Law Man told job not to celebrate his birthday. He was awarded $450K following unwanted party.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-told-job-not-celebrate-birthday-was-awarded-450k-unwanted-party-rcna24698

https://archive.ph/RiUsU

Kevin Berling suffers from an anxiety disorder and told his job that a birthday celebration would trigger a panic attack, according to a lawsuit.

A Kentucky man with an anxiety disorder asked his former employer not to celebrate his birthday because it triggers panic attacks.

When the company, Gravity Diagnostics, ignored Kevin Berling's request and had a surprise lunchtime celebration for him on Aug. 7, 2019, he got upset. Days later Berling was fired, according to a lawsuit he filed in a Kenton County court against the company.

On March 31, a jury awarded him $450,000. The jury found that Berling suffered an "adverse employment action" because of his anxiety disability, court documents show.

The saga began in August 2019 when Berling told his office manager that he did not want to celebrate his birthday because it would trigger a panic attack. The company has a practice of having birthday celebrations at the office for employees, the lawsuit, filed in 2019, says.

However, on the day of his birthday, the company surprised him with a celebration in the lunchroom. Berling had a panic attack, the suit says. He quickly left and finished the rest of his lunch in his car and then texted his manager for failing to accommodate his request.

A day after the celebration, Berling was called into a meeting where he "was confronted and criticized" for his reaction, according to the lawsuit.

"This confrontation triggered another panic attack," the lawsuit says. "At the conclusion of this meeting and because plaintiff had a panic attack, plaintiff was sent home from work for the remainder of August 8 and August 9."

On Aug. 11 of that year, he was sent a letter telling him that he was being terminated "because of the events of the previous week," the lawsuit reads.

Berling sued for disability discrimination and retaliation.

Gravity Diagnostics did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Founder and COO Julie Brazil told Link NKY that Berling was terminated for violating a "workplace violence policy" and they stand by their decision.

She also noted an increase in incidents of workplace violence, telling the station: "My employees deescalated the situation to get the plaintiff out of the building as quickly as possible while removing his access to the building, alerting me and sending out security reminders to ensure he could not access the building, which is exactly what they were supposed to do."

Tony Bucher, an attorney for Berling, said his client posed no threat.

"I think the significance for employers is that they need to understand that they shouldn’t make assumptions about individuals with mental health issues. Kevin was an exceptional employee that went above and beyond for his employer and if they would have taken a step back it would have been clear that he did not present any danger at all," he said in a statement.

 

[mold]

Except he apparently did exactly what you suggested and got fired for it. People ca't control what triggers panic attacks, and they can apparently cause a sense of doom or be mistaken for a heart attack. I think it was reasonable for him to ask to skip it. It's like the mental equivalent of somebody with IBS saying they can't sit through a long meeting without shitting themselves. If anything, it sounds like the company was just looking for a reason to fire somebody who didn't "fit in with company culture," AKA is disabled.

seriously if you don't want to work with spergs, don't hire spergs

they hired this guy, they knew what they were getting into

that CEO is a bitch

 

[Tasty Tatty]

What a weak ass person. The celebration was uncalled for, but there is no way this type of job won't put you in a situation where you will get "triggered". Seems to me this is a person who has an obvious problem and rather than deal with it like an adult, wants everybody to accept him because he's proud. I wonder, how many times his "social anxiety" has helped him to get away from situations he simply felt he didn't want to be part of? "Oh, I'm sorry, but I cannot deal with this client because I have social anxiety, remember?" I'd fired him too, tbh.

Celebrating an employee's birthday always seemed messed up to me. Seems like a real effort to replace the family so you feel more obligated to let things slide.

You are correct. Your coworkers doing it because of friendship is fine, but now there is a push for the corporate to treat you like you're part of a "family" and make the workplace your "home". IMO, that's very creepy and it steps on certain boundaries that shouldn't be stepped on. My family is my family, my home is my home, and this is the place where I work.

 

[Friendly Mudcrab]

He told them not to go "GOOOOOOOD JAB CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP" and leave him alone and they did just that, and then demanded him to be more joyful about their retarded americlapping. I'm definitely siding with the sperg on this one.

 

[Socrates]

Buddy you're on this site already I don't think autismos have room to talk about neurosis

I manage to keep my spaghetti firmly in my pockets and my urge to scream the N word at least 90% under control in public, thank you very much

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

He explicitly asked for it not to be done because of his disability and they did it anyway, that's a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. They essentially fired him for that. Their claims of violence are also bullshit:



The CEO of the company is an utter cunt as well:



Panic attacks don't make you violent, they make you withdraw into yourself. Some cunt "feel good" Karen promotes a way to make employees feel like they "belong", runs into a case where a disabled person doesn't fit her ideal of what should be, and runs him over because fuck the ADA and his feelings, company culture is more important. They should have awarded him far more than he got tbh

Only reason someone in the midst of a panic attack would get violent is if everyone around them just kept egging it on. When you're having a panic attack, you're feeling trapped. What happens when someone feels trapped and the situation gets worse? They lash out. Let the person go somewhere quiet and ride it out. How hard is this?

 

[TowinKarz]

Only reason someone in the midst of a panic attack would get violent is if everyone around them just kept egging it on. When you're having a panic attack, you're feeling trapped. What happens when someone feels trapped and the situation gets worse? They lash out. Let the person go somewhere quiet and ride it out. How hard is this?

My guess is the bitchy CEO got in his face and shamed him for not appreciating all the money she spent for the occasion and he was ruining it all by being a baby with a "fake" disease, he goes full panic-mode and demands to be let out of the room, she stands in the doorway, not done giving him a piece of her mind... so he pushed her away to just get outside, she screamed "ASSAULT!" and retreated to the office to fill out the paperwork to fire him for being "violent" at work because he "threw her to the ground for no reason!" .

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Except he apparently did exactly what you suggested and got fired for it. People ca't control what triggers panic attacks, and they can apparently cause a sense of doom or be mistaken for a heart attack. I think it was reasonable for him to ask to skip it. It's like the mental equivalent of somebody with IBS saying they can't sit through a long meeting without shitting themselves. If anything, it sounds like the company was just looking for a reason to fire somebody who didn't "fit in with company culture," AKA is disabled.

They actually cause almost identical symptoms to a heart attack. You can get chest pains with the pain shooting down your left arm and up into your jaw. Your face and hands can go numb. You can get sick to your stomach and throw up. You feel short of breath and like you can't get enough air in. In the ER they'll ask if you have a history of panic attacks but still give you the EKG and everything because until you do some medical tests sometimes you can't tell the difference even as a professional. You'll have a hunch, but now and then that hunch is wrong, so you gotta do due diligence.

And they very often come on with no warning just like a heart attack or seizure. You're standing there and then the next minute you feel like you may be dying. Until you have identified what causes them (and it is not always obvious) you're left wondering when it will strike again. That leads many people to a fear of going in public, lest one strike them at random- agoraphobia.

This guy identified something that set his off. It was something innocuous and unnecessary so SHOULD be easy to avoid. Some people get them from driving or other mundane activities and they have a hard battle to get over it. He was doing the best he can in clown world just like the rest of us. Fuck the people who hate him for trying to work around a miserable disease that he didn't ask to have.

 

[FFinfo]

They actually cause almost identical symptoms to a heart attack. You can get chest pains with the pain shooting down your left arm and up into your jaw. Your face and hands can go numb. You can get sick to your stomach and throw up. You feel short of breath and like you can't get enough air in. In the ER they'll ask if you have a history of panic attacks but still give you the EKG and everything because until you do some medical tests sometimes you can't tell the difference even as a professional. You'll have a hunch, but now and then that hunch is wrong, so you gotta do due diligence.

And they very often come on with no warning just like a heart attack or seizure. You're standing there and then the next minute you feel like you may be dying. Until you have identified what causes them (and it is not always obvious) you're left wondering when it will strike again. That leads many people to a fear of going in public, lest one strike them at random- agoraphobia.

This guy identified something that set his off. It was something innocuous and unnecessary so SHOULD be easy to avoid. Some people get them from driving or other mundane activities and they have a hard battle to get over it. He was doing the best he can in clown world just like the rest of us. Fuck the people who hate him for trying to work around a miserable disease that he didn't ask to have.

Yeah, the people saying he should just toughen up don't quite get how panic attacks work. They basically bypass the part of your brain that handles logic and can stick your body in liveleak mode.

 

[Herty]

Based introvert

 

[Synthetic Smug]

From a little digging around it looks like Gravity Diagnostics is one of those little dirtwater testing labs that popped up to handle Covid testing overflow. Group employee photos have them all with tense stances and uncomfortable smiles. COO prattles endlessly about meaningless awards and girl power crap. The rest of the story writes itself.

I'm afraid I don't know how to archive things.

 

[Windows 10 Upgrade]

What a weak ass person. The celebration was uncalled for, but there is no way this type of job won't put you in a situation where you will get "triggered". Seems to me this is a person who has an obvious problem and rather than deal with it like an adult, wants everybody to accept him because he's proud. I wonder, how many times his "social anxiety" has helped him to get away from situations he simply felt he didn't want to be part of? "Oh, I'm sorry, but I cannot deal with this client because I have social anxiety, remember?" I'd fired him too, tbh.


You are correct. Your coworkers doing it because of friendship is fine, but now there is a push for the corporate to treat you like you're part of a "family" and make the workplace your "home". IMO, that's very creepy and it steps on certain boundaries that shouldn't be stepped on. My family is my family, my home is my home, and this is the place where I work.

Look I get the point about accommodating complete retards but to be fair he's working at a chemical testing lab, not a Birthday Party Factory.


W don't know, the guy could have been raped every birthday as a kid by his Nice Uncle Bob and the entire things set him off.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

From a little digging around it looks like Gravity Diagnostics is one of those little dirtwater testing labs that popped up to handle Covid testing overflow. Group employee photos have them all with tense stances and uncomfortable smiles. COO prattles endlessly about meaningless awards and girl power crap. The rest of the story writes itself.

I'm afraid I don't know how to archive things.

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Julie Brazil, RN Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder
Julie’s career began as an RN specially trained to treat patients with life threatening illness related to renal and cardiac comorbidities. She developed a passion for ensuring all patients received, not just treatment, but also education and awareness for improved quality of life. This led her to start her own consulting firm, initially working on delivering unique health care information to the public via the web. She then shifted to lab services where she felt she could make a stronger impact on patient lives, prevention and outcomes. Julie’s focus is on compliance, operations, clinical treatment algorithms and patient advocacy. She holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Nursing Degree and is a University of North Florida alum.

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Look I get the point about accommodating complete retards but to be fair he's working at a chemical testing lab, not a Birthday Party Factory.


W don't know, the guy could have been raped every birthday as a kid by his Nice Uncle Bob and the entire things set him off.

Yeah exactly. Enduring gay office parties is not an essential task at his job. He deserves a reasonable accommodation to get out of them, same as a vegan or Jewish guy shouldn't have to eat ribs at the company bbq to keep the peace.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

The Sperg is completely in the right, he specifically asked them not to do a thing that had nothing to do with performing his duties as an employee, they directly went against what he asked because "MUH PARTY."

The West as a culture needs to relearn that "Leave me the fuck alone please" means leave the person the fuck alone.

 

[Amber the Hedgehog]

Celebrating an employee's birthday always seemed messed up to me. Seems like a real effort to replace the family so you feel more obligated to let things slide.

Now celebrating a retirement or something, that's fine. Everyone should be happy that someone escaped the nightmare.

Most places I have dealt with only celebrate round decades, basic birthdays only getting few "happy birthday" and maybe a card. As far as the celebrations go it's usually opportunity for genuine work friends to do something nice or just to everyone to eat some cake on company dime. Either way basically relax little but not let it intervene with regular duties. So most people who don't like them still tend to tolare them just fine, since you only have to deal with it once every ten years and usually the company also sponsored a little extra bonus. I found it be pretty good balance. Not too intrusive but could be fun enough to those like that stuff.

The Sperg is completely in the right, he specifically asked them not to do a thing that had nothing to do with performing his duties as an employee, they directly went against what he asked because "MUH PARTY."

The West as a culture needs to relearn that "Leave me the fuck alone please" means leave the person the fuck alone.

And if you happen to across one it's clearly demonstrated here that you should leave them fuck alone by not hiring them and firing them if you had made the mistake of hiring them. They clearly aren't willing to work as team so why work with them? Just listen to them and leave them to rot. They aren't just aren't worth of the trouble.

Joking aside I get introverts and respecting wishes but I think some have gotten bit too entailed to the point that they aren't compromising the slightest. I hate calls and meetings so just email me, never mind that those are your preferred communication methods that are not only natural and easier to you but cut tons work from you. Only me liking space and minimal interaction matters, not your comfort and time.