What happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas, and it cost former Cisco manager John Dorrian his job.
But Dorrian claims in a lawsuit against the San Jose technology giant that what happened in Sin City that could have led to his firing remains a mystery to him.
Cisco did not respond to requests for comment.
For almost two decades, Dorrian “devoted his career to advancing Cisco’s software products and solutions” and he played a key role in generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales for the company, the wrongful-termination and whistleblower-retaliation lawsuit filed Nov. 1 in Santa Clara County Superior Court said.
In early 2020, he became global enterprise manager for Meta’s account with Cisco, a job requiring him to attend industry events, according to the lawsuit. This year, that meant going in early June to the four-day Cisco Live in Las Vegas, the company’s flagship annual event that brings together technology professionals, industry leaders and Cisco partners from around the globe.
There, Dorrian met with Meta representatives and participated in Cisco’s keynote sessions focused on customers.
And on the night of June 3, Dorrian went to famed Japanese restaurant Nobu with some two dozen other Cisco workers, for a dinner sponsored by a Cisco partner company.
“From Mr. Dorrian’s perspective, the dinner went smoothly, with productive conversations, particularly with Meta customer representatives,” the lawsuit said. “After dinner, as it is common with industry events in Las Vegas, Mr. Dorrian and other colleagues went to a local bar and thereafter to a nearby nightclub.”
At the club, a Cisco colleague fell down and was taken to a hospital, according to the lawsuit. Dorrian didn’t see the incident but witnessed the man being taken away on a stretcher. Dorrian and another Cisco account manager, plus two Meta employees, went to the hospital that night to check on the injured man, who was released the next morning, the lawsuit said.
Dorrian, throughout the night, “handled himself professionally at all times and had no personal incidents,” but at the end of the month, he “became the subject of a targeted inquiry” by Cisco, the lawsuit claimed. A senior human relations representative called him and “launched into questions” about whether there had been “excessive drinking” or “inappropriate behavior” on the Vegas trip, and demanded details about the incident involving his injured colleague, the lawsuit alleged.
“Mr. Dorrian explained that he had witnessed none of the alleged misconduct,” the lawsuit said.
Cisco’s code of conduct for employees at the time of the Vegas trip says, “All employees who consume alcohol at company-sponsored events are expected to consume alcohol responsibly.”
Weeks passed, then in late July, the HR representative called again “probing with a series of questions about the evening of June 3,” the lawsuit said. Despite Dorrian’s “full cooperation and his efforts to refute certain claims about his behavior that night,” it became clear the representative was seeking to corroborate information about him, and “had unfairly singled him out,” the lawsuit claimed. Two hours after the call, a pair of Cisco higher-ups called and told him he was fired, effective immediately, the lawsuit alleged.
“They cited his behavior … at the Cisco Live event, based on reports from ‘several Cisco employees,’ as the reason for his termination,” the lawsuit alleged, adding that he asked for details about the investigation and who had made accusations against him, but his superiors refused to provide answers.
“To this date, Mr. Dorrian remains in the dark about why he was abruptly ousted from a company where he had spent two decades building his career,” the lawsuit claimed. “Had he been given the opportunity, he could have easily pointed to numerous individuals who would have vouched for his behavior during the Cisco Live event, confirming that he did nothing wrong.”
However, Dorrian claimed in the lawsuit that Cisco withheld commissions from him and victimized him through compensation practices that discriminated against older workers, and that Cisco fired him in retaliation for complaining about those alleged issues, the lawsuit claimed.
He is seeking back pay and unspecified damages. He also wants his job back, with a court order barring Cisco from “further discrimination or retaliation.”
