegal.

17\. On June 4, 2018, the human resources representative sent Mr. Weathers a
meeting request and said that Mr. Lee wanted to present Mr. Weathers with a
list of performance issues. Mr. Weathers asked for a copy of the list in
advance, so that he could be prepared for their meeting, but no one provided
him with a copy.

18\. Instead, on June 5, when Mr. Weathers met with the human resources
representative, she told him that given the "toxic environment," "it would be
better" for Mr. Weathers to leave his employment at Yelp. Yelp terminated Mr.
Weathers from his employment effective June 5, 2018.

19\. Plaintiff timely exhausted his administrative remedies by filing a :harge
of discrimination with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and
obtaining a right to sue.

20\. Defendant's actions were undertaken for improper purposes as alleged
above and were willful, oppressive and in conscious disregard of Plaintiff's
rights, and were designed and intended to cause and did, in fact, cause
Plaintiff to suffer severe emotional distress, pain and suffering, and
substantial economic damage and, therefore, justify the awarding of exemplary
and punitive damages.

~~~
thegayngler
Yikes if this is true. If I were on a jury there is absolutely no way Yelp
would survive this assuming this is true and assuming there is not evidence
that makes me reconsider my position on this. The fact that the documents were
not provided to the plaintiff upon request and before a meeting with HR alone
already has me seriously suspect. HR should probably be accountable in this
situation as well as the manager involved. It seems like Yelp failed at every
step of this process which is designed to protect the legal and business
interests of Yelp.

------
scarejunba
The engineer who wanted access is going to feel like a right idiot.

------
SN76477
And companies wonder why their employees try to unionize.

------
blazespin
Madness. Hire shift workers. Geezus. And don’t fire, manage them out with a
pip. Does it take a long time? Sure! But thats what you get for having stupid
policies.

------
ergothus
TL;DR: lawsuit claims dude's boss had unreasonable-but-believable demands on
availability, yelp denies it. No real information is given as to the up-front
understanding of expectation, nor evidence for either side.

I'd be interested in the details once everything is decided, but as it stands
there just isn't much to do other than speculate....or crack jokes about
reviewing Yelp.

~~~
excalibur
> as it stands there just isn't much to do other than speculate....or crack
> jokes about reviewing Yelp.

Or we could debate the merits of managers and/or company policies requiring
"24/7/365" availability, even without enough evidence to make an informed
judgment in this particular case.

I personally think it's bullshit.

~~~
ergothus
Sure...but is there really a debate? I'm willing to accept a sliver of jobs
that require that availability, if they involve saving lives or huge sums of
money AND are explicitly agreed to by both parties.

Other than some quibbles about if money qualifies and if so how much, I don't
really expect a lot of argument - even the jerks demanding such availability
without caveats tend to only demand it when they are the boss involved.

Edit: Based on the other comments on the story so far...I may be wrong.

~~~
roywiggins
Just rotate on-call hours around several employees. Putting "lives or huge
sums of money" onto one singular employee who must be in contact at all times
is a recipe for disaster.

~~~
ergothus
I was thinking of things like a personal accountant for a mega-millionaire or
a doctor on a crisis case...but even then you're right. Even with my qualifier
of "sliver" and that I was mentally thinking in time-spans of less than 365
days...yeah. No call.

