Opinion ID: 791166
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Culver's Alleged Insubordination During the January 10 Meeting

Text: 24 Gorman further contends that Culver was insubordinate to Schroeder during the January 10 meeting with Jorde by telling Jorde that Schroeder pushed his job off on her, did not perform all required property management tasks, prevented her from speaking with the maintenance staff to resolve maintenance issues and had failed to attend to a leak at one property until the city health department had issued a citation. Of course [w]e have consistently held that an employee's insubordination toward supervisors and coworkers, even when engaged in protected activity is justification for [adverse employment action]. Love v. City of Chi. Bd. of Educ., 241 F.3d 564, 570 (7th Cir.2001) (quoting Kahn v. United States Sec'y of Labor, 64 F.3d 271, 279 (7th Cir.1995)). Culver, however, vigorously protests Gorman's characterization of her conduct, stating that she did not raise her voice throughout the January 10 meeting, and, of course the stated purpose of the meeting was to air her discontents. Whether her non-confrontational comments in the course of such a meeting amounted to insubordination is a jury question bearing on the issue of pretext. 25 Culver's criticisms of Schroeder's ability as a manager do not appear to have been personal attacks by an irate employee but objectively supportable concerns voiced at the invitation of a superior manager. Jorde's instructions to Culver to repeat her criticisms of Schroeder to his face resulted in just that. If anything, Culver was following her superior's directive, and so was being subordinate, not in subordinate. The citing of this encounter as grounds for termination seems a stretch. 26