So, like, this dude Richard DiBona, who is 53 years old and used to work as a software engineer at this company, Wayfair, claimed that he got the boot because of his age.
Last week, Richard DiBona, a former software engineer at Wayfair, got the axe in July 2020 and then decided to take them to court for age discrimination.
After a whole week of trial drama, a jury at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston shut down Richard DiBona’s claim of age discrimination against the company.
DiBona was all like, “Yo, Wayfair, you discriminated against me ’cause I’m old,” alleging that they fired him without a good reason. But then his old manager and some big shots at Wayfair were like, “Nah, man, he was slacking off and not a great leader.”
According to The Boston Globe, DiBona said he got a good performance review in February 2020, but then got the boot in July 2020. He’s 53, by the way.
He claimed that he was hit with a “performance improvement plan” out of nowhere after his positive review, and he thinks it was all because he asked for time off to take care of his kids during the pandemic.
Under some Age Discrimination Act thingy, it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against peeps who are 40 or older based on their age. DiBona also threw shade saying that younger employees who weren’t doing so hot got treated differently.
But Wayfair peeps were like, “Nah, man, he got the boot ’cause he wasn’t performing well.” And guess what? The jury agreed with them.
Wayfair was all like, “See, we don’t discriminate based on age or anything else,” in a statement to The Globe.
So, during the pandemic, Wayfair was making bank with sales going from $9 billion to $18 billion in 2020. But then things took a turn, and they had to do some layoffs.
DiBona said he’s still proud that he took them to court, even though he didn’t win. He was like, “Discrimination at work is way too common, and a lot of times, it goes unchecked.”
He thanked everyone who had his back during the whole thing.
There are two more peeps who sued Wayfair for age discrimination in 2021. One of them, Mark Bissaillon, got his case dismissed ’cause it was missing some stuff that needed to be refiled.
So, like, that’s the drama at Wayfair with peeps getting fired and suing for age discrimination and all that jazz.
Not really sure why this all matters, but hey, that’s the news for ya.
