She says the company offered leave instead of moving the manager she had reported
A former sales employee has sued Smartsheet, alleging the software company retaliated against her after she reported discrimination and harassment internally.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on August 4, 2026, alleges that after the employee raised concerns and later retained a lawyer, Smartsheet subjected her to escalating discipline, placed her on a Performance Improvement Plan, and terminated her employment. The company has not yet responded to the claims.
According to the filing, the employee joined Smartsheet in April 2022 as a remote sales development representative based in New York City, on a base salary of about $54,000 plus commission. She alleges she performed well and was promoted in early 2023 to a business development role, alongside three younger, non-Asian male colleagues.
Her difficulties, the complaint alleges, began under a new manager. In an early one-on-one, the filing says, the manager asked about her background; when she shared that she was a first-generation Chinese American raised by a single mother who worked as a cleaner, she alleges he responded that "it must be easy." In the following weeks, according to the complaint, the manager questioned whether she was "equipped" for the role, told her she "looked lost," and issued the first of several disciplinary "Action Items."
The complaint sets out a close timeline. The employee alleges that her first internal complaint, on March 2, 2023, came the same day as that first Action Item. She says she raised the manager's conduct with a diversity program manager, a people partnerships director, and a people business partner. According to the filing, further Action Items followed within days, then a Performance Improvement Plan, and then her termination on June 6, 2023.
Central to the case is what the employee alleges the company did not do. The complaint claims that across a series of meetings, Smartsheet's response was to offer her leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or time off, and on one occasion to convene a joint meeting that placed her back in direct contact with the manager she had reported. She alleges the company never offered to move her to a different team or manager, and never opened an inquiry into the manager's conduct. Each proposed remedy, the filing states, placed what it describes as "the burden of removal" on her.
The complaint also alleges unequal treatment. During one team meeting, according to the filing, a white male colleague was permitted to contact client system administrators while the employee was criticized for similar conduct, under a written sales policy she was told did not allow it.
The employee further alleges that the company's stated performance reasons were a pretext. The complaint cites Smartsheet's own internal messages from the period she was being disciplined for missed quota, including a senior leader's company-wide message describing a "difficult scenario" of "limited headcount and systematic errors in routing and scoring." A non-party colleague, according to the filing, described the sales teams in internal messages as "decimated by the promotions" and "scrambling to fill the gaps."
Before filing suit, the employee pursued the matter through administrative channels. According to the complaint, the New York State Division of Human Rights investigated her charge and, in December 2025, found no probable cause. Her then-counsel then asked the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to review the charge independently, and in May 2026 the EEOC issued a right-to-sue letter. The employee, now representing herself, filed suit within the 90-day period that letter allowed.
The lawsuit brings retaliation claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and New York State and City human rights laws. It seeks lost wages and benefits, compensatory damages, and other relief.
The allegations have not been tested, and no court has ruled on the merits.
