Lawsuit of the Day: This General Counsel Is Allegedly A Teabag-Throwing Terror

A secretary is suing her former boss, an in-house attorney who gives terrible bosses a bad name…

Earlier this week, we learned about an epic departure memo sent to an allegedly terrible boss (or a great boss, depending on who you ask).

Well, it is turning out to be a bad week for all kinds of terrible bosses. On Wednesday, a senior in-house attorney at a global financial services firm was sued by his former secretary for gender discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Or in layman’s terms, allegedly being an über-jerk, and then some. We have snippets from the suit after the jump, but first, quiz time:

According to the lawsuit, this in-house boss from hell allegedly flung which of the following at his hapless former secretary:

A) a cup of hot tea
B) yogurt
C) degrading verbal insults
D) all of the above

Answers, as well as some expletive-laden invective from the lawsuit, below….

If you picked D, congratulations. That’s what Crystal Mitchell accuses Michael A. Lampert, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of BGC Securities, a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, of doing in her lawsuit, filed Wednesday in New York.

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Here are some screenshots from the lawsuit. If even some of this stuff turns out to be true, my heart goes out to this poor woman. No one should have to take this (gavel bang: New York Daily News):

 

“Don’t f***ing talk to me until you get me my breakfast”?

Seriously? Are we sure her boss wasn’t actually Chaz from Wedding Crashers? Sadly, the accusations get worse, and more physical:

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After another bad meeting, Lampert allegedly threw a plate of food all over Mitchell’s desk:

Honestly, I can totally understand feeling so angry that you want to throw something. But clearly, starting non-consensual food fights with your subordinates is not okay. Lampert should do what everyone else does: take his old pre-smartphone cell phone and hurl it into a wall. If the battery explodes out of the cheap plastic casing, it is bonus stress relief points.

In her lawsuit, Mitchell says she was repeatedly reduced to tears by her boss’s treatment. She allegedly asked for help and a transfer, to no avail. She claims Lampert belittled her for having children, and would not allow her to visit her sick child in the hospital during her lunch break.

When she turned in a resignation letter after barely two months on the job, she was allegedly fired before her resignation took effect. Severance pay was allegedly conditional upon a release, which she refused to sign.

But hey, at least Lampert’s accused of throwing teabags, and not teabagging. That would be even more embarrassing for everybody.

Cantor Fitzgerald VP was boss from hell, secretary says in suit [New York Daily News]