Until February, Leo Sitlin was a rising contingency manager at Cleveland financial house Holloway-Sills. A favorite among the company’s clients, he often served as host at charity events, ballgames and anywhere else high levelers needed to coddled.
Then on February 24, he was called into CEO Marlene Hillinger’s office and told he was being reassigned to a post-contingency coordinator – six levels below his director position, .
“They said it was because I’d misidentified three precursor variables,” says Sitlin. “But I knew better than that.”
The evening before, he and his wife, Clarise, had hosted management from Malinworth Formulations at the annual “Nose in the Air” fundraiser for Allergic Rhinitis. It was an enjoyable night, and Sitlin had the group in stitches telling his story about being in an elevator with Henny Youngman. Then it happened.
“Clarise said, ‘Please pass the salt, Bunny!’” says Sitlin, still unbelieving. “Yes, it was her nickname for me, but we’d talked about never using it in public I don’t know how many times.”
At first, he thought nobody had heard – but awhile later he saw a couple of the Malinworth people standing at the bar, one with his fingers to his forehead like rabbit ears. “What’s up, Doc?” Sitlin heard him say. “The word was out,” says Sitlin.
Even when he offered to get a divorce, the company held firm. So on April 15, Sitlin hired attorney Sheila Wither and now the matter is headed to court. Holloway-Sills will not comment on pending litigation, but stated through a spokesperson: “An employee’s position would never be impacted by a nickname.”
But to play it safe, Sitlin is studying up on post-contingencies.
