She says she complained, managers agreed it was wrong — then her job disappeared
A Chicago-area barista says her supervisor told her the company "should have hired a man" — then laid her off months after she complained.
That, in broad strokes, is the story Jessica A. Wallace tells in a Title VII lawsuit filed April 20, 2026 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against Compass Group USA, Inc., doing business as Canteen (Wallace v. Compass Group USA, Inc., No. 1:26-cv-04461). The allegations have not been tested in court, and no ruling has been issued.
For HR leaders, the narrative is uncomfortably familiar: an employee raises a concern, a manager says the right things, and then — according to the lawsuit — the follow-through never arrives.
Wallace says she started as a barista on or around April 30, 2024, and was never disciplined. On her first day, she alleges, her supervisor Scott Johnson told her she was replacing another woman who "could no longer hack this type of work" after knee surgery, and was "lazy." Days later, when Wallace fanned herself through a hot flash, Johnson allegedly offered that he had "multiple wives" and "knew all about the problem." At the end of the month, she says, he screamed at her to "shut up" in front of a coworker — something she claims she never heard him do to a male employee.
She escalated it. On June 6, 2024, Wallace emailed Regional Manager Lori Pierson, who pointed her to District Manager Stephanie Mandarino. Mandarino, according to the lawsuit, told her she "should never have been subjected to that kind of behavior," and Pierson followed up in writing to the same effect. After that, Wallace says, she heard nothing more.
The tension didn't ease. Around July 2024, Johnson allegedly told Wallace that a newly hired female colleague wouldn't be up to the job and that the company "should have hired a man." That October, after a text exchange about restocking, Wallace says Johnson punched an elevator three times and called her a "bitch" in front of a recently hired male barista. She reported it to Senior Account Manager Nayelli Madero, and in an October 8, 2024 meeting, she explicitly told Madero she believed Johnson's behavior was because she is a woman.
On or about February 13, 2025 — about four months later — Wallace says she was laid off because "her services were no longer needed," even though, she alleges, a less senior male barista was kept on. She also claims that, days after her exit, Madero told a client-site manager who wanted to refer her for another job that Wallace was "a bad employee" with "many complaints" against her.
Wallace is seeking lost wages, compensatory and punitive damages, and a jury trial.
For HR executives, the takeaway is less about the headline-grabbing quotes than about the quieter middle of the story: acknowledging a complaint is not the same as resolving one, and layoff decisions made in the shadow of a gender-bias complaint will be read — by lawyers, by juries, and by the rest of the workforce — with a very careful eye.
