The one thing that most of us appreciate about work is the fact that we get to have parties. It is typically a break from the boring daily tasks but sometimes, things work out a little differently.
That was the case recently in Kentucky when a 29-year-old lab technician named Kevin Berling was surprised at lunchtime with a birthday party. It happened in Covington at Gravity Diagnostics, and his coworkers just wanted to show him a good time.
The problem is, Berling didn’t exactly appreciate the surprise party and ended up having a panic attack. As a result, he was summarily dismissed not long after from his position and then filed a lawsuit against the company.
A local news station, WKRC, spoke with the attorney for Berling, Tony Butcher. He said: “Managers started giving him a hard time for his response to the birthday celebrations. They actually accused him of stealing his co-workers’ joy.”
According to the outlet, Berling had asked the manager not to throw a birthday party when he first interviewed with the company. Apparently, however, the manager had forgotten that he made the request and continued to throw parties, resulting in a panic attack.
After Berling had the panic attack, he ran to his car in order to recover. On the next day, they had a meeting with him to ask him what had happened and then he had a second panic attack. Less than a week later, he was fired from Gravity Diagnostics. The reason? His bosses said they were concerned about his anger and the potential for him to become violent.
According to The Independent, the company experienced rapid growth during the pandemic and some of the employees were given up to 300% raises.
After filing the lawsuit, Berling ended up with a $450,000 payday. His attorney said that there wasn’t a chance of him becoming violent and that he was only calming himself down using coping techniques that he found effective when he had panic attacks.
As far as the $450,000 judgment is concerned, it was awarded by a 12-person jury and it was unanimous. $120,000 in lost wages were given, along with $30,000 in future wages and an additional $300,000, according to the court’s judgment, for “past, present and future mental pain and suffering, mental anguish, embarrassment, humiliation, mortification, and loss of self-esteem.”
Gravity Diagnostics has said that they will appeal, if necessary, the “improper” verdict and said that it should not have gone to trial in the first place. It seems as if Berling did not disclose that he had a problem with anxiety and that he exhibited threatening behavior toward a female supervisor at the party.