Brian Larson, a former senior associate in JPMorgan’s rotational Chase Associate Program, has filed a discrimination lawsuit in Manhattan federal court and complained that his boss, Peter Bergman, repeatedly made disparaging comments about his sexual orientation and eventually forced him to resign. The Independent reported that this happened in 2022 when Larson, an openly gay employee, took a leadership role in the bank’s Pride employee group. His boss did not like it and told him that it was some “extracurricular” activity, not his main job and so he should separate “gay job from his day job”.Larson asked his boss whether his “day job” was suffering. “Your work is not suffering now, but I could see it happening,” Bergman told him.According to the complaint, this pushed Larson into a phase of depression, anxiety attacks and a resurgence of his stress-induced hair-pulling disorder that he last experienced in his childhood.A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase told the New York Post that the company took these allegations very seriously but did not find any evidence substantiating Larson’s allegations. The bank said multiple managers found performance gaps during Larson’s time at the firm and provided coaching to help him improve.JPM said Larson completed his Chase Associate Program and then was given additional time to secure a permanent rolee in the company but he failed to do so and then he resigned.
Not extra-curricular activity
The lawsuit said that Larson immediately reported the “gay job” comment to Chase Associate Program manager Elizabeth Manchin who assured him that Pride activities were not extracurricular and were a “part of how we do business at Chase.”Larson said in his complaint that Brian Lamb, then global head of DEI of the company, recognized Larson’s commitment to DEI and sent an email suggesting that his manager Bergman should incorporate that work in his performance review. “I see this email from Brian Lamb, but I want you to know that I am not including any of your Pride activities in your performance review,” Bergman allegedly said.Other discriminatory comments allegedly made by Bergman included: “DEI is not going to save you”, “Just because you are gay doesn’t mean you get a leg up.”