Opinion ID: 2974860
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Rufo’s Alleged Poor Performance

Text: D&B’s other proffered legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for not promoting Rufo is that Rufo’s job performance was not sufficiently outstanding to merit a promotion. One of D&B’s bases for its assertion that Rufo’s “poor performance” motivated D&B to deny Rufo a promotion is Rufo’s failure to follow company policies. As specific examples, it maintains that Rufo gave shots of Tabasco sauce to employees who came in late on Sunday mornings, allowed employees to leave their 2 This belief is based upon deposition testimony and Rufo’s evaluations. Robinson testified that Rufo’s storytelling “didn’t seem like it was something that we were overly concerned with” and did not hold Rufo back from a promotion. J.A. at 349 (Robinson Dep. at 32-33). Rufo testified that he told bizarre stories to get a laugh and to boost morale, and he explained that the “alien abduction” story began with a makeshift Halloween costume and became a running joke among other employees. He offered similar explanations for the “pimping” and “baby mailing” stories. J.A. at 265 (Rufo Dep. at 106-09). Most tellingly, Rufo’s evaluations contain no indication that anyone was concerned that his unusual stories exhibited poor judgment. To the contrary, the evaluations’ only comments regarding his judgment are positive. 7 shifts early, failed to enforce D&B’s ban on carrying cell phones into the restaurant, and failed to report an allegation of sexual harassment to Robinson. Rufo offers no evidence to call into question the veracity of these allegations and no arguments for why they are not legitimate reasons to deny him a promotion. By effectively conceding that these actions qualify as “poor performance” and also failing to provide evidence that this allegedly poor performance did not actually motivate D&B to refuse to promote him, Rufo fails to carry his burden under the ADEA’s burden-shifting framework. For this reason, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment for D&B on Rufo’s age-discrimination claims.