Opinion ID: 77817
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Greenberg's Employment with BellSouth

Text: Fernando Carbot was Greenberg's supervisor at BellSouth. Carbot's team is responsible for the installation and maintenance of telephone service. Under BellSouth's safe load limit policy, employees in jobs that required climbing could weigh no more than the safe load limit of the equipment used in their work groups. The manufacturers' safe load limit for the ladders, gaffs, bucket trucks, and safety belts used by Carbot's technicians is 300 pounds. The tool belt and tools used by each technician weighed 25 pounds. Consequently, Carbot's employees could weigh no more than 275 pounds. Because Greenberg's weight exceeded the safe load limit, Carbot would hand-pick Mr. Greenberg's job assignments to make sure he did not get any assignments that would require him to climb. According to Carbot, BellSouth hired another company, Concorde, in 2004 to track the weight of employees governed by the safe load limit policy. Carbot informed Greenberg that, unlike in the past, BellSouth's safe load limit policy would now be uniformly applied and that he would have to lose weight. In March 2004, Carbot gave Greenberg a weight loss timetable, under which Greenberg was required to lose 50 pounds over a period of 25 weeks in order to comply with the safe load limit. In September 2004, however, Concorde informed Carbot that Greenberg had not lost the required weight. Carbot asserted that Greenberg was, at that point, given 60 days to find another job, and that Carbot gave Greenberg the contact information for Tom VanValkenburg, who worked in BellSouth's Human Resources Department and could help place Greenberg in another job within the company. After Greenberg failed to find another job within the specified time, BellSouth terminated him on 15 February 2005. Greenberg suffers from diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism and a variety of disorders that affect his endocrinology and that such physiological disorders cause him to be overweight and prohibit him from losing weight. R1-28, Exh. 3 at 14. He has stated that his diabetes is [s]emi under control, and explained that it is less than real bad but it isn't to the [blood sugar] numbers where they want you to be, where a normal person's [sic] supposed to be. R1-28, Exh. 1 at 15. He testified that he no longer exercises as much because he is paranoid and is concerned that his blood sugar will fall. Id. at 19. He also indicated that his diabetes prevents him from caring for himself because of concerns that his blood sugar might get very low. As to his hypothyroidism, Greenberg testified that his condition causes him to have dryness in the mouth sometimes and makes him bigger and slower. Id. at 29, 34. He also stated that his thyroid condition: (1) affects his mental states; (2) causes him to sweat like crazy; and (3) causes his extremities to grow large. Id. at 30, 41-42. He said that hypertension causes him to get light-headed when he stands up after being seated. Greenberg testified that at one point during the 1990s he attempted to lose weight but, after a period of success, found that he was really messed up as a result. Id. at 26-27. He explained, I couldn't sleep very much, I couldn't walk very much, I couldn't do anything very much. I had stinging in my hands and in my feet, in my extremities. I was real dull. At that time my mind was really messed up. . . . I probably should have stayed home. Id. He also stated that he was diagnosed as being anemic. Following a later dieting attempt, Greenberg testified that he experienced a fainting spell, which led to hospitalization. Greenberg did not recall any derogatory comments by BellSouth managers about his weight. Nor had he heard managers use the terms disabled or disability to describe him. Greenberg testified, though, that because limitations prevented him from doing the same work as his co-workers did, he felt isolated. He recounted that he occasionally felt light-headed while on the job and had to take a break to get a little something in [his] system. Id. at 47. He testified that, in one instance, after a storm, he refused to scale a roof, worrying about whether roofs could support his weight and whether he might become light-headed while aloft. Greenberg asserted that, if he had been given a stronger ladder, he could have climbed it. Greenberg testified that he informed BellSouth that a stronger ladder could accommodate his weight. When he requested that BellSouth purchase these ladders, however, he received no response. Greenberg testified that he was unsure if he could return to his entry level work as a lineman because the work was rigorous. Greenberg stated that, toward the end of his career, he stopped working overtime because he could not stay out and miss a meal. He stated that, when he received the notification to lose weight, he did not think that he would be able to do it because of his past dieting difficulties. Greenberg testified that he can bathe and dress himself. He stated that he does not work outside as much as before and stated, . . . I don't want to work as hard, I don't want to lift as heavy a things as I used to try lifting. Id. at 44. He stated that he was physically able to walk but was apprehensive about distances. Id. at 51. He testified that he contacted BellSouth's human resources department and that they had informed him of a possible job answering phones in Pensacola, Florida. Greenberg concluded that he was not qualified for that job, because he neither answered phones nor typed. When asked if he had an interest in any position other than his previous position, he also responded in the negative.