A standing desk request, a distant reassignment, then a firing
A former Defense Intelligence Agency officer says she was fired after requesting disability accommodations while helping investigate Havana Syndrome.
That is the account in a complaint filed July 6, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. For HR leaders, it reads like a case study in how an accommodation process can break down, and how a probationary firing can end up in federal court.
The worker was hired in March 2021 as a technical collection officer on a two-year probationary term, the complaint says, and assigned to a high-profile working group studying the causes of Havana Syndrome. In June 2021, back from surgery, she asked for a standing desk. The agency approved it the following month, according to the filing.
Then, the complaint alleges, things shifted. Her first-line supervisor told colleagues she would "no longer participate or support the WG" - the Havana Syndrome working group - the filing says. Later that month came a Letter of Counseling citing "unprofessional behavior, not following communication protocols, and failing to complete and participate in specific tasks," along with a reassignment to an office in Reston, Virginia. The worker replied that she couldn't medically handle the roughly 45-minute commute.
One point HR teams will notice: the complaint says a scheduled Interactive Accommodation Process meeting was cancelled by the supervisor as unnecessary. The...
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