Hawkins

BACKGROUND

Hawkins became an employee for the State of California in 1978. In 2002, she received a five percent salary reduction for rude and discourteous treatment of other employees. She began her work for CalVet in 2009. As a private postsecondary education administrator, she supervised other employees at CalVet, including Latanaya Johnson. In 2009, Johnson asked to use three days of bereavement leave because of her brother’s death. Hawkins denied the request and told her she would be considered absent without leave if she missed a staff meeting. Human resources intervened to allow the bereavement leave. In 2011, Johnson confidentially expressed frustration with Hawkins’s management style through e-mail. But Hawkins sent Johnson’s e-mail to 11 others. Hawkins solicited other employees of the same classification as Johnson to “mentor” Johnson. And Hawkins criticized Johnson for suspending a school’s participation in the education program for violation of federal law. In response to Johnson’s statement that the school had violated federal law, Hawkins said, “I don’t care. Make it go away.” Johnson filed a formal complaint against Hawkins with CalVet’s Equal Employment…