Ex-EchoStar exec files discrimination lawsuit

[Phil T]

She alleges 'yelling fits' by CEO Ergen were demeaning


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_3470138,00.html

From Todays Rocky Mountain News.

[Richard King]

Her lawsuit, filed Monday in Denver federal court, describes EchoStar as a "boys club" that discriminated against her on the basis of sex and national origin. When I see this specific claim, especially the "national origin" claim I have to ask myself "Gee, I wonder how and why she got hired if they had a policy of such discrimination."
The Douglas County satellite-TV provider noted that Hesabi-Cartwright, who oversaw EchoStar's Dish Network subsidiary, was one of Colorado's highest-paid executives, with compensation in 2003 of more than $13.5 million. I wish I could get discriminated against in the same way. :lol:

[Nick]

Interesting developement - and another piece of the Ergen puzzle. I recall one 'Charlie Chat' in particular, about a year ago, that Charlie Ergen looked highly pissed during the entire hour. That may well have been the December '03 chat to which the article refers.

Can you access the superior court database of the county of jurisdiction to provide a link to the text or pdf of the actual lawsuit? I'm sure there many of us who would like to know the specific instances of "violent yelling fits" that the petition cites as the basis for the suit.

That should make for some interesting discussion in the forums.

[BobMurdoch]

Oh please, grow up. Yelling happens just about everywhere in Corporate America.

I hope she wins this for her sake, because NO ONE will want to hire her now.

[sat-aid]

As a former EchoStar employee, I have no qualms of saying that Soraya Hesabi-Cartwright was something of a joke within the call centers. She gave monthly 'Soraya Chats' that CSR's were forced to endure. 'Dull' does not do the broadcast justice. I'm surprised she lasted as long as she did. But if Charlie wanted to yell at her and get personal, well, he's the boss. It just seems strange that she'd stay around as long as she did, and take such abuse. Oh wait, she made $13 million in 2003 alone. I could put up with a lot of abuse for that amount of money.
Note: the above is personal opinion and does not reflect the level of boredom that others felt.

[RVRambler]

Oh please, grow up. Yelling happens just about everywhere in Corporate America.

I hope she wins this for her sake, because NO ONE will want to hire her now.

I hope she does NOT win, I am sure she yelled herself in life, and who has more rights to yell than the founder of the company! What if in some degree it was warranted? She was paid to be fully competent, so was she? Did she make stupid statements, or over sell results or.....?

ANd how come when someone (usually a white male) confronts yells and states displeasure, its all of sudden is sexual, racial and or prejudism. Hell, isn't it ok to just dislike someone or his/her's performance or lack of???

Some people just piss some people off, nothing to do with prejudism, some people are irritating as hell, at least to some.

Some of us get pissed off with people who are too 'politically correct', it smacks of sheep mentality not independent fact based thinking!!

I suspect Charlie IS hard to get along with, but he has some rights to expect his high paid workers to be worth that expense!!

I think it is just a manner for her to get 'easy' money.

Pure BS, likely, not enough info to truely judge the merits.

[Capmeister]

When I see this specific claim, especially the "national origin" claim I have to ask myself "Gee, I wonder how and why she got hired if they had a policy of such discrimination."
I wish I could get discriminated against in the same way. :lol:

My brother is deaf. He was once hired by a company because the manager at the time didn't care about this fact, since accomidations could be made. That manager left, after her superiors told her they wouldn't promote my brother because he was deaf, and didn't like that he couldn't talk on the phone. (He can, just via a TDD, not via voice). The new manager also didn't like that my brother "couldn't talk on the phone." They quickly found reason to fire him (days after my mother died, by the way). He asked for an interpreter to discuss why they were firing him, and they denied that request. They even grabbed the pen and paper from his hands so he couldn't write what he wanted to say.

(They settled out of court for a lump sum to make the case go away.)

[Richard King]

Ah, but, she was hired in 1994, a time when Echostar was very small and Charlie was VERY much more hands on than today (read.. he had his fingers in everything). I suspect that he himself hired her back then (one of his first mistakes), not a committee or an HR department looking to get more "diversity". She used to make occasional appearances in dealer chats and I have to agree that listening to her for any length of time would put most people to sleep. I certainly wondered at the time how she got to the position that she held. I had no idea she was making the kind of money that she was. :eek2:

[Nick]

Doing a global search on "Soraya Cartwright" produced 16 previous threads in which her name appeared, including one about her original resignation that had 74 posts and over 4,000 views.

Interesting retrospective, if anyone cares. :shrug:

[Nikos09]

Oh man....those Soraya chats were the stuff of legend for the poor schmuck that had to monitor them at the uplink. Almost got myself in trouble for "examining my eyelids". She could read the transcripts from a 1-900 call and put people to sleep. Of course, for that kind of money, Charlie can insult me, my family, my dog, and my work ethic.


"Thank you sir, may I have another."

[pomeroy]

She alleges 'yelling fits' by CEO Ergen were demeaning



HAAA If I worked at Echo Star and made 13 million a year. They could Yell at me to :D I would just laugh it off like jim carrey and turn it around on them so they look like the fools, "Yep thats me Charlie" :grin: I got to go count my check for this week :lol:

[mainedish]

Send her a dishplayer and see if she will drop the lawsuit. Just a thought.

[Jacob S]

I'd take a lot of abuse for 13 million, even for 1 million a lot of people would take a lot of abuse. I talked to her on the phone a two or three years back which was before she had left the company and she helped me get my 501 replaced with a brand new one instead of getting a third refub.

[BobMurdoch]

For 1/10th of that I'd let him yell at me on a daily basis AND kiss his ass thanking him for doing so.

I wouldn't do it for 1/100th of that though. Hey, I've got pride after all. (Tongue planted firmly in cheek)

[pjmrt]

yelling fits? Welcome to the corporate life. I won't say that its good, but I'm not surprised. For $13M, I agree -- I'd be thick skinned enough to put up with it I'd think. :)

[Hoobastank]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but insulting, yelling, and general berating of people is not ok, ever. Granted, $13 million a year is astounding, but that has nothing to do with it. She did not earn that money to be an emotional punching bag. To those people that say they'd put up with it for that kind of money, more power to you. However, you have to realize that when someone does that to you in front of others time and again, you feel emotionally worthless. Your self esteem is out the door. When others see the boss treat you like that, they won't respect you either.

I'm just throwing this out there because there are 2 sides to every story. I think a lot of you are missing her side, and how the treatment she received made her feel. It runs a lot deeper than him just hurting her feelings one time.

Of course, all of this is from an outsiders perspective. Maybe she was truly a douche bag and deserved it all.

[Richard King]

Granted, $13 million a year is astoundingShe could be a baseball player for that kind of money. :lol:

I would certainly "put up" with it for at least a year or two before retiring very early.

[Mike123abc]

I don't have a blow by blow..Here is a quicky recap
-They went through the locals they launched and the ones coming in the next week or so
-Talked about the locals they reached retrans agreements with
-Showed a slide of the new locals coming (maybe) in Dec/Jan
-HBO & Showtime HD moving to 110
-the 811 promo
-Said there wont be any HD added until spring
-had the winner of the world series of poker as as guest...this was about 15 minutes worth including a video of some of the dish people playing poker.
-921 is in software stage..working out bugs...maybe available by x-mas but don't count on it
-few questions.. mostly on int'l programming

RAD chipped in
You forgot the long talk about AOL/Time-Warner asking for a large increase for their channels and Dish may pull them (CNN, TCM, TBS, etc).

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=20768&page=3&pp=40&highlight=charlie+chat


I wonder if we contributed to this? Our attempts to get past the call screeners to ask tough questions about the 921? Maybe he got mad at her for letting stuff get through the screeners....

[pjmrt]

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but insulting, yelling, and general berating of people is not ok, ever. Granted, $13 million a year is astounding, but that has nothing to do with it. She did not earn that money to be an emotional punching bag. To those people that say they'd put up with it for that kind of money, more power to you. However, you have to realize that when someone does that to you in front of others time and again, you feel emotionally worthless. Your self esteem is out the door. When others see the boss treat you like that, they won't respect you either.

I'm just throwing this out there because there are 2 sides to every story. I think a lot of you are missing her side, and how the treatment she received made her feel. It runs a lot deeper than him just hurting her feelings one time.

Of course, all of this is from an outsiders perspective. Maybe she was truly a douche bag and deserved it all.
I don't know if you're in the minority or not, but I certainly agree that this yelling, berating, insulting behavior is bad and ultimately bad for the corporation. I'm just saying that it happens, a lot. And one generally earns respect by taking it and dishing it out on occasion.

[pjmrt]

She could be a baseball player for that kind of money. :lol:

I would certainly "put up" with it for at least a year or two before retiring very early.
Baseball player? Maybe minor league or perhaps a utility infielder. Basketball? Their agents probably earn more than that :lol:

[Jacob S]

At 13 million a year thats better than 1 million a month, around 31,000 a day. Thats a heck of a lot of money. I'm sure that it took more than one year to get to 13 million but for each million put in the bank in cd's she could get about 30,000-50,000 in interest per year. I'm sure she had a lot of taxes on that in which came out though.

[rid0617]

$250,000 a week, yep I could make ends meet and would gladly show up for the hollering session. Then I would kiss his azz, thank him for the excellent job and go about my business. Geeze lady, get a life, there are people being hollered at for $6 an hour and putting up with it.

[jrrdy1380]

When I heard that she had resigned so quietly and without the fanfare of a company annoucement, I was thinking that something that could lead later to a lawsuit was going to take place. Often when someone suddenly leaves a company, especially a high paying exec postition, certain events must have taken place before their leaving the company that for the most part had or will cause problems for all involved.

History has shown many times in business that nothing happens without a cause and/or reason. I use to work at EchoStar and have seen Ms. Cartwright at the call center where I use to work in. Yeah, sometimes some of the things she did were not the greatest things for CSRs to deal with, but she must had been a valuable member of Charlie's circle because she got promoted while I was still employed there. Charlie even annouced her promotion and stated that she was a vital part of Dish Network and EchoStar. Time sure does changes things in a hurry. She alleges 'yelling fits' by CEO Ergen were demeaning


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_3470138,00.html

From Todays Rocky Mountain News.

[mattb]

31k a day.. You know, Charlie can yell at me all he wants.. Heck ill even buy his boat anchor 942 when it comes out :-)

[djlong]

Also consider... It may no be what it seems.

I've talked sternly to my children on occasion and had them turn around and accuse me of "yelling" at them. At that point, I maintain my tone and say "This is NOT yelling". Then, grab two lungs full of air and bellow: "***T H I S I S Y E L L I N G****"

I mean, you have to teach them the difference, no? :)

[kenglish]

It's pretty easy to joke about this crap, but wait until YOU get a "boss from hell" and he destroys your health. It ain't funny when it happens to YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Phil T]

It's pretty easy to joke about this crap, but wait until YOU get a "boss from hell" and he destroys your health. It ain't funny when it happens to YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have also seen the other side of it, when a group of employees do not get along with each other and make the bosses life hell.

[Spruceman]

Hell! For $13 mil a year, I'd even be willing to be his biatch for 12 months, quit, and live happily ever after on the interest I'd earn on it even at today's low interest rates. After having had female bosses most of my working life, I feel the ol' boys club is nothing compared to the favoritism those female bosses showed toward the women working for them.

[Jacob S]

In just a month's worth of salary she could cash in and get what would be equal to $10-$20 an hour just in interest off of the money she would put in the bank for the rest of her life. I think so much stress can harm your health mentally though. I have seen people break down because of all of the stress and certain events that would happen.

[Mark Holtz]

I'm just smirking here. CSRs get yelled at by the customers all the time, yet they are usually one of the lowest paid people.

And, yes, I had my health ruined by a very tempermental boss aka dad. Much happier as a CSR than as a machinist.

[cboylan3]

Interesting developement - and another piece of the Ergen puzzle. I recall one 'Charlie Chat' in particular, about a year ago, that Charlie Ergen looked highly pissed during the entire hour. That may well have been the December '03 chat to which the article refers.

Can you access the superior court database of the county of jurisdiction to provide a link to the text or pdf of the actual lawsuit? I'm sure there many of us who would like to know the specific instances of "violent yelling fits" that the petition cites as the basis for the suit.

That should make for some interesting discussion in the forums.

The complaint is not available on-line yet, however here's the docket: (notice the demand amount :eek2: :eek2: ) While looking for this I came accross a bunch of D* related suits that I'm sure the folks in the D* forums would be interested in :rolleyes:

Hesabi-Cartwright v. EchoStar Communications Corporation
Assigned to: Judge Edward W. Nottingham
Demand: $4000000
Cause: 42:2000e Job Discrimination (Employment)
Date Filed: 01/10/2005
Jury Demand: Plaintiff
Nature of Suit: 442 Civil Rights: Jobs
Jurisdiction: Federal Question

Date Filed # Docket Text
01/10/2005 1 COMPLAINT and Demand for Jury Trial against EchoStar Communications Corporation (Filing fee $ 150, Receipt #257437) , filed by Soraya Hesabi-Cartwright.(gms, ) (Entered: 01/11/2005)

01/10/2005 Summons Issued as to EchoStar Communications Corporation. (gms, ) (Entered: 01/11/2005)

[mainedish]

Yelling never works.

[Mike D-CO5]

Yelling never works.

Just ask Howard Dean.:rolleyes:

[Nick]

...I'd let him yell at me on a daily basis AND kiss his ass thanking him for doing so...tongue planted firmly in cheek.:eek:

It's all in the editing! :lol: :lol: :lol:

[TiredFerret]

If some of you thought it was bad just LISTENING to the Soraya Chats...trying having to watch them AND type them up afterwards. Ugh. Soraya didn't seem to know what she was doing anyway as far as the call center went--take your millions and go home.