Neiman Marcus accused of bungling workplace complaints — including from staff lawyer with brain cancer

A company lawyer gets hospitalized for depression, comes back to work, gets diagnosed with brain cancer, and then gets shown the door. If even a fraction of what's alleged here holds up, that's not a rough patch for HR, that's a pattern. And the fact that this happened to someone whose literal job was understanding employment law and workplace complaints makes it worse, not better. She knew exactly what protections were supposed to exist. Didn't matter.

This is the kind of story that should embarrass every corporate diversity-and-inclusion office in America, because these companies love putting out statements about caring for employees' mental health and medical needs right up until an actual sick employee becomes inconvenient. Neiman Marcus has spent years cultivating a brand built on discretion and taking care of people who can pay for the privilege. Turns out that courtesy apparently didn't extend to the people cutting the paychecks behind the scenes.

We're not interested in piling on for sport. Litigation is messy, allegations aren't proof, and companies get sued by disgruntled former employees all the time for reasons that don't hold up. But when the accusation is specifically that complaints were mishandled, plural, from multiple senior people, that's not one bad manager. That's a culture problem at the top, and it usually means somebody decided lawsuits were cheaper than fixing how the place is run.

If this plays out the way it's described, Neiman Marcus ought to pay for it, and pay enough that other companies notice. Firing a woman fighting brain cancer because she'd already been a headache over her depression treatment isn't a legal gray area worth debating. It's the kind of decision that tells you everything about who was running the show.