Fired for breast cancer

It appears that Kathleen Mason worked for the most unreasonable and insensitive bunch of people around. She was the CEO of Tuesday Morning, a Dallas based retailer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in January and February and was fired over the phone (over the phone - really?) three months later even though she had insisted that her diagnosis and treatment would not interfere with her ability to do her job.

Now I don't know all the facts of her diagnosis and treatment - what protocol she had - surgery, chemo, radiation or what. It is clearly her decision on being able to cope with treatment and her job at the same time. Many women work through treatment.

She also had the job for 12 years and the excuse was that sales have been down for recent years. If sales were down maybe they could have asked her for a plan of action to correct that but you don't fire a 12 year executive with out advance warning over the phone. Stupid and discriminatory.

And they want to keep her as a consultant for the next 10 years - meaning they still value her opinion - so why did they fire her? Did the word cancer scare them? Or were they just stupid as now they have lost a good employee, destroyed their reputation (I would boycott them if they were local), and opened themselves up to a lawsuit. Maybe not stupid, just chicken. And dumb.