Lawsuit Alleges Reddit Fired Employee for Taking Medical Leave, ‘Toxic’ Culture

A lawsuit was filed against Reddit alleging that the company fired an employee with anxiety for taking medical leave. The employee, Jamie Lee, had worked at Reddit as an accountant for over 4 years with positive reviews. In July 2022, Lee requested 3 days off for her health but was denied. She was later placed on medical leave after fainting, but was fired upon returning and accused of poor performance. However, the lawsuit claims others made similar mistakes. It also alleges Reddit’s new leadership under the CFO has created a “toxic, political, and not inclusive” culture, which two other employees also left over. This highlights challenges employees faced with the changing culture at Reddit.

Heresy_generator,
Heresy_generator avatar

On July 25, 2022 the lawsuit alleges, Lee asked her supervisor for three days off using her floating holidays to attend to her health. Her supervisor allegedly rejected the request saying it “would be a burden to the rest of the team” and that “there is a lot of work to be done.”

What the fuck? It's 3 days; fix your staffing!

GenderNeutralBro,

“Sorry, I’m too incompetent to account for any minor disruption, no matter how common, unavoidable, or legally mandated it may be. Please suffer quietly.”

astraeus,
@astraeus@programming.dev avatar

It’s reddit, what in the hell do they have going on at the end of July that couldn’t accounting couldn’t wait a few days for? Did they have to count up all the gains from the fake gold they’ve stopped selling people? Tax season is over, the new fiscal year is already started, seems like bullshit paper pushing to me.

harmonea, (edited )
harmonea avatar

You have to understand that most accounting departments treat month-end with the same gravity as year-end. My job's accounts payable department starts sending month end deadline reminders on the 15th. It's absurd how much they focus on it.

(This is not an excuse for their abhorrent treatment of an employee, mind you, but it might help explain the twisted logic behind "end of July" possibly working against her.)

astraeus,
@astraeus@programming.dev avatar

Point aside, what’s reddit doing that taking three days off for health makes it impossible to meet deadlines? What exactly are they juggling in that accounting department that demands so much from a single employee? Sounds like she was overworked and overwhelmed from the start.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod,
Semi-Hemi-Demigod avatar

Their software was open source. Their content is free. Their moderation is free. All they had to do was sell some ads and host the servers. And they fucked that up.

otter,

Yep this is pretty much what I came into the thread to read about. I’m sure the claims have merit and I don’t doubt that Reddit could have a toxic work culture (just look at the decision making over the years, clearly people aren’t comfortable pushing back against bad ideas)

Just usually when I hear about toxic grind culture, the company is producing something, be it content or some competitive product.

Reddit is doing what other open source devs are doing for free, and somehow doing that badly. The app is bad, the front end for new Reddit is constantly buggy, and it takes a very long time for things to get fixed.

What are they doing to the workers…

doctortofu,
@doctortofu@reddthat.com avatar

It’s insane, isn’t it? Why do so many companies act like employees are their indentured servants and not professionals who provide their services to them in exchange for money?

If anything, the boss should have said “Are you sure just 3 days are enough? How about you take the whole week off instead and come back fully refreshed?”. I do hope the court throws the book at them - time off should be a goddamned sacred right if every employee.

Nougat,

The only thing a supervisor should be saying to "I need to take time off to address personal health concerns," is "Take as much time as you need, your health is most important."

The only thing a supervisor should be saying to "I fainted, and my doctor has put me on medical leave," is "Take as much time as you need, your health is most important."

PeterBronez,

@Nougat @trashhalo @technology this is literally why short-term disability insurance exists.

Drusas,

Good luck getting that to pay out for anxiety. Those insurance companies fight you tooth and nail.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod,
Semi-Hemi-Demigod avatar

My first ever direct report asked me if he could leave a couple hours early because his kid went to the hospital.

I told him I expected that if this happened again he just call me on the way to the hospital.

anon_water,
@anon_water@lemmy.ml avatar

Or uh not call you… imagine letting him focus on driving and getting to his kid rather than talking on the phone with you. If you want to be a good manager then you should make it clear that communicating retrospectively is perfectly fine.

xtremeownage,

My supervisor wants me to take time off of work, more then I take time off of work. lol.

Although, granted, I have worked in an environment like this… aka, the united states army.

Where, getting your vacation approved, takes no less than a full miracle.

Its ok, I ETS-d with literally close to a year of vacation. On the plus side, you can indefinitely accumulate leave. So, I sold a few months, got an extra up-front paycheck, and then, got paid for a good chunk of a year after leaving.

lightnsfw,

At my company the low level supervisors have no say in what happens to you for taking off. Attendance is tracked by the timeclock system and HR sends notice for corrective actions based off how many points you have. You can still get medical leaves and whatever else but none of it goes through the supervisor. So they literally can’t say “Take as much time as you need, your health is more important.” because they’ll eventually get told to fire you.

floofloof,

The problem is that for most companies, employee health is very far down the list in importance.

I worked at a company where my colleagues included two young brothers. One of them had a serious illness and was in hospital. One day the other brother, at work, got notification that his brother in hospital might not have much time left. He asked management if he could take the afternoon off to go and see his brother. They said no, they needed him to work late. This guy was an overly conscientious employee and he didn’t go to the hospital that day. His brother died during the night and he didn’t get to say goodbye to him. Those are the priorities of many companies.

Nougat,

Don't ask for your employer to meet your time off needs. Tell them that your time off needs are going to be met.

I am not at all saying that it was the employee's fault in your example. It wasn't. The sad thing is that people have been conditioned that they need to ask for time off when emergencies arise.

argv_minus_one,

Don’t ask for your employer to meet your time off needs. Tell them that your time off needs are going to be met.

Then you get fired, and in this economy, probably end up homeless.

Nougat,

Yeah, it's real systemic, there's a lot of restrictive things all wrapped around everything that keep labor under the thumb of owners and their minions. If enough people stand up for their humanity, there will be a tipping point. Revolution doesn't come without risk.

Seize the means of production.

argv_minus_one,

I don’t see any riots. Seems to me that nobody cares—not even the people being made homeless.

wanderingmagus,

Be the change you want to see in the world. You have nothing to lose but your chains.

jarfil, (edited )

Make it a country where it’s illegal to fire someone on medical leave, where firing them after they come back entitles them to unmotivated dismissal compensation, where they get unemployment pay even if they get fired.

Might sound like a fairy tale to people in the US, but countries like that do exist.

invno1,

Go Union and that cannot happen.

tryptaminev,

I can only repeat it time and time again, until it is really present for every American. This is not normal. In most countries in the world you have the right to paid sick leave and you have the right to leave work for a family emergency. You cannot be fired for taking either and just the idea that it should be different gets people on the street.

Do not take this kind of bullshit. Especially now that boomers are retiring on mass, the employers need every hand they can get.

Erdrick,

As someone in management, health is absolutely paramount and the basic building blocks of creating happy and productive workers.
I have a guy that will soon be taking 6 weeks of paternal leave (sucks I had kids too early to do so myself) and my only requirement of him is that he only thinks of himself, his wife, and his kid.

sculd,

Fired for taking 3 days off ?!?! What the actual fuck!??!

saigot, (edited )

Can someone who still uses that shithole of a site tell me if this article has any traction over there, the only way to fix this is more people leaving.

cobra89,

Lol I’m sure they’re talking all about it but it’s not gonna make anyone leave. People’s convenience and enjoyment will always trump any sort of morality.

Erdrick,

I said I’d leave and followed through.
Between Spez and their killing of Apollo, I decided to part ways.
It is also really nice here @ Beehaw (thus far) to see that interactions are of a much higher caliber.
I don’t comment a ton, but I have yet to have any negative experiences.
Maybe the “human vetted” application process helps?

HotsauceHurricane,

I am constantly surprised by what i am unsurprised by .

z3n0x,

Pikachuception

theodewere,
theodewere avatar

who would have guessed a couple of trolls run a toxic workplace

Auzy,

Question is, given the way spaz acts… Is anyone legitimately surprised? I feel like Ellen Pao would have been good to work with though

jarfil,

given the way spaz acts

u/spez… but your spellchecker isn’t that far off.

Voyajer,
Voyajer avatar

And here I thought it was intentional

Radiant_sir_radiant,

At the height of the protests, “spaz” was (still is?) actually the name used by AutoModerator in some forums in reply to posts referring to the CEO. It would surprise me if that were the only instance of that ‘typo’.

jarfil, (edited )

Flesh based, silicon based… potahto, potahto? 😉

MicholasMouse, (edited )

Oh cool. I’ve been out sick all week and have been having panic attacks that my teammates hate me for it and I’m creating a burden for them by not forcing myself back to work. Love to hear management in my field validate that as a reason to be fired.

mayumu,

If the business crumbles when you take a sick leave then it’s the company’s fault for not being ready for it. It’s simply something that happens sometimes and it’s unavoidable. If you get fired for it then you’re honestly better off in a different job, especially if you work in IT.

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