A performance plan pulled for missing its own paperwork sits at the center of this suit
A former Amazon manager says she was fired days after reporting alleged racial bias, according to a lawsuit filed August 12, 2026.
The worker joined Amazon as a Creative Project Manager in July 2024 and was let go on February 11, 2026. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, she says she was the only Black woman on her team and in her department for that entire time - and that her problems at work began only after she started raising concerns about race.
According to the filing, before October 2025 she had no documented performance concerns, no formal coaching, and no written warnings. After that, she says, things moved fast.
The complaint describes a performance improvement plan - which Amazon internally calls a "Pivot" - issued on October 21, 2025, built on concerns she says had never been raised before. The filing states the plan gave her about a week to complete major deliverables during the company's busiest retail stretch. Days later, on October 27, HR withdrew it. The complaint says the plan was rescinded after HR confirmed it "lacked required documentation, coaching, feedback, and written performance goals."
That is the detail HR leaders will want to sit with. A performance plan pulled back for failing its own documentation rules is precisely the kind of record a plaintiff's lawyer builds a retaliation claim around.
The complaint says the worker reported race discrimination and a hostile work environment to HR on October 24, 2025. In a second complaint on October 29, she described herself as "the only full-time Black woman PM in Creative Ops" and said the conduct "could reasonably be perceived as a microaggression and contributes to what has now become a hostile work environment."
From there, the filing alleges a recognizable sequence. A new "Focus" plan she says arrived with no formal documentation. Feedback framed around subjective terms - "tone," "rigidity," "confrontational behavior." A daily check-in requirement she alleges was applied only to her. The complaint says this framing echoed the "angry Black woman" stereotype, a concern she states she raised with HR and management.
She also points to three colleagues she describes as non-Black who, according to the filing, reported to the same manager but did not face the same performance actions.
The timing is the heart of the case. On February 2, 2026, the worker sent what she describes as a protected whistleblower disclosure to senior Amazon leadership. The complaint alleges that within roughly 24 hours, on February 3, Amazon presented her with a Pivot plan - which the filing describes as the final step before termination. She was fired on February 11.
Amazon's stated reason, according to the complaint, was a breach of its data handling policy after she forwarded work materials to her personal email. She alleges the materials were the kind employees are allowed to keep, citing policy language that permits retention of "personnel documents (such as W-2 forms, pay records, and documents regarding the terms of my employment with Amazon)."
For HR teams, the takeaway is about process, not verdict - because there is no verdict. The complaint's sharpest allegations are procedural: a plan rescinded for missing documentation, criticism the filing says surfaced only after protected complaints, success measures the complaint calls unmeasurable, such as "zero escalations" and "positive feedback from all stakeholders," and adverse steps the filing says stacked up soon after each complaint. Whether the claims survive or not, they read like a map of what plaintiffs' lawyers look for.
The worker brings claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1981, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New York City Human Rights Law, and New York Labor Law § 740, the state's whistleblower statute. She is seeking back pay, front pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorneys' fees.
The allegations have not been tested in court, and no judge has ruled on any of the claims.
