Opinion ID: 1193933
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Fischer's Continued Employment at Avanade

Text: In addition to Fischer's complaints regarding the dinners at the gentleman's club and inquiry as to whether Lewis' and Sieverding's promotions were all set up, she also joined a number of women in collectively raising concerns regarding women's experiences at the company. On April 11, 2005, Fischer and a number of other senior level women at Avanade engaged in a conference call with Mitch Hill, Avanade's CEO, and Eric Friedman, Avanade's Human Resources Director, to address this issue. This meeting was to be about general women's concerns and no specific incidents of unfair treatment or discrimination were discussed. Fischer identified herself by name at the meeting after Hill indicated that anonymity did not work for him, and that, in order to assist the women, he would need to know who they were. Although Avanade failed to hold a follow-up meeting despite requests by the women's spokesperson, Avanade did hire an outside consultant which held a training session on women's issues on July 26, 2005, and the company implemented a diversity awareness program for the 2006 fiscal year. The same month that the meeting with Hill occurred, Fischer began working on a new project with Francis Delgado, an Avanade Connected Methods Senior Project Manager. By mid-June Delgado had relayed to Lewis that she was considering taking Fischer off the project due to a lack of communication and activity on Fischer's part. By June 20, 2005, Delgado told Lewis that these concerns had not been addressed and that she was going to assign Fischer's responsibilities to someone else. Lewis then relayed this information on June 21 to Mick Slattery, the Strategic Accounts General Manager, who instructed Human Resources to review Fischer's time entries for the week of June 15, a standard practice when issues involving an employee's work habits, expense reimbursements, or time entries exist. Slattery's own concerns regarding Fischer's lack of communication, lack of attendance at leadership meetings (although Fischer contends she was not informed that she needed to attend any such meetings), and undefined work schedule led him to inform Lewis and Human Resources Generalist Spielmann that he intended to record Fischer's progress as does not meet expectations or requires improvement. Moreover, Slattery wanted Human Resources to monitor Fischer's time entries for the remainder of the year, due to his concerns regarding the amount of time Fischer had taken off that year and the small amount of billable work she had performed. Although Slattery's request was only for Fischer's time entries, Spielmann also reviewed Fischer's expense reimbursement requests, finding what appeared to be unauthorized reimbursement requests for cell phone and broadband expenses. Sometime after July 21, 2005, Fischer was approached about these expenses, which she claimed had been authorized by Mendel, although she was unable to produce emails documenting such authorization at the time. During this period of time, Avanade was also in the process of preparing to dismantle and restructure the Strategic Accounts Region. The decision to go forward with this restructuring was made in April 2005, with the Region's change to the U.S. Delivery Center to be effective as of October 1, 2005. On July 19, 2005, Slattery told Fischer that as part of the restructuring, all U.S. Delivery Center employees would need to be based full-time in Chicago. Soon after talking with Fischer, Slattery had a similar conversation with Dan Egleston, a Strategic Accounts Solutions Developer, informing him that he too would have to relocate to Chicago if he wished to work in Avanade's U.S. Delivery Center. Slattery, however, had failed to mention any such requirement during an earlier slide presentation on the restructuring that Fischer had seen. Fischer replied that she wanted to stay in Iowa, and Slattery said that in order for her to do so she would need to transfer to a position in the Central Region or another region for the upcoming fiscal year. Two days later, on July 21, 2005, Fischer filed her first EEOC charge against Avanade. Spielmann received notice of this charge and relayed this information to Slattery and Lewis. Following this charge, Director of Human Resources Friedman contacted Fischer, stating: I must admit I am a little speechless. What is it that you are looking for? Are you looking for a new role within Avanade, a transfer to another region, money? Fischer replied, No, not really. I am just looking for Avanade to start making things right again. In August 2005, Slattery issued a negative assessment of Fischer on her Personal Contribution Form. Earlier, on August 6, Lewis had recommended to Slattery that he not issue the form, since providing this feedback at this time would seem like retaliation. When Slattery formally issued the Personal Contribution Form later that month, it included a negative assessment for Fischer's participation on a leadership team, although Fischer was not aware that she had been placed on any such team. At the end of August, Mendel offered Fischer a position in the Central Region after being told by Slattery that Fischer did not intend to relocate to Chicago. This was a lateral position working in government opportunities, with no change in official title, salary, benefits, or primary responsibilities. Fischer accepted this position in mid-September. At the end of the month however, on September 30, 2005, Fischer submitted her resignation, effective October 15, 2005, after being offered a higher paying position at another company.