Geico Supervisor’s ‘Being Here’ Comment Fuels Leave Bias Trial

A former Government Employees Insurance Co. sales representative may be able to prove the company interfered with her Family and Medical Leave Act leave by pointing to her boss’s stressing “the importance of being here” while coaching her, the Southern District of Indiana ruled.

Supervisor Josephus Jordan made that comment in an updated coaching plan he delivered to Rachel Davis just hours after Davis used some of her intermittent FMLA leave that morning because she was running late to work, the court said.

Given the proximity in time, a jury could find Jordan’s comment “would have discouraged a reasonable person ...