A former Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. manager says in an amended complaint that she was marginalized and publicly mocked by a female supervisor after the plaintiff took maternity leave in 2023.
Kimberly Grande’s revised Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit allegations include wrongful termination, sex and pregnancy discrimination and retaliation. She seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Her original suit was filed in April 2024 and her updated complaint on April 10.
In their previous court papers, Warner attorneys stated that Grande’s suit is “bereft of alleged facts that defendants implemented an adverse action substantially motivated by gender discrimination” and said most of her claims should be dismissed.
Grande was hired in July 2021 as a senior product manager and worked in Burbank. She initially had a good working relationship with her boss, who often sought the plaintiff’s expertise and advice on projects, the suit states. But when Grande told her supervisor in December 2021 that the plaintiff was pregnant, their ability to get along deteriorated, the suit further alleges.
After Grande asked for pregnancy and baby-bonding leave, she was excluded from key work discussions and assignments by the boss, who publicly mocked the plaintiff during a 2022 team meeting by saying she wished she could get a four-month “vacation” just like Grande, the suit states.
When Grande returned from maternity and baby-bonding leave in October of that year, she learned she had been removed from all projects on which she had been staffed, according to the suit, which also states that she was denied the return of her direct reports and that she was once again excluded from important meetings and hiring decisions.
Grande also was told to start working in the Burbank office rather than from home even though she had previously informed management and received consent to work from her new home in Seattle, the suit states.
The plaintiff’s concerns were disregarded when she pointed out that two male colleagues were allowed to work remotely and she was fired for not returning to the Burbank office in September 2023, the suit states.
Grande’s supervisor tried to replace her with one of the males working from home, but when people in the company told the boss how bad it would make her look, she retracted the offer, the suit states.
Grande’s former boss is not a defendant in the suit, which states that the plaintiff has suffered significant economic and emotional distress damages.