He asked for an hour of rest here and there. The company pointed him to leave instead
A software engineer says Paylocity, the HR and payroll software company, fired him after diabetes left him needing occasional rest during the workday.
The claim comes in a lawsuit filed on September 3, 2026 in the US District Court for the District of Oregon. According to the complaint, the engineer joined Paylocity in April 2018 and was promoted to senior software engineer and then lead engineer on a key project. He was diagnosed with diabetes in August 2023 and told his manager.
At first, the filing says, the two handled it informally. He could rest when he needed to and make up the hours later in the week. His diabetes sometimes brought on fatigue that caused him to miss two or three meetings a quarter - a level, he alleges, that was not unusual for others on his team.
That changed in 2025. The complaint says his condition worsened, and in March a routine blood-sugar check sent him to an emergency appointment. He learned he was in the early stages of diabetic ketoacidosis, a dangerous complication that put him in the hospital. Within a month, he alleges, his manager flagged his output as down and would not treat his illness as a factor. In a written report, according to the filing, his manager noted that he had “shared some personal information for which he feels may be impacting this availability and performance.”
Things grew tense after that. When he raised his situation in the chat during a company town hall, he alleges his manager later told him he had “thrown his team under the bus,” and accused him of being “angry” and “lashing out.”
He then asked HR to keep the flexible schedule - an hour or two off now and then, made up later the same day or over the weekend, the complaint says. Instead, he alleges, HR pointed him toward leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the federal law that gives eligible workers unpaid time off. He says he did not want leave. When he pressed, he alleges HR told him the schedule change he wanted was “not legally protected” and that the company had no obligation to grant it.
On April 14, 2026, the filing says, he was placed on a performance improvement plan, a formal process for addressing performance concerns. It was justified in part by a meeting he missed after his blood sugar dropped and he passed out.
On May 18, 2026, Paylocity fired him “for cause,” citing “performance reasons,” and denied him severance despite eight years there, according to the complaint.
He is suing Paylocity under Oregon’s disability law, alleging it discriminated against him and failed to accommodate his condition. He wants a jury to decide damages.
None of the allegations have not been tested, and no court has ruled.
