|
|
Clifford v. American Drug Stores8/22/2005
ng right for her supervisors. Clifford experienced her first panic attack, with symptoms including chest pains, difficulty breathing, numbness in her fingers and hand, and dizziness. Not realizing what it was, she thought she was having a heart attack.
During this period, Clifford's store was audited, resulting in a score of 91 percent, the score Clifford usually earned, and considered high by company standards. But Weber wrote her a letter informing her that less than 100 percent was not acceptable, although 100 percent would have been a highly unusual score. One day in July, Clifford opened her office, which she normally kept "immaculate," and found paper and open binders spread all over her desk.
After her deposition on August 24, 1998, and throughout 1998 and into 1999, Weber and Casillas continued their frequent visits, three times per week or even every other day, often making an issue of little things that had not been a problem before. Even Clifford's employees watched her closely and reported to Weber. Clifford asked Weber why he had instructed another employee to keep track of her schedule, when such a practice had never been done before, and Weber replied, " f you don't play ball, you're not a team player." She also asked why her operations manager was keeping her under close scrutiny, and Weber replied that it was because she was "not with the program."
One night after her deposition, Clifford found merchandise in her purse as she was leaving the store. Other times, she would set off the alarm as she was leaving the store, open her purse, and find security tags inside. She tried leaving her purse in her car, but the alarm still sounded often, and she would find security tags attached to her coat. This had never happened before her deposition.
For the remainder of 1998, Weber kept up his frequent visits and remarks to the effect that she was not a team player and had no future with the company, because she was not willing to lie for the company. Sometime in or around March 1999, a letter accusing Clifford of taking an unauthorized discount was placed in her personnel file without an interview, although the discount had been consistent with her interpretation of company policy. She was also falsely accused of stealing videotapes. In addition, she was subjected to an employee payroll complaint, caused by the use of a payroll book with employee status codes that were out of date, in spite of Clifford's having twice e-mailed Adams and Weber to request an updated payroll code book. Weber admitted ignoring her requests.
Although it was the responsibility of the market manager, not the district manager, to review the monthly employee schedules, Weber began the unusual practice of asking Clifford for hers, and asking for the same schedules many times after insisting that he had not received them, even though she had repeatedly sent them. Sometimes she would send him the
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Show All Case Laws California PEO
|