A former Wells Fargo Advisors employee is suing the firm and questioning whether her ethnicity and gender played a role in her termination.
Lisa Krugler originally filed suit against Wells Fargo Advisors in July in Kentucky state court, but the case was transferred to federal jurisdiction last week.
According to the complaint, Krugler joined WFA as a client services associate around May 2021, where she was tasked with helping advisors generate documents, run office responsibilities and process estates. According to the suit, she was adopted from South Korea and grew up in the United States.
According to LinkedIn, Krugler worked for Cullinan Associates for eight years before moving to Wells Fargo. The suit noted that she was the only non-white Wells Fargo team member in her location and had consistently met performance review expectations.
Krugler said she served as “primary support” for three advisors, backed up other associates working with eight advisors, and helped handle office tasks. Krugler argued she had the highest workload of anyone in the office.
Krugler purportedly asked for a raise in January of this year, and while she was assigned more work, she didn’t get a pay bump.
According to the complaint, Krugler’s supervisor, Chris Bohnert, “was observed to treat the women in the office differently” than the men, frequently ignoring female coworkers altogether. Krugler found it challenging to take time off, as she often had to do the work of multiple associates.
However, according to the suit, she traveled to Disney World in June to celebrate her son’s birthday. On the trip’s third day, Krugler got a call from Bohnert, which surprised her because WFA prohibits work during paid time off.
“Believing it must be important, Mrs. Krugler answered the phone,” the complaint read. “Mr. Bohnert began the call by stating, ‘I’m glad you’re at the happiest place on Earth, because I have to let you go.’”
According to the suit, Krugler was “shocked by the callousness and lack of professionalism” on the call, and asked Bohnert to call back with a third-party witness to the conversation; Bohnert allegedly said he would, but Krugler never received that call. According to Krugler, she was never given a “satisfactory answer” for her firing.
“When she asked if her status as a Korean woman was the reason she was terminated, Mr. Bohnert responded, “I don’t know. It’s nothing personal,’” the complaint read.
In the complaint, Krugler argued she was treated “less favorably than similarly situated White men in the office,” with the person taking over her role having less experience on the team and in the industry altogether.
According to a Wells Fargo spokesperson, the firm denied the allegations and “intend to defend the company’s position through the litigation process.”
Krugler asked for damages for “the humiliation, embarrassment, personal indignity, apprehension about past, current and future well-being, emotional distress, and mental anguish” allegedly caused by the firing, as well as additional relief, “including reinstatement.”
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