Robertson v. State of Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services

Dist. Ct did not err in granting defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment in Title VII action alleging that plaintiff-employee was victim of retaliation for complaining about discrimination by co-worker, where defendant failed to subsequently promote her to director position, and where successful candidate to said position subjected plaintiff to hostile work environment. While plaintiff contended that she was objectively best candidate for said promotion, record showed that both candidates presented attractive qualifications, but that successful candidate had master’s degree while plaintiff had no college education, and where, according to decision-makers, successful candidate displayed better vision for department and had demonstrated ability to lead. Moreover, plaintiff’s own observation that she was more qualified than successful candidate did not establish pretext, where record did not demonstrate that plaintiff was clearly better qualified for position at issue. Also, seven-month gap between protest of discrimination and failure to promote plaintiff was too attenuated to establish causal link between protest and promotion decision. Too, plaintiff failed to establish viable retaliation claim based upon treatment she received from successful candidate, where alleged actions, including successful candidate’s “cold shoulder” towards plaintiff, withdrawal of “resource allocation” duty from plaintiff, and negative treatment of plaintiff at public meetings and at meetings with plaintiff’s subordinates, did not constitute adverse acts either because such actions did not pertain to plaintiff’s job duties or because said acts did not have corresponding change in work hours, compensation or career prospects.