A Fired Employee is Suing Wayfair Over Age and Caregiving Discrimination
Not long after the pandemic shut down schools and offices around the country, Richard DiBona, a 53-year-old software manager at Wayfair, sent a message to his team letting them know he would probably be “getting bugged more” by his kids due to his wife’s new high-level job. A few weeks later, he sent another message noting that his wife’s workload had intensified and he would be taking on an even greater share of home-schooling and child-care duties.
His supervisor didn’t respond to either message, he said, or to others, he sent about his growing role overseeing his sons, then ages 10 and 13. And in July, after several months trying — and largely failing — to get her to acknowledge his needs, he said, he was fired.
Adamant that he had been discriminated against because of his family responsibilities, as well as his age, and that his productivity had not declined, DiBona filed suit against Wayfair, which is based in Boston, in Suffolk Superior Court.
