The judge in the Texas employment labor law case, Tim Sulak, has issued a Final Judgement ordering Microsoft to pay $2 million in compensatory and punitive damages and legal fees. Judge Sulak found the tech giant guilty of “acting with malice and reckless indifference” in an organized office retaliation against salesman Mercieca. “They (Microsoft Corporation) remain guilty today, tomorrow and in perpetuity over egregious acts against me and racist comments by their executive that led to the retaliation and vendetta resulting in my firing,” said Mercieca after the Final Judgement was announced.
Previously, a jury, by unanimous agreement, found that Microsoft and key managers had created a hostile work environment that led to Mercieca’s constructive dismissal and ordered that the 55-year-old Mercieca be paid $11.6 million, but the judge reduced it to the amount as is permitted.
A highly regarded member of the sales department with an unblemished record, Mercieca found himself drowning in nasty workplace conspiracy whereby fellow employees and supervisors undermined his work, falsely accused him of sexual harassment and expense account fraud, and marginalized him and blocked promotions.
The story began sometime before 2007 when Mercieca ended a relationship with a woman who went on to become his boss. Conditions at work began to change for him. Even though Mercieca went to the human relations department at Microsoft, the company did not act and allowed the behaviors to continue and even to escalate.
In addition to complaining about his own treatment in the workplace, Mercieca directly complained to Microsoft icon Steve Ballmer about sexist and racist comments made in the office by VP Eddie O’Brien.
“I wrote directly to Ballmer and told him what O’Brien said after the tsunami in Japan,” says Mercieca. “He said, ‘I would have zero pity for Japan. I would throw them right under the bus and create another tsunami if I have to.’” (Depositions.)
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Mercieca and his legal team of two lawyers were up against 250 lawyers that Microsoft set to work on the case. Despite that, Mercieca and his lawyers Roy Pollack and Paul T. Morin of Austin, Texas, four years of litigation and some 90,000 documents eventually won the day.
“Rather than do the right thing, the management team went after Michael by getting a female employee to file a sexual harassment complaint and a complaint of retaliation against him,” says Paul T. Morin. “Microsoft could have taken Mercieca’s charges seriously and disciplined the senior manager but instead it engaged in the worst kind of corporate bullying.”
READER COMMENTS
Nick Fernandez
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I strongly believe that she died in vain due to her dedication to her JOB at MEDNAX and her bullying bosses Carey and Pat decision for not allowing her to have this surgery. She worked hard for MEDNAX for over 20 years and in May 18, 2017 she received a registered letter of her dismissal from MEDNAX due to long extended disability absence. It is disappointing this decision was taken, when she lost any little hope that she had to come back to work from her battle with ovarian cancer. She has been depressed for several days after reading the dismissal letter and she did not need this type of news.
She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer on September, 2014 and I have seen very little or no verbal or written communication from her management team over the last 30 months, very disappointing and unprofessional to see this from a medical company. In addition, when she went in remission around May 2015, she had to take another position at a salary that was below her previous, this is pretty unfair since because of her cancer disease she had to make less money. After seeing this decision by MEDNAX, I will be very diligent to voice this situation to all kind of social media and seek legal advice. It is a horrible memory that our family has of her suffering during her fight with Cancer and it was all senseless due to her bullying at MEDNAX. Is there any legal action that I can pursue to set an example to this unethical company?
In Summary, the following are concerns that I have:
1. My Wife was severely intimidated and harassed by her boss on when she could take any medical leave or vacation. Was constantly harassed when she came back from a PTO day. Due to this harassment, she did NOT accept the recommendation of the cyst removal in her ovary and that eventually developed into cancer.
2. When she went on remission from Cancer in May 2015, she was forced to take a position with a lower salary. I think it was a punishment on the bullying boss.
3. Never received any verbal or written communication from management on her status during her disability.
4. Was dismissed from her company on May 2017 due to her long-term disability leave. Really? It was due to her Cancer prognosis.
5. Co-workers are afraid of being the next person to fall in the bully's crosshairs.
Thanks, and Regards,
Nick Fernandez
Tracy
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Damari Stratford
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All bullying is unacceptable !All bullying needs to stop.
I was also the only one that Jeff Ursino treated like this..All he needed to do was be kind, show kindness. I want to bring more awareness to work place bullying in 2016 to help others not have to deal with bullies for bosses. The laws need to change!!!
...I was fired 12 days before Christmas...
Bosses should lead employees not Bully...
Remember bullies come in all shapes and sizes....I was bullied by an adult named Jeff , my manager a bank in Carmel, Ca...after he successfully made me sick with nerves and caused my blood pressure to go up he fired me via UPS before Christmas while I was out on a workers comp pending case...my family will never forget the pain he caused us....it changed me forever.
Jeff once told me that I couldn't wear the hats I'd been wearing to work for almost four years with no problem. He said it was company policy yet there was nothing in writing. I called HR and they said there was nothing in the codes about hats. About six weeks later Jeff decided to tell me that I could wear hats again but only a couple days a week. I asked him what about the policy and he replied " I'm in control" , it was his way of throwing his weight around, what a bully!
He also threatened to fire me for job abandonment if I didn't show up to work on a day I couldn't work, my daughter was ill and he was already fully staffed. He put me on the schedule at the last minute to pressure me into working...a Bully at his finest.
He also stated that I hadn't worked on days that I had and I still have a copy of the schedules.
Bullying needs to end and companies need to properly train manages to be leaders not bullies! What will politicians do about it? Nothing! We need to unite and do something about adult bullying and in the work place!
I have two boxes of proof and I did document everything. When I realized that there is actually an Awareness month for anti bullying I decided to tell my story again in hopes of finding an organization that I can help bring light to this also very ugly issue!
What I have mentioned is just a bit of all he did.
No one cared or did anything about it. I wrote my leaders, congressmen , senators , mayors, city leaders, the president , attorney general, etc...everyone past the buck.
Since then, bullying has come to the forefront and I want to tell my story.
He is a father of 3 sons, still a " manager" , on the board of trustees for a school district and I can't help but wonder who he is bullying now.
He had choices and he chose to be unkind, uncaring, not understanding, treated me like crap, ignored what others where doing, focused on me until he ruined me!
ALL BULLIES NEED TO BE STOPPED!!!!!
Only cowards bully other people!
He didn't care what I was wearing he simply wanted to show who was in control and bully me. The hats didn't prevent me from doing my job nor did anyone ever complain about them, in fact I got lots of compliments from customers and a couple of his bosses and someone from HR, it's was great until he showed up as a temporary manager. He just wanted me gone and set out to wrongfully terminate me. He couldn't even write me up correctly and I have the proof. He couldn't even fire me correctly as he broke California Labor codes in the process of firing me. He was simply unkind and heartless to me.
Please grow up to be a kind, caring person. Never purposely make someone fear their going to loose their job for putting their daughter first, that's what he did to me...and yet he is a father.
Time to open their eyes and our leaders and change the laws. Speak the truth state the facts and have your evidence ready! One of the reasons I am doing this is because I have proof, my journal, the forms he used to write me up incorrectly. He was in such a hurry to write me up that the first time he wrote me up he used the wrong form, he used the second warning form.
He threatened me with job abandonment yet didn't know how that law worked.
For some reason the universe, my God or what ever you want to believe, had me keep all the evidence. In my journal I wrote daily of what occurred at work, he singled me out. In four and a half years I loved my job 98 percent of the days then he came and ruined not only me but the spirit of that bank branch. He took away causal Friday and tried to take away cookies on Fridays for our customers.
He said we all had to only eat in the break room but yet would eat at his desk and not say anything to the pretty blonde when she ate at her station. He took all my family photos down and claimed it was best for my family but allowed others to have their family photos out! A BULLY!!!
The more I read the more I realize he was threatened by me. My reviews didn't justify what he did. Several times I was asked if I was the manager as he stood next to me.
The hat issue was just him being a bully, he ignored what others did and wouldn't give me credit when it was due to me, he played it down. He snapped his fingers twice, said my name , pointed to the back room and said Damari in the back the very first time he ever addressed me. In the back room he said my reputation precedes me, that upper management had nothing but glowing reports about me. He asked why I thought I do so well and I told him because I love my job.
He was a temporary manager, the branch was looking for a full time manager. Jeff was managing two branches during this process, I was trying to hang in there until we got a new one but he couldn't wait to fire me.
I'm understanding more about bullies these days, it doesn't make it right but we need to pray for the bully.
I use his name and the bank and location to keep it real and honest. I have nothing to hide.
I use to tell my kids' if you don't want grammy to know what you did then don't do anything you'd be a shamed of because I will tell grammy the truth' it really helped with their behavior.
I once wrote him and asked why he did what he did and I also told him that I hope no one ever treated his family as he had treated mine, but I got no response to my email from him. It's all true so it's not slander.
I honestly feel that the bully should be called out, if he/she was so proud of their actions then don't get upset when we share what you've done.
Men the bully women are weak cowards. I'm a mom that was simply working like most moms do.
Please feel free to share my story to bring awareness to work place bullies and bullying, it needs to stop, the laws need to protect the employees and victims not the bully. Share my story please.
Kindness is free, spread it! Bullying cost lives and jobs, stop it! ~Damari Stratford ~
Andrea
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B Toby
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Alex Poulter
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G. Oliver Koppell
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Mr Garcia may have a valid claim of retaliation. He should contact an attorney in the State in which the conduct took place as should any other similar victim.
Oliver Koppell
Jerry Garcia
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Worked for them about 5 yrs. One day a female employee came to me saying she wanted to file a complaint against her supervisor. He was sexually harassing her, they had a previous relationship. But he was married and the female employee had broken off the relationship. Anyway he continued to send her explicit pictures and harassing her threatening to fire her etc.
When she came to me I wrote up a report and sent it to the corporate office, by passing the operations manager, because he would have swept it under the rug and probably fired her, because the supervisor in question was a top producer for the co. I knew this from previous incidents .
Anyway the co. had to bring in a outside investigator and sure enough they found the supervisor was harassing her. The co. transferred him to another location. Then about 2 weeks after that happened I was called into a meeting with the vice president and the operations manager. The vice president proceeded to yell and curse at me and threatening me. Asking why I by passed the operations manager . I told him because he would have not done anything about it and my job was to keep the employees safe. After that meeting I had to go to Dr. I have Panic disorder and this meeting set me off into a severe panic attack. Took some time off on off work orders. When i came back some responsibilities were removed from my duties and then I couldn't do anything right after 5 yrs. on the job. I finally gave them a 90 day notice and quit.