水果派AV

Together with lawsuits by other past employees, those experiences depict a human services agency with a toxic work environment largely because it's being run like a business. Most of the employees described to 水果派AV overwhelming workloads, hostile treatment by leadership and unpaid compensation. Two of them were later fired in abrupt fashion, and now plan to sue the agency as well.

The unpaid compensation includes overtime and mileage that some of the employees said they are owed. That comes as the Auburn-headquartered agency projects a $12 million loss this fiscal year, according to a March 21 email from New York City-based Associate CEO Lorraine S谩nchez to staff announcing the layoffs. A copy was provided to 水果派AV by present employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. They also shared an April 24 email from聽S谩nchez saying the unpaid mileage was due to a reimbursement system change, but as of Friday some still had not received payment.

The layoffs will take effect in June. According to another email last week from聽S谩nchez to those 200-plus employees, their schedules will be reduced by up to 60% beginning May 12. Benefits will stay intact, but the agency is partnering with the New York State Department of Labor to allow the employees to claim unemployment insurance for all reduced hours through the Shared Work Program.

Cayuga Centers did not respond to a request by 水果派AV for comment.

The overwhelming workloads and hostile treatment mentioned by the present employees were described in more detail by the two who were recently 鈥� and, they believe, illegally 鈥� fired.聽

'They just continued to put my health at risk'

Christine Whipple was fired from Cayuga Centers on March 18 鈥� a week into medical leave due to a heart condition that caused her to fall at a family's home and faint at the agency's Auburn offices.

As a doctor would later diagnose, Whipple had developed postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and had been placed on a heart monitor just hours before getting the call that she was fired.

According to a letter from the agency that Whipple shared with 水果派AV, she was fired for "performance concerns." She said she asked for details on those concerns, since her feedback to that point was positive and she had never been reprimanded. But she did not receive any such details. Instead, she was told her medical leave was denied, though she later received a letter that it was approved.

A Keuka College graduate student and single mother, Whipple started interning at Cayuga Centers as a multisystemic therapist in July 2024. At first, she felt "completely supported" by her supervisors.

"I've had some really rough working experiences in Auburn, and I thought this was the first agency I've worked for that was ethical, that did all the right things," she聽told 水果派AV in April.

But that support wasn't enough to ease the pressure of helping the many families Whipple was assigned. She worked well over 40 hours a week with no overtime, she said, often spending her weekends catching up on paperwork and figuring out sudden new responsibilities like Medicaid billing. She was also regularly on call overnight. Keeping families in the multisystemic therapy program was her priority, her supervisors told her, to the point she was once told to talk one out of leaving. Another time, she was told to help a family even after saying she felt their situation was beyond her qualifications.

Meanwhile, Whipple's health worsened. After falling at a family's home and fainting at the office, she began worrying she would faint in a home. She then requested her medical leave in early March.聽

Whipple hoped her supervisors, who had witnessed her health problems, would let her take leave immediately. But she was told to meet a new family that afternoon and assigned a training days later.

"I just kept pushing and pushing and pushing," she said. "I really thought I would have their support to say, 'I'm not OK.' And they just continued to put my health at risk, and then just terminated me."

After being fired, Whipple filed a complaint with the Auburn Human Rights Commission that said: "I gave my all to Cayuga Centers, working through immense personal challenges and prioritizing the well-being of the families I served, often at the expense of my own health. In return, I was terminated without warning, denied transparency, and treated with disregard for my safety and dignity."

In an April 15 response shared with 水果派AV, Cayuga Centers general counsel Jordan Cruger told the commission's chair, the Rev. Robert Wilson, that the agency would not meet with him and Whipple.

"We believe the most appropriate course of action would be for this matter to proceed through a neutral and structured channel, such as a referral to the New York State Division of Human Rights," Cruger said. He later added, "We are actively working to gather the documentation relevant to Ms. Whipple's separation, and we intend to share those materials through the proper process."

Wilson told 水果派AV he believes the letter is "a silver bullet for a lawsuit," which Whipple said she does intend to file.聽

"They don't have any documentation," Wilson said. "Almost every time we deal with them, it's deny, deflect and delay."

'I've never seen that in a social services agency'

Also considering legal action against Cayuga Centers is Benjamin DeLanty, who began working for the agency's Unaccompanied Children Services program in the Los Angeles area in September.

A clinician, DeLanty had more than 20 years of experience when he was hired, he told 水果派AV in April. But he was stymied by constant second-guessing, as well as new policies and software to learn.

"There was just a lot of constant change, and it felt like they didn't know what was going on," he said. "I was required to learn four new software platforms in six months. It's just chaos."

DeLanty was fired April 2, shortly after he accidentally joined the closed portion of a board of trustees video call through the agency's calendar program. He said staff was encouraged by supervisors to join meetings on the calendar, and he meant to join the open portion. But after his mistake, he was subjected to an internal investigation and asked, "Do you often surf calendars for meetings to crash?"

The termination came two days after DeLanty requested reasonable accommodation for a learning disability, he said. The agency refused, and created a corrective action plan instead. It did the same thing to two more older colleagues, he continued, which is why age discrimination is among the complaints against Cayuga Centers that he plans to file in court under California labor law.

"Some of us learn new software at a different pace than a 30-year-old," he said. "It was just very hostile and toxic there."

On the video call, DeLanty said, he heard聽S谩nchez describe the agency's financial challenges and resulting need for layoffs.聽

"The board was super callous about the number of people leaving, telling (S谩nchez) 'good job,'" he said. "I've never seen that in a social services agency, being run like this competitive corporation."

After he was fired, DeLanty said, he reported what he heard on the call to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement, which administers the 聽that funds Unaccompanied Children Services. He has not received a response. Nor has he received severance, about $1,000 in mileage he's owed, or the personnel file he requested from the agency.

'A hostile and discriminatory environment'

Whipple and DeLanty would be far from the first ex-Cayuga Centers employees to take the agency to court.

As reported by 水果派AV in April, the agency recently settled a federal lawsuit by a former executive accusing President and CEO Edward Myers Hayes of subjecting her to a hostile work environment in retaliation for her investigating an age discrimination complaint filed against him by another executive. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, and Cayuga Centers declined comment on it.

In March 2021, the agency settled another federal lawsuit by two foster care home finders in Manhattan, Rosanna Baez and Elsie Santana, on behalf of themselves and 10 other former employees. They accused the agency of intentionally misclassifying them as exempt from overtime and paying them a flat salary for 37.5 hours of work a week despite requiring them to work two to three Saturdays and some on-call shifts every month. Weeks with Saturday shifts came out to about 44.5 hours a week, Baez and Santana said, and weeks with on-call shifts came out to between 53.5 and 60.5 hours a week.

Cayuga Centers settled the lawsuit for $175,000, with Baez and Santana each receiving about $15,000 after taxes and attorney fees. The other 10 employees each received between $1,000 and $15,000.

Violating federal labor law was also the premise of a February 2022 lawsuit filed against the agency by Karille Ormsby, a former social worker in its Functional Family Therapy Program in Albany County.

Seeking $1.5 million in damages, Ormsby accused the agency of failing to comply with New York state COVID-19 guidance due to concern about profit loss, retaliating against employees who complained about those failures, and maintaining "a hostile and discriminatory environment for people of color," especially women, through unequal pay, unequal promotions and forced overtime without pay.

Specifically, Ormsby said she feared for her safety because Cayuga Centers forced employees to work in the office and visit families, many of whom did not wear masks, during the pandemic.

As a result, COVID-19 infections were "rampant" among staff, the lawsuit said. But instead of changing agency protocols, Hayes blamed the employees and their non-work activities for the spread. At one point, he sent an email reminding staff to socially distance and wear masks properly, saying, "If you get mouthy when we are imposing one of these disciplines, you will be terminated immediately."

"(He) deliberately avoided discussing or creating protocols for in-person visits in order to maximize the number of in-person home visits and thus maximize profit," the lawsuit said. "(Ormsby) was shocked the message at each of the meetings she attended was the same 鈥� Cayuga Centers must push in-person services for financial reasons. ... Because Cayuga Centers wanted to make more money."

The agency later pressured Ormsby to fire a member of her team in retaliation for an email he sent to leadership critical of its protocols, the lawsuit said. He ultimately was not fired 鈥� but in February 2021, Ormsby was. While she was told the reason was "policy violation and poor judgment as a supervisor," she believes it was due to her team's criticisms and her "being an outspoken Black woman."

The lawsuit added that Ormsby was labeled "aggressive" by leadership and was making less money than white colleagues, particularly men.

"Black employees who tried to avoid being portrayed as aggressive and angry and just kept their mouth shut were referred to as lazy and treated as if they did not care about their jobs," the lawsuit said.

Ormsby's lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in June 2023, suggesting it was settled out of court, though Ormsby's attorneys at Goddard Law PLLC did not respond to 水果派AV's requests for comment.