‘Your time is up’: Longtime Bloomberg manager sues over alleged age bias

Things changed, the complaint says, with a 2022 reorganization. Bodell applied for a new customer-facing Team Lead role overseeing labor and employment reference content. She alleges her interviewers – her prospective manager Kristyn Hyland and Vice President of Analysis & Content Alex Butler – took no notes and asked nothing about her customer-facing experience. The job went to Dorothy Goldstein, a younger employee with two years of management experience, for what Bodell was told were “customer-facing reasons,” according to the filing. 

Bodell complained to HR that she had been passed over because of her age. The complaint says her request to move to another team was denied. 

What came next, Bodell alleges, was a steady run of hostility from her new manager. The filing states Goldstein confronted her over emails to senior leaders, accused her of trying to undermine her authority, and – the day after Bodell raised hearing and vision accommodations at a 2023 offsite – told her, “Your time is up,” “You’re out of touch,” and “You don’t know anything anymore.” 

The complaint also alleges that Butler told a December 2022 internal meeting, “Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to have people leave. Gives you a chance to hire someone like Abigail Gampher. Better than having people sitting around at their desks all day waiting to retire.” The filing identifies Gampher as a recently hired analyst well under the age of 40. 

When Bodell referenced retiring under Bloomberg’s “Rule of 85,” she says Goldstein asked her directly when she would go. Bodell told her September 2024. Goldstein, according to the complaint, replied, “Oh.”