Fired WSOC worker says station’s reasons for dismissal are to keep ‘boys club’ happy
For nearly seven years, WSOC-TV’s news director said she helped turn the Charlotte station into a “thriving news outlet” amid budget cuts that left gaps in her staff.
Then they fired her, she says.
In a federal lawsuit filed Sept. 25, Julie Szulczewski said WSOC and its parent company, Cox Media Group, pushed her out to bring in a younger, less qualified man and “keep the boys’ club” happy.
“In today’s world, a talented female professional must still contend with the boys’ club mentality condoned by some employers, like the defendants, who condone the actions of their male managers when they band together to smear the reputation of an older female colleague to protect one of their own,” the complaint states.
Szulczewski — who is 52 — makes claims for age, gender and disability discrimination in the suit.
Representatives from WSOC and Cox Media did not immediately respond to McClatchy news group’s request for comment Monday.
According to the lawsuit, Szulczewski worked for Cox Media Group for 20 years and was one of the longest-tenured news directors at the time of her termination.
She started at WSOC in 2007 as managing editor, left briefly in 2010 and returned as news director in 2011, the complaint states.
Szulczewski says in the lawsuit she was fired a year into her three-year-contract despite being “groomed by Cox for higher level leadership positions in the organization.”
She says in the lawsuit she led the station’s 24-hour news coverage of the Rev. Billy Graham’s procession and funeral in early 2018 and that Cox Media’s general managers came to Charlotte to congratulate her team on a job well done with a dinner out.
The next day, she said she was summoned to a “strategy meeting” at a Charlotte hotel where one of the managers and a corporate investigator from human resources were waiting, according to the lawsuit.
Szulczewski said they accused her of having “inappropriate relationships” with male employees, “inappropriately touching” a male employee, yelling at an art director and taking staff out for drinks and appetizers in the past.
“Despite plaintiff’s explanations indicating that none of the accusations raised by the investigator were true or had any merit, the investigator took plaintiff’s employee badge and instructed her not to contact anyone until the ‘investigation’ was over,” the complaint states.
She said she was terminated in a letter March 8, 2018, which stated WSOC and Cox Media would “opt out” of the remainder of her contract.
It did not cite the clause in her contract about misconduct as a reason, according to the complaint.
Szulczewski said she was replaced by Michael Olivera, 35, from a “failing Boston television station.”
When she later asked for her name to be included on the Emmy submission for the station’s coverage of Billy Graham’s death, Szulczewski said she was denied.
“Ms. Szulczewski was blindsided by her employer, the defendants, to whom she had been loyal for 20 years and for which she had transformed an underperforming news team into a thriving news media outlet,” the suit states.
Szulczewski said she suffered emotional distress from the reportedly false accusations and has been forced to accept a new job for less pay.
She is seeking back pay and benefits, punitive damages and damages for her reputation.
