We already knew evangelical financial “guru” Dave Ramsey was the Boss From Hell for ignoring COVID precautions in the workplace, planning a no-mask holiday party in December, and reportedly pulling out a gun during a staff meeting.
Now we have another reason to add to the list: He fires employees for having sex before they’re married… which also means he fires employees for what they do with their private lives because he believes working for him means everyone has to obey his version of Christian Fundamentalism at all times.
According to a lawsuit against Ramsey Solutions by former administrative assistant Caitlin O’Connor filed last summer, Dave Ramsey punished her for filing for maternity leave because she wasn’t married at the time.
The company has since responded to that lawsuit by basically arguing they do that to everyone.
New court filings reveal that Ramsey Solutions disciplined at least 12 other employees for having sex before marriage in recent years. The employees were either terminated or resigned before they could be fired, court documents show.
The company also said at least two employees were fired for having extramarital sex. Company lawyers stated that they terminated every employee who engaged in premarital sex.
Maybe you’re thinking there’s no legal problem here because a faith-based company should be allowed to operate by faith-based rules. But the company merely says employees must exhibit “righteous living” without ever defining it and premarital sex is never explicitly stated as a policy violation. It’s not necessarily a clear-cut legal case.
Moreover, there’s a legitimate argument to make that this policy specifically hurts women because you can see their pregnancies. A man could easily get away with the same sin and keep his job. O’Connor made that clear in the lawsuit:
Ramsey Solutions’s discriminatory policy has a disparate impact on women, in particular pregnant women because they are unable to keep their private lives private in the event they become pregnant because pregnancy is a very visible condition.
No kidding it’s a “very visible condition.” The irony is that the company’s policy makes it more likely that a different woman in the same situation could keep her job by just getting an abortion. Two “sins”; no visible proof. But that’s besides the point.
The company says none of this matters. Tennessee is an “at-will” state, and that means employees can be fired at any time for any reason. But sex discrimination isn’t one of those reasons. The question now is whether a judge will see O’Connor’s dismissal as the result of her actions or her gender.
Whatever the case, it’s all a reminder that working for Ramsey always seems to create more problems than it solves. Unless you want your boss to control your entire life, find a better workplace.
(Thanks to Som for the link)
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