Fired under favoritism circumstances

[voiceofreason]

Jurisdiction

New York

I work as a Business Development Manager for a 2 billion global dollar tech company that's been in business for over 30 years.

The manner in which we get leads and earn commission is largely dependent on the number of accounts assigned to you. There are some BDMs on our 10 person team who have over 4000 accounts and some that have less than 1000. Consequently, some of the top performers are far exceeding their performance goals and making 10s to hundreds of thousands of dollars than the bottom half of the team. This creates and inequity and unfair situation which I brought to my prior boss and new boss's attention multiple times. Our BDM positions are the same in term of job function. Also, some of the top performers are allowed to target existing clients, which it's easier to get leads from, contributing to their productivity numbers and commission payouts. Btw…. I am considered one of the top performers, do not target existing clients and have the 3rd lowest number of accounts assigned to me.

Here's my question. Is there company I work for exposed to the potential of a lawsuit if leadership lets the bottom performers go? I understand that NYS is an employment at will state. However, this circumstance is a clear example of favoritism where some team members are financially benefiting.

 

[zddoodah]

As long the "favoritism" is not based on a categorization such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc., it's not illegal.

 

[Tax Counsel]

When the employer is not a government agency, then the employer may legally fire you for any reason (or no reason at all) except for a few reasons prohibited by law. The prohibited reasons include firing you because:

• of your race, color, religion, sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, etc) national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like marital status, veteran status, etc);

• you make certain kinds of reports about the employer to the government or in limited circumstances to specified persons in the employing company itself (known as whistle-blower protection laws);

• you participate in union organizing activities;

• you use a right or benefit the law guarantees you (e.g. using leave under FMLA);

• you filed a bankruptcy petition;

• your pay was garnished by a single creditor; and

• you took time off work to attend jury duty (in at least most states).

The exact list of prohibited reasons will vary by state. So how does the employer decide who gets more/better accounts and who doesn't? Simply saying it's favoritism isn't enough. It's the reason for the favoritism that matters.