I sued IBM in federal court for employment discrimination due to my disability. I could not let them get away with what they did to me, including the harassment that culminated into my being taken out of IBM on a stretcher because i had a breakdown. Here is my perspective … my personal story:

Throughout it all, IBM piled lie over lie to cover up their negligence and illegal
actions. And the Court let them get away
with it. I tend to think fraud was involved because the court blatantly changed my actual claims, as well as made what i believe are deliberate attempts to cover up IBM’s wrongdoing. For example, the court conviently defined two categories of information as the same when they were vastly different. Or they, again, coveniently put a “cause” with an “effect” that had nothing to do with each other, but the casual “observer” teading the case wouldnt know that. It is only when you reas what i actually accused IBM of that that the courts egregious
errors become blaringly evident- and it
wouldnt be the first time IBM was accused of bribing an official. IBM did not win on substance of their arguments. No, they successfully prevented me from proving my case by refusing to turn over meaningful documentation and provide addresses so i
could conduct depositions with coworkers.
In fact, I submitted to the court original IBM documents and the same documents after IBM tampered with them. The changes portrayed me as a performance and conduct problem, even though i had received an excellent evaluation. At the time, I suffered from clinical depressuon, an ADA-covered disability, for which i blame IBM for in the first place.
Furthermore, after I disclosed my disability and requested a reasonable accommodation during my training period, my manager began a campaign to get rid of me. First, he illegally termimated my training and accommodation. Then, per his instruction, i worked alone instead of paired-up like everyone else in my
same job category. Hence, my daily report
showed significantly less work being done compared to what everyone else was doing … not surprising. At the time i was not aware i was being set up. But then my manager
deviously accused me of “poor performance” when just two months prior to disclosing my disability, i received a glowing evaluation. Keep in mind that i was working without benefit of completed training with my requested accommodation for several months. My requested accommodation was a “patient trainer” who would not scream at me because of my depression-related slower
learning ability. I already had my share of hostility from trainers.
Also, my manager followed me down the hall, insulted me, then ridiculed
my disability. He also threatened to
terminate me. I complained to HR and when they talked to my manager, he retaliated against me by describing me to HR as a “poor
performer” and a conduct problem (i
sometumes wonder if ibm coached him to
make those statements because employers typically win discrimimation cases when the
employee is described that way). Unfortunately for me, if IBM had investigated
at that time, my coworkers, who i got along extremely well with, would have collaborated my story. In fact, my supervisor (under my manager) had just told me that he
“never heard a negative thing about me”. But,
instead of heeding my complaint, IBM required me to meet with my manager a
number of times, i assume so that my manager could “counsel a problem employee”. Instead, behind closed doors, my vindictive manager verbally-bashed me at length. Meanwhile, i dissolved in tears each time while trying to defend that i didnt do anything. My depression exacerbated until i was carried put of IBM on a stretcher because the stress caused me to have a breakdown. I couldnt understand what was going on because I didnt know until later that my manager had lied about me to get the hot spotlight of gross misconduct off of him. You see, i wasnt the first person to complain to HR about him. Several months prior to my complaint, my manager stood up in a dept meeting and informed us that “someone in this room turned me into HR”. Interestingly, when i sent an interrogatory to IBM requesting information about formal complaints made against my manager, they replied that i was the first one to file a formal complaint. Just another lie from IBM.
Andbecause they believed my manager’s
egreguous lies about me, IBM forced me out
with instructions not to return to work until i could prove that i actually had a disability. This is after IBM had approved a 6-month medical leave for me due to my just diagnosed major depression; and per the ADA, a “record” of a disability covers you under the ADA. So why did they force me out? I think they were calling-my-bluff … after all, what did they have to lose ? When my psychiatrist submitted proof, i was allowed to return to work. Only a few days later, my manager got a new manager over him and i was required to meet with him the following day (after my manager verbally pounded me until i was a mess –crying and hopeless). When I met with the second-level manager, he, like my manager, stonewalled my explanations of innocence. He already had his story set on what “really”
happened (which was nothing more than my managers retaliatory lies to HR). I felt that IBM was just going through the motions of progressive discipline in order to termimate me. So, the next day i re-filed my complaint with the NYSDHR (I originally filed a complaint weeks earlier and no action was taken on it). When IBM received the complaint, they repeated my managers retaliatory lies, and at the conference, they
added a new whopper of a lie — that when
my psychiatrist wrote “N/A” next to the physical limitations portion (examples listed were lifting, pushing/pulling, etc) of the short-term disability form (my proof to return to work ), they lied and said that meant i had “no restrictions” ( to my mental disability). That was to distract the investigator from the fact that they terminated my training and accommodation. Later, i found out there is a separate page for mental disabilities. IBM pulled a bait-and-switch. At the time, i was not aware that IBM was legally-reqired to supply my reasonable accomodation because i told my manager (and recounted it in my rebuttal to the NYSDHR), that the reason i needed the accommodatiom was “because” of my disability. When the accommodation is requested BECAUSE of the disability, and it would not create a financial
hardship on the employer, the employer is required by law to supply the accommodation. And even though my rebuttal contained my entire personal documentation of events (dates, times, quotes, witnesses and descriptions of my mindset during those affected months) on 18 typewritten, single-spaced pages. The NYSDHR not only “bought” IBMs unsubstantiated fabrications (they wrote in a
brief later that they never initially investigated), they wrote their decision practically word-for-word from IBMs defensive submission to them. The NYSDHR didnt investigate (question my coworkers, etc) or take me seriously. Major depression is not taken seriously, as i found out during the course of litigation. In fact, the MYSDHR investigator made some hostile and inappropriate remarks to me during our conference. Throughout litigation, i actually thought that i would get justice, but instead, I
got the bum’s rush. But here’s the rub. When the EEOC, who oversees the NYSDHR, mailed me a Right-to-Sue letter, i pursued the lawsuit vigorously and spent (and borrowed) thousands to do it. I couldnt let IBM get away with viciously, and flippantly, lying about me. But its just a game to large corporations and the courts. IBM devised an equation to treat employees however they want and beat the
system later. Meanwhile, i grew up in a religious and patriotic home with a WWII veteran father. I always believed the courts were fair — but no more. But, in the end, IBM succeeded in using the NYSDHR’s decision to prematurely dismiss the lawsuit. So, what is the use of receiving a Right-to-Sue letter in the first place. I just “chased my tail” while spendung thousands.
IBM took advantage of my not being able to
afford an attorney and after dozens of calls, none would take the case against IBM. And it was difficult to write submissions to the court, make deadlunes, work, and suffer from worse depression due to my manager. But it was something i had to do. I didnt care that there’s a cap on discrimimation cases involving a disability. Or that a judge told me i would only get about ten thousand dollars before he even knew the facts of the case. It’s
not like sexual harassment or national origin harassment where the sky is the limit. You can get millions in those cases. Not with disabilities. So, I pursued the case pro se and
IBM took advantage of my not having an attorney by refusing to turn over documents that would prove my case. They performed a court taboo by requesting my work-product during discovery, and i didnt know any better. I gave it to them. They also threatened my
primary witness with adverse-action of her employment if she signed an affidavit for me. They interviewed my coworkers during discovery, who then phoned me to say that they told IBM what a nice person i was. The court allowed IBM my psychiatrists records which substantiated my claims to the court. I threatened to file a Motion-to-Dismiss if they didnt properly answer my interrogatories, turn over documents, etc. They then set a trap that i fell head-first into and then they requested to dismiss the case – even though i told the court that i wanted to depose witnesses. Next thing i know, IBM immediately filed their Motion-to-Dismiss. The overwhwelming evidence against them -coworkers testimonials, psychiatrists records, etc made them looklike evil, hideous bullies against the easy going employee. They desperately wanted to bulldoze all of that right off a cliff.
Then the court (namely the controversial
Judge George Daniels and/or his then-law clerk Peter Anthony) completely manufactured my actual claims into claims that would “fail as a matter of law”. If you compare what i actually wrote to what the court asserts i wrote, they are nothing alike. The actual “retaliation” i was claiming was my managers lies about me after i reported him to HR. Instead, the court changed my claim into a brief remark i made about a
different incident where my manager “attempted” to retaliate against me but failed. The fact that IBM illegally termimated my traiming and my ADA-required accommofatuin was watered-down to my being transferred out of the dept and continued to be accommodated. First of all, i was not transferred out of the dept. as the court erroneously claimed. The incidents occurred in 2007. I was laid off in 2013 from
that same department. I never left.
As for the harassment issue (hostile work environment), i explained in my submissions that i was callex into my managers office 4-5 times and sadistically harassed for long periods of time while i cried uncontrollably, along with my disability being ridiculed and other situations that caused anxiety and an exacerbation of my depression. The court cleverly covered everything up in IBMs favor. They tedefined situations and rewrote reality to benefit IBM. When i tild Peter Anthony thati was appealing, strange things began to happen … for example, my last submission disappeared off the docket (if it was even placed on the docket). You can only use documents on the docket to appeal. When i submitted a motion that someone signed for the document (i believe it was Peter but couldnt make out the entire signature) and presented the Fedex return receipt, suddenly copies of that motion requesting that the document be placed on the docket. First, it was approved … then i received a notice that i would have to eait for the judges to read the appeal. That completely undermines the fact that i wanted to use that well-polished document for my appeal. But, it needed to be on the dicket before i could use it. Needless to say, i explained in my appeal (per a former attorney) that the court used the wrong reyaliation … they used the “attempted” instead of the “actual (even though i had differentiated between the two. I did rhe same with the harrassment and failure to accommodate issues. The appeals court denied it. I even had the former attorney write a writ to the U.S. Supreme Court knowing that there was a slim chance they would accept that what happened to me (and potentially millions of others that suffer from major depression at any given time) would benefit from my story. So how are the laws that are designed to protect us protecting us when squirrely corporations are given immunity from the courts.

placed on the docket disappeared.