His numbers were record-breaking - so why did the layoff paperwork suddenly speed up
A jury found Wells Fargo retaliated against a top salesperson who asked to work from home permanently. A federal appeals court upheld it.
On August 21, 2026, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit mostly upheld a jury's verdict against Wells Fargo Securities, keeping alive a finding that the bank retaliated against a managing director who had requested a disability accommodation.
The employee had spent nearly three decades at the firm, rising from intern to managing director while managing a serious medical condition his coworkers had long known about. For years he handled it with informal flexibility. As his health worsened, he relied on a quiet understanding with his manager that he could step away from his desk, or work from home, when he needed to.
Then, in 2021, his longtime manager left. He began reporting to three senior executives he barely knew. Worried that an informal arrangement would leave him seeking permission every time his symptoms flared, he filed a formal request in August to work from home permanently.
The request landed badly. According to the court's account of the trial record, senior managers reacted with surprise and skepticism, asked what they needed "to push[] back," and decided that accommodating him would only "delay[] the inevitable." His performance rating slipped from "exceeds" to "meets" expectations despite record sales, and, the record showed,...
White House border czar Tom Homan fired back on Sunday's "State of the Union" after Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") of targeting parents at sch...