Integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. . . I wish there was more integrity at AARP

Following up on my Oh Newman post, and a small recap for you here:

When I was discriminatorily fired on February 22, 2018, Angela Jones and Michael Loizzi read from pre-written talking points. The two reasons for my termination: 1. I accepted dinner and a ticket to an illusionist show in New York City during a business trip from Source Marketing. 2. I accepted tickets to the Allstate Sugar Bowl from Allstate who was an AARP Services partner (ASI). I was informed that I violated the Code of Conduct by accepting these Valuable Privileges and that is why I was fired.  Well, that was the reason given that day.

I will now focus on Reason #2 for why I was supposedly fired: The Allstate Sugar Bowl.

I’ll let you know now, I hate football.  As I shared on the stand, it just doesn’t make sense to me.  I think of it this way, if you saw a kid on a playground in full kit football costume running into a brick wall over and over, wouldn’t you tell him to stop?  He’s going to hurt himself.  Maybe he’ll get a concussion or tear a ligament?  I’m sure there will be bruising and cuts or scrapes.  If he does it long enough, he may die?  It shocks me that so many people look at the brain trauma football players experience and are surprised that it happens.  Those are big dudes who weigh a lot and they run into each other at speed.  Physics are Physics.

My husband does watch The Commanders football, I either go into another room or read a book while he is watching.  He is not a college football fan, unlike the two straight men who both attended the Allstate Sugar bowl: One of them two years in a row, the other, my employee at the time Mr. Herd, has season tickets to Virginia Tech where he went to school.  They both LOVE college football.  Diehard fans.  Neither of them were terminated for attending the Sugar Bowl.

FInally on this topic, AARP focused on the fact the game was a semi-final game and that is a Valuable Privilege. As I will share, and AARP could not produce even having access to my work email, I never received a formal invitation from Allstate, there was a system glitch on their side. So, AARP showed my Allstate counterparts invitation with their name on it that they had forwarded to me to prove I knew it was a semi-final. Apparently, I replied that I was registered, but they didn't show the actual email which showed my reply came from my work iPhone, so I was in a mtg or traveling when I replied - not at my desk- and as such, I know I would never have looked at the attachment, I knew I had registered so I stated as such.

Even Mr. Herd, who I have already shared follows college football, said he didn't think it was a semi-final game, it was a bowl game. Additionally, as part of his testimony and interview he shared he mis-read the Code of Conduct and thought only final games were Valuable Privileges. Mr. Easley gave him the benefit of the doubt because he thought he was penitent (my word choice, not his, but you get the gist). Being straight has its benefits. . . .you get to be believed while the gay man is called a liar.

Back to the story, Allstate Roadside is a branded product in the AARP Services portfolio of providers.  As such, it is a high ticket $5M yearly royalty revenue stream for AARP.  They also spent $1M in marketing in AARP channels, so $6M annually into AARP coffers (tax free).  The program peaked around 1M AARP members, but then had declined to almost half that over 10 years.  We were working with Allstate to reinvigorate the business and even spent two weeks in Nashville at a Human Centered Design Sprint to figure out how to make the program new again and start to grow.  This cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars that ASI and Allstate split.  There was also hotel, plane tickets, Uber or taxi’s, meals, etc. for a team of 12 for two weeks. So, this was no small investment in money and time.  The design sprint happened in November 2016 and January 2017.  I share this to show, THIS BUSINESS MATTERED and our contract was coming up for renewal the end of 2019.

My main contact had started in the Spring of 2017, so they were not involved in the design sprint.  They also live in Florida, not Chicago where Allstate is headquartered.  So, spending time with them was limited to the meetings we had.  They were also getting up to speed on the business and their time was limited in Chicago, so there wasn’t a lot of time to build a relationship when we did meet.

Fun Fact: Allstate was started by Sears and Roebuck company and was named after a tire Sears sold.  Crazy how much impact Sears had in its time.

In October 2017, Mr. Herd was sent an invitation from Pam Dufour the President of Allstate Roadside, inviting him to attend the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.  Again, I was not and never actually received a formal invitation- this would come up at trial.  Mr. Herd forwarded the email to me and we spoke about reasons why we thought spending this time with our Allstate counterparts in a social setting was a good idea.  Also, my counterpart was not invited initially.  It was Pam only inviting Andy.  Clearly, Allstate sponsors the bowl and invites its partners to New Orleans to invest in the relationships.  I then took Mr. Herd’s email and forwarded it to my manager Victoria and said we should chat.  This is all documented.

I spoke with Victoria, she agreed it was a good opportunity to spend time with Allstate and said to “run it by legal.”  It was about a week later, on Thursday November 2nd, that Laurel Gillis from our legal department sent me an email asking me if I was in my office.  This email was produced as part of discovery.  I had just worked out during lunch and grabbed a salad and was eating at my desk working- this was normal for me.  I replied that I was happy to help her, or something to that effect and that I had a question for her.  Now, anyone who worked at ASI while I was there can attest, Laurel did not come to your office.  She was a VP, I was a director.  Victoria or Angela’s office, sure.  Conference room, YUP!  Also, historically if Laurel had a quick question, she would call or email.  Clearly, this was something she wanted to talk about in person and not in her office.  I can say, the 11 years I was there, I don’t recall Laurel ever coming to my office to speak to me. 

She came into my office and closed the door, she sat in the chair to the right, the one in front of my refrigerator and asked me if I had spoken to Victoria about the call we had with Susan Stone and Regal Entertainment?  I said I had but asked her why she was asking.  She shared my employee Komeka Freeman had gone to her frustrated with Susan and the way the call went. 

Some back story, my teams and my experience was Susan was challenging to work with at times.  For a time, I told my people to work with Laurel or Andrew in legal as Susan was combative.  She would get argumentative over the stupidest things, and I didn’t want her communicating with the providers in my portfolio.  Unfortunately, I was told that Susan was our legal contact and we had to use her.  Thus, why she was on the call with Regal Entertainment.

In October, Komeka who managed the Regal partnership and I had a call with our VP contact at Regal Entertainment to finish up a couple of items for the contract renewal.  It expired that month, so we were getting down to the wire.  During the call, Susan was inflexible and rude with the Regal VP, like RUDE.  She acted like she always had, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but it was.  Following this call, Komeka had gone to Victoria with her concerns about Susan’s behavior and as I was now learning, she had spoken with Laurel.  I also brought this up to Victoria as I was tired of having a combative attorney handle 100% of my contracts.  It added needless stress.  It was like walking on eggshells working with her and you never knew what would set her off. 

During our conversation, Laurel intimated that there might be something in the works for Susan and wanted to make sure Sarah Mika was informed on her behavior.  Laurel was Susan’s manager for a time and had tried working with her on her demeanor and delivery.  She was not successful.  I let her know I had spoken with Victoria and would follow up.  What surprised me, was when I followed up with Victoria, she informed me she had spoken with Sarah Mika, the General Counsel for ASI and Susan’s manager, and was informed that Susan’s family was from South Korea, and they can be more “aggressive” in their communication (this is not me, this allegedly came from Sarah Mika to my manager Victoria Borton who communicated it to me), and we basically needed to accept it and move on.  Yah, so apparently, you can be outright RUDE, say it’s your culture and its fine at ASI.  It was one of those, “Can you believe this?!?” moments.

I will share, that Summer in 2018 while I was on LinkedIn looking for a job I happened up on Susan’s profile as we are connected, she had been promoted to VP, see below.

Following the conversation about Susan, I asked Laurel about attending the Allstate Sugar Bowl at the invitation of Allstate.  Laurel asked some questions: “Are they are paying for the tickets?, Will they be paying for our hotel?”- I said yes to both.  She noted that Dave Austin had attended as well in previous years.  This was a fact that I already knew.  I let her know my husband Mark would be going with me, she said just make sure to separate out his expenses, which is what I had always done if Mark joined me on a business trip.  Following this conversation, I let Ms. Borton and Mr. Herd know that we were approved to go. I'll also add that I put my travel in our travel system and gained approval from Ms. Borton, she and I also emailed while I was gone. She knew where Mr. Herd and I were, this was not a secret. Upon return, both Mr. Herd and I processed our expenses in the system ASI used to process reimbursements. Both went through the system with approvals.

Some of you might say, well why didn’t you get this in writing?!?  Trust me, I wish I had done a follow up email confirming the conversation we had just had.  You must understand, we just didn’t do business that way, Ms. Borton did not ask me for an email confirmation from Ms. Gillis.  Mr. Austin testified (see below) when he went to special events like this, that he had a chat with his supervisor and Laurel or Sarah Mika that was all.  You can see Mr. Austin speak to attending Billy Joel in NYC with Chase in their private box at the Garden.  This would be considered a Valuable Privilege, just so you know.  Mr. Austin was not terminated for accepting this or anything else.

Ms. Gillis did testify if she had been asked, she would have sent me to Stephanie Kandel someone I had never met and Ms. Gillis even said no one knew who she was- see below.  (This was part of her cross-exam from the AARP defense counsel, she was much more animated during her cross – my guess, she was prepped and comfortable with their pre-arranged questions).

But you can see what Ms. Gillis testified to, and you can see what other people said happened.  One thing is not like the other. Ms. Gillis does still work there but she is now an AARP employee, not ASI. Whats interesting, her LinkedIn shows one job title "Associate General Counsel) at AARP for her whole (16+ years) time, but she has moved and I would guess got a promotion. . .don't know. It is interesting though.

Mr. Austin doesn’t have a dog in this fight and he no longer works for AARP so he can be 100% honest and not lose his job, so why would he lie?  He shared the true way we got approvals, the same way my manager Ms. Borton instructed me to get approval from LEGAL/Laurel, not Stephanie Kendal. This is a new narrative that was made up due to my lawsuit.

You can see also the testimony from Mr. Flanagan when asked by my attorney Darrell Chambers about this specific subject:

Also, as Mr. Austin shared, there wasn’t a form to be filled out.  It was all a quick verbal confirmation. 

During his time on the stand, Mr. Herd informed us all he had been invited other times and had spoken to Ms. Gillis about this (his testimony is below).  Again, that was our process, speak with your manager and legal.  This was news to me, as the first time I knew he was invited was this time and we had been on the account together for a couple years.  My question, if Mr. Herd knew we shouldn’t go to this, why did he forward the invitation he received and then spoke to me about it?  Also, note Ms. Gillis did not send him to Stephanie Kendal. 

For your information, Virginia Tech played in the Allstate Sugar Bowl in 2012 and that was one of the years that Mr. Austin attended as a guest of Allstate.  The other year was in 2011.

I already know what you are thinking, “Well, if Ms. Gillis and you spoke as you attest to, why didn’t she say that?”  That is the $2.2M question (actually, I speculate this whole thing has cost AARP between $10-20M once all legal fees and my settlement is paid - with the interest it is now accruing).  You would have to ask Ms. Gillis that, although I doubt you would get a truthful answer at this point. 

Here is my theory:

In 2017, Laurel’s wife (yah, she is a lesbian, so this is sorta gay on gay crime) had to quit her job due to her health.  Why do I know this?  Laurel and I spoke about it mainly because my sister, who has a doctorate in child clinical psychology, has some chronic health conditions and had to take time from work as well to try to get healthy.  I could understand what she was going through.  I saw how stressful it had been for my brother in-law being the sole provider, going from two incomes to one. So, at this time, my understanding is Laurel was the only one working and most likely the only one providing health benefits.

No one will know what was said on the phone that Friday February 2, 2018 when Jon Easley called Laurel to interview her in relation to my investigation (see testimony). 

Now, this is not Ethics and Compliance Office (ECO) policy as I understand it.  The one and only time I was interviewed as part of this investigation on Janaury 31, 2018, it was in a room with Mr. Easley and Rebecca Mason.  Mr. Herd shared that there were multiple people in the room the multiple times he was interviewed (yah, we will get to that one) as part of this investigation.  I saw the interview with Heather Ingram, there were two people in the room when she was interviewed.  So, why did Mr. Easley call Laurel and not have a witness to what was asked and answered?  There was a short one page memo that consisted of 3 paragraphs and a total of 8 lines about the call with no true information. Did Mr. Easley threaten her job? Did he inform her if she had spoken to me and given me permission she could be put on a warning? It is something we will probably never know.  What we do know, whatever was shared on that call prompted Ms. Gillis to send a follow-up email that Sunday around 12 pm from home trying to offer me some air cover in the way a lawyer who doesn’t want to be associated or blamed would do.  This email was never part of the findings that Mr. Easley put in his report.  I think he purposely excluded this document because it did not fit the narrative he was crafting against me. 

Side Note: When Mr. Flanagan saw this email during his deposition, it was part of the very limited release of discovery documents we got from AARP up until that point (this was in 2019 before we went to the court in January 2020 with a Motion to Compel, which we won) you could see the shock on his and the Littler (AARP’s) lawyers faces when he read it.  This email from Laurel stated she may have spoken to me (see the lawyer thing, while I cannot share the email as it is protected - another way AARP is trying to silence my voice- there are many pages of testimony speaking to it that I will publish below) and gave a list of other people who attended the Allstate Sugar Bowl, it was standard business practice going back over a decade, she also shared people attended March Madness with another provider, both events would be considered Valuable Privileges.  Mr. Flanagan recovered quickly, basically said this email didn’t change his view, he fired me because I am a liar.  This came up during the trial. This is also the moment when my lawyers and I realized the reason for my termination and who made the decision started to shift. This shift would continue through trial.

Remember, I was told I was fired for taking the Sugar Bowl tickets and dinner and a show in NYC.  There were talking points that Angela and Michael read from, it was very specific, but now I was fired for lying and this document that was excluded from my investigation exonerated me, but it didn’t matter.  Not one person stopped to say, "Hmm, why would Rick, who has been a model employee and a top performer, lie? This seems very out of character."

During this deposition, Mr. Flanagan also shared he was the sole decision maker in firing me.  Remember, Angela Jones and Sarah Mika were co-defendants in my lawsuit, Mr. Flanagan taking 100% of the blame helped AARP get them removed from the lawsuit. It wasn’t until we got to court in March 2024 that a new person, Michael Loizzi who still works at AARP and is gay, was produced as the key decision maker in deciding to fire me and Mr. Flanagan just rubber stamped it.  

Yah, I’ll give you a moment to process all that. . . .you can review the trial transcripts below, even the judge was confused.

I will do a whole post about these shifting explanations, but am sharing some of the information here. 

So, to recap, at the time of my termination, I was fired for accepting tickets to the Sugar Bowl and dinner and ticket to a show in NYC.  As I already knew, and we proved in discovery, both were normal business practices that other people did - THE EXACT SAME THING! Well, other straight people.  AARP could have asked me pay them $2,155.13 and keep my job as they did with Dave Austin and Andy Herd – two straight men.  They chose not to.  They chose my discriminatory termination, an employee of 11 years with a flawless record and known to be a high performer.  I had never been put on a Warning or PIP.  There were other options on how to handle this, Mr. Flanagan chose the most ruthless and extreme in mine and the other gay employees case, the two gay men. Makes you wonder why he was so extreme with the gay men?

Following my termination and lawsuit, at any time in the last 6 years, AARP could have settled this litigation and saved everyone time and themselves money.  They could have also saved me the ongoing trauma and financial hardship this litigation has caused.  It was so bad that in 2020 I planned my suicide.  Even that didn’t faze them or make them take a hard look at what they were doing.  My opinion, they don’t care about people, they care about money, f*ck people.  AARP could have had me meet with their own psychologist expert, they chose not to.  I wonder why?   Instead, they spent their time tearing down my psychologist in court and in their motions, stating he is unqualified which is just untrue. 

What about taking care of an employee who helped build your business and dedicated 11 years to the cause?  Yah, that isn’t important.  Destroying my reputation and using their billions of dollars to fight me in litigation is more their speed.  But as you see and I will continue to share, AARP doesn’t care about the truth. But you know what, truth and right won out.  I have paid a dear price, a very dear price, one that I will be recovering from for years, but I WON!

Its shocking to me that AARP the non-profit continues to put out drivel about the good they are doing in the world.  Since my posts on LinkedIn started, it feels to me like CEO Jo Ann Jenkins seems to be having someone post more about the good they are doing.  Trying to cover up the stink of my victory in court and their being found liable for discrimination by a jury?!?  I guess someone in the C-suite is reading.  You’re welcome. 

Here are the testimony notes of Ms. Gillis being asked about the email on the stand. Also, oddly, in this transcript on the stand Laurel states that neither she NOR Stephanie Kandel could approve something like this. Confused?

Theres a lot to read, enjoy!

It should come as NO SURPRISE, Todd Wilson is also straight and was not fired for accepting that Valuable Privilege of attending the March Madness game with his provider paying for his ticket.