Peggy Olson was a long-time employee of Motorcade Insurance Company, located in the company's flagship office in Manhattan, NY. She was hired by Motorcade in 2008, and was promoted in 2012 to the position of “Subrogation Specialist II,” which involved the pursuit of claims for reimbursement from third parties (i.e., tortfeasors who caused auto accident-related losses to Motorcade’s insured’s). In 2019, encouraged by her supervisor, she applied for a promotion to a management position entitled “Subrogation Specialist Lead” or “Team Lead.” In this position, the successful candidate would be responsible for the subrogation function for the region encompassing Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. Because Olson was already performing several of the responsibilities of the Team Lead position, and based on her supervisor’s comments, Olson believed she was the frontrunner for the position. In addition, on her most recent performance evaluation in 2018, she had received excellent reviews, scoring a 4.40 out of a possible 5.00 points.

There were two finalists for the Team Lead position, Olson, and another in-house candidate, Don Draper. While Olson had held the Subrogation Specialist II position for seven years, Draper had only been promoted to that position about a year earlier. In addition, Draper had scored lower than Olson, though satisfactorily, on his most recent performance review, receiving a 4.20 out of a possible 5.00 points.

Three managers formed the promotion committee who interviewed the two finalists: Betty Francis, who had previously supervised and worked closely with Olson; Rachel Katz, the Director of Subrogation; and Joan Holloway, Olson’s immediate supervisor. Joan Holloway was the ultimate decisionmaker for the promotion, but she considered input from Francis and Katz in reaching her decision.

For about two years prior to the promotion decision, Olson had been taking one course per semester at night at local university. Also, at the time of the decision, she was the mother of seven-year-old triplets. Her husband, Mike, left a lucrative actuary position with another insurance company to stay home with the kids for a few years. On December 1, 2019, two months before the final decision, Mike made a surprise visit with the triplets to Olson's office. Olson was actually out of the office at a mediation to resolve a subrogation lawsuit, Mike met Holloway for the first time. During the conversation between Mike and Holloway, Holloway learned that Olson had seven-year-old triplets and that Mike decided to go back to work, and he was starting his new job in March.. Holloway sent an email to Olson stating, “Your husband just stopped by. Wow, I did not know you had triplets. Bless you! They are so cute!”

There is no evidence or any assertion that Olson’s work performance was impacted by any childcare responsibilities she may have had.

During Olson’s final interview with Francis, her former supervisor, she was asked how she would respond if an associate did not complete a project on time. After hearing Olson’s response, Francis indicated that she thought Olson "might be too compassionate to be strong." Francis continued, “Peggy, your approach may be too maternal. But remember, even as a mom, you can’t just let your kids get away with everything. You’re going need to ‘man up’ to run this team.”

Draper's interviews with the promotion committee went well. Based on her own perceptions, and those of Francis and Katz, Holloway gave Draper's interview an overall higher score than Olson’s by three points on a 50-point scale. On February 1, 2020, Holloway offered the promotion to Draper over Olson. When Holloway informed Olson that she didn’t get the promotion, Holloway explained:

Don had a higher interview score. Also, you are going to school, you have the triplets. You just have a lot on your plate right now. If any of us on the interview panel were in your position, we would feel overwhelmed. But, it's great that Mike's going to start making some good money, given that he's an actuary and all. But, as you know, it's usually pretty hard to find replacements for this position. We just don't want to risk having to go through the disruptions around here when you need to tend to your kids. Don has kids, too, but his wife is more of a traditional mother and stays home with them full-time; so, he doesn't have the same types of distractions that you do. I know that this isn't what you were hoping for, but please remember that we love you--it's just a business decision.

Olson continued to work in her position after Draper's promotion.

Ken Cosgrove worked in Olson's department and always had stellar performance reviews. He had been pulling for Olson to get the promotion and was stunned when he read the company-wide email announcing that Draper was awarded the promotion instead of Olson. Cosgrove figured that the decision must have had something to do with Draper being a man. On February 15, Cosgrove approached Katz and said, "Rachel, I see that Don got the promotion over Peggy. Really? Everyone knows that Peggy is much more qualified than Don. It seems to me that if Peggy was a man, Don wouldn't even have had a chance at the promotion.

Katz's response to Cosgrove was, "That's silly. We love Peggy. Don't make a mountain of a molehill. Plus, remember, 52% of our employees are women, and everyone on the promotion committee was a woman. Look, Peggy probably wouldn't have really wanted this job, anyway. I think she would want something a little more flexible...y'know...more "family-friendly." After this conversation with Katz ended, Cosgrove wasn't satisfied, so he went to HR reported that he believed that Draper only got the job because he's a man.

On February 20, Olson was at her cubicle when she noticed Cosgrove walk by. He was carrying a cardboard box and left the building without saying anything. She went over the Cosgrove's cubicle, but it was cleaned out with no sign that anyone worked there. Olson unsuccessfully attempted to call and text Cosgrove to see what happened. No one knows whether Cosgrove quit or was fired, but Olson did hear that Cosgrove accused the promotion committee of sex discrimination.

A couple days later, Olson's caseload started increasing heavily, and by the end of the month, she was having a hard time keeping up. On March 5, Holloway conducted a performance review, giving her a 3.00 of a possible 5.00 points. The feedback on the review was sparse and vague, stating only that "Peggy's performance needs improvement. She hasn't been a team player lately and has failed to keep up with her caseload." Her workload continued to increase and her request to Holloway for some administrative support was denied. On March 15, Olson received an email from Katz, stating: "Hi Peggy. I hope you're doing great! As you know, you've been having trouble managing your workload, so your performance is suffering. But, we have an opportunity in our cute little Ossining branch." Peggy replied, "You can't be serious. Ossining is an hour north of here. And that's just an agency office. We only keep two people in that office, and they're just agents who sell auto insurance policies. What am I supposed to be doing?" Katz responded, "Well, this is what we think is in everyone's best interests. You're expected to report to the Ossining office on March 30. Please pack up your cubicle and leave the office. You can take the next two weeks off to get ready."

Olson believes that Motorcade discriminated against her and committed retaliation against her.

Prompt

Discuss whether Motorcade violated Title VII by engaging in (I) disparate treatment and (II) retaliation against her. While preparing your response to the problem, be sure to consider the following grading standards below for what is considered "A" work:

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Title VII prohibits disparate treatment supported sex which can include treatment supported sexbased stereotypes For example An employer terminates an ... View the full answer