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🎉 Sued by a coworker?
Read time: 2.5 minutes
Good Morning Party People! 🎉
We have some CRAZY stories for you all today! Enjoy The Party.
PARTY PLAN 🎉
🧑‍⚖️ Sued by a coworker?
🤨 Is employee performance down?
💸 The company that raised money…then did layoffs…
And, of course, MEMES!
MEME OF THE DAY
WORKPLACE
Imagine Getting Sued by your Coworker…For This…
Everyone who works in an office has experienced annoying coworkers at some point.
We even covered the most common types of annoying coworkers last month (lunch thieves are the absolute worst).
But this one takes the cake…or last slice of pizza in the break room.
A new lawsuit between coworkers at the Environmental Protection Agency involves a type of coworker that we didn’t mention! The excessive perfume wearer.
More specifically, the lawsuit involves a plaintiff alleging that the EPA failed to accommodate his severe allergies, which were exacerbated by a co-worker who wore heavy perfume, according to documents released by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Putting on extra perfume when your coworker is allergic? Next-level office pettiness.
The worker with allergies initially requested accommodation under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for his allergic reactions in the form of a private office or small conference room.
The EPA countered with an offer of fully remote work, which the plaintiff rejected.
(Wow, not even the WFH bid can save him)
Upon supplying his employer with medical documentation, he was granted his request to relocate to an unoccupied cubicle in a different section of the workplace, but complained that it was still “very perfummy.”
Ok, maybe this guy is the more annoying coworker.
The EPA again relocated the employee to another cubicle further away and supplied him with an air filter, but he continued to suffer symptoms. How much perfume was this lady wearing?! The plaintiff allegedly asked his coworker to stop wearing the perfume, but she declined.
The case will now go to trial where the matter will be resolved by a jury.
Hopefully, there’s no perfume in the courtroom!
Hilarious.
PERFORMANCE
Is Workplace Productivity Down?!
A global survey released on August 13th revealed that 73% of undertaking or considering layoffs in 2024.
Employee performance issues ranked highest among the reasons for layoffs, followed by misalignment in skills and financial pressures.
The results represent a big shift from the same survey conducted in 2023, where “over-hiring” was by far the number one reason for layoffs across the world.
It may not be over for bad employees, though!
Redeployment programs — which focus on retaining and reskilling talent — have gained traction, with 82% of HR leaders saying they’re considering redeployment as an alternative to layoffs.
The proportion of HR leaders that have already implemented redeployment programs has more than doubled (up to 47% from 22%) since 2023.
Another interesting part of this survey proves what most workers already think: leaders are clueless. 43% of HR leaders said they provide career coaching services and 45% said they provide access to outplacement services to laid-off employees. However, only 10% of workers said their employer provides career coaching and 9% said their employer provides outplacement services.
69% of workers also said their teams are burned out, while only 25% of HR leaders said they’re worried about increased workloads leading to employee burnout.
Classic.
LAYOFFS
The Company That Raised $500M…Then Had Layoffs…
The up-and-coming AI startup Cohere seemed to be on a path to compete with OpenAI in the near future. Last month, they raised $500M in new funding at a $5.5 billion valuation.
Seems like a sign of a stable company, right?! 95% stable at least.
The day after announcing the new round of funding, CEO Aidan Gomez announced that the company is laying off 5% of the total workforce. Imagine going home and telling your family that your company just got a new $500M in funding and the next day coming home to say you lost your job. Ouch.
Here’s what Gomez had to say in a letter to the company:
“This has been a mixed week for all of us. With our successful funding round closed, and a very exciting roadmap of new models and greater impact, I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. At the same time, it is with sadness that we have taken the step part ways with some of our colleagues from the last several years.”
The Toronto-based startup is still among OpenAI’s top competitors, along with Google, Meta, Anthropic, and Mistral, in the race to build the most capable large language models (LLMs) - a task that requires access to vast amounts of expensive and power-hungry computer chips.
In a surprising response to the layoffs, Gomez said the company will continue to hire at a fast pace, both backfilling for open positions (there are about 35 listed on Cohere’s website) and adding capacity in areas identified as strategic priorities.
The company plans to double in total headcount by the end of 2024.
Maybe they just needed some extra cash to get rid of the bad apples before doubling in size? Bizarre situation.
Many of the open roles offer lucrative salaries and benefits, so it may be worth checking out, even if they don’t have the best reputation for job security!
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