A quiet-desk request, a denied leave extension, and a firing four days after she came back
An HR partner says Blue Origin fired her days after she returned from leave, over her request to work in a quieter building.
That is the heart of a lawsuit filed August 25, 2026 in the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The worker, hired as an HR partner in May 2025, says she has ADHD, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa - conditions the complaint says are made worse by loud, high-stimulation open-plan offices.
According to the filing, she started in “Building A,” a three-story open-office space holding several hundred people, and struggled there. With her supervisor’s approval, she moved to a quieter, single-story maintenance building in late September 2025 and, the complaint says, did her job well from there. On October 15, 2025, she filed a formal disability accommodation request under the Americans with Disabilities Act: a full-day quiet desk, Building A only for essential meetings, and a calm place to eat to help manage her anorexia nervosa.
Then, the complaint alleges, the pressure began. Five days later, her supervisor told her to spend about half her day back in Building A. The filing says her whereabouts were monitored and that she was warned the company might permanently take away her quiet desk, with the supervisor suggesting “Blue Origin isn’t for you [BIEBER].” Eight days after her request, she says she received a written warning that, in the complaint’s words, “falsely” claimed she had been required in Building A daily since September. The filing later describes that warning as “fabricated.”
The alternatives the company offered fell short, the complaint says - among them a phone booth in Building A with no ceiling, no soundproofing, no power outlets, and no food or drink allowed. It says leave extensions were denied, that her benefit eligibility was cut while she was still on approved leave, and that she was given a choice: return with an accommodation she considered inadequate, or take two weeks’ severance.
She returned to work on January 19, 2026, the filing says, against her doctor’s advice. Four days later, Blue Origin terminated her, citing a violation of its information-security policy - specifically, sending “confidential company information to an email address outside Blue Origin.” The complaint says what she forwarded to her personal email were her own accommodation requests and medical-leave records, kept to preserve evidence.
For HR leaders, the timing is the story. The complaint lines the dates up one after another - request, then discipline; agency charge, then denial; return to work, then firing - and argues each step followed close behind something she was entitled to do. It also draws comparisons: it says a peer specialist covered the same client group full-time from the quiet building, and that Blue Origin advertised the same HR partner role with no Building A requirement, open in Merritt Island, Florida; Huntsville, Alabama; or Kent, Washington.
The suit brings seven counts: disability discrimination, failure to accommodate, and retaliation under both the ADA and the Florida Civil Rights Act, plus a claim under the Florida Private Whistleblower Act. One procedural note - a state agency, the Florida Commission on Human Relations, found reasonable cause on July 1, 2026. That is an early administrative step, not a court ruling.
The allegations have not been tested in court, and no judge has ruled on the claims.
