As an outplacement firm that gets hired by companies undergoing restructurings, Challenger, Gray & Christmas says its business is all about “creating happier alumni for their former employers.”
But the Chicago-based employment consultantcy now faces one unhappy former employee of its own.
Winnetka resident Raheela Anwar, hired by the firm in 2012, filed a $1 million breach-of-contract lawsuit Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court against Challenger, Gray & Christmas, claiming that she was fired “without notice, cause or warning” in late February “despite being extremely successful at her job.” Her accounts were assigned to two other workers, including the son of John Challenger, head of the company, the suit alleges.
Anwar said her duties had included selling the outplacement and executive coaching services of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which acts as a liaison between companies’ personnel departments and workers who are leaving. In 2016 alone, her commissions exceeded $600,000 on more than $4 million in sales, according to the lawsuit. She said she generated new business revenue “far in excess” of even John Challenger, as well as most other employees.
In her lawsuit, Anwar said that, at the time she was fired, she was working on new business that would lead to millions of dollars in additional revenues and that she is entitled to commissions on those sales.
She is seeking more than $1 million in damages, the lawsuit said.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas had no immediate comment.
Anwar received a master’s degree in business administration, focused on finance and accounting, from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and French literature from Northwestern University.
Representing Anwar is Howard Teplinsky of Beermann Pritikin Mirabelli Swerdlove in Chicago.
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