A Nebraska home builder that encourages employees to follow New Age philosophies has been sued by a former employee who says the CEO of HearthStone Homes fired her because her fetus brought “negative energy” into the workplace.

Jammie Harms' case takes employment discrimination law in a novel direction by alleging her boss's “negative religious response” to her pregnancy created a hostile work environment. HearthStone CEO John J. Smith allegedly fired her as his executive assistant in June 2009 — three months after she told him she was pregnant.

Smith, a disciple of “intuitive spirituality,” believes, among other things, that employees can become more productive by having “negative energy” cleansed from their bodies. His company has certainly been productive, claiming to build one out of every four homes in Omaha.

But according to Harms, he became fixated on the energy emanating from her womb, even discussing her pregnancy with a psychic and a chiropractor. “Once the plaintiff notified the Defendant of her pregnancy her work environment drastically changed,” she alleges in a complaint filed June 14.

“The work environment became hostile towards the plaintiff,” she continues. “She was specifically told that, according to the religious practice of Intuitive Spirituality, the plaintiff’s fetus was creating a negative energy field in the work place.”

In 2003, a former HearthStone sales associate sued the company for firing him because he complained about having to attend mind-body therapy sessions to cleanse his negative energy. But a jury awarded Doyle Ollis only $1 in nominal damages and Smith continues to build his business on New Age principles.

The CEO and other HearthStone managers have “actively attempted to create a spiritual, religious work environment based on concepts incorporating universal energy, concepts of reincarnation, and intuitive spiritualism,” Harms says.

Reverse religious bias cases usually involve allegations that managers tried to force their religious beliefs on an employee or showed favoritism toward employees who shared those beliefs. In 2008, a California jury awarded $6.5 million to a former employee of a temporary agency who alleged she was denied a promotion because she did not belong to an obscure religious group.

A HearthStone vice-president told the Omaha World-Herald that Harms was let go because of the recession. “This [lawsuit] would appear to be just her next response as she tries to bring some sort of conclusion to her moving beyond HearthStone,” Neil Smith, who is not related to the CEO, said.

But a recent article in Builder magazine noted that HearthStone “hasn't gotten bogged down in the national [economic] turmoil.” And Harms insists she was fired “as a result of the defendant’s negative religious response to [her] pregnancy.”

According to the suit, Smith initially responded to the news of her pregnancy by telling her “to be cautious because 'babies can remember things while in the womb', and that Smith’s mother had a sexual affair with another man while she was pregnant with him and that he could still remember the trauma.”

He then allegedly included her in a conference call with a Sedona, Ariz., psychic “to get the psychic's perspective on the affects [sic] of her pregnancy.” A few days later, the suit says, he initiated the call to the chiropractor — “a self-described energy worker” — to discuss “how the plaintiff’s pregnancy was bringing up very negative energy relating to his own experience when he was in his mother’s womb.”

“This incident was terribly troubling to the plaintiff,” says Harms, who is seeking back pay and damages for “emotional pain, suffering, and physical injury.”

HearthStone officials say the goal of Smith's corporate philosophy is “to discover the hero in everyone.” But Harms might just be a sympathetic enough plaintiff to create some positive energy with a jury.

By Matthew Heller
7/1/10