There is a quiet trend playing out in California workplaces. It does not show up in official policies or termination notices. Instead, it arrives in vague performance reviews, in backhanded compliments, and in the final conversation that ends a career.
“She is not a culture fit.” “He gets defensive.” “She is too intense.”
“They do not mesh well with the team.”
For many employees, particularly women, people of color, and those with disabilities, these coded phrases are not just critiques of behavior. They are a smokescreen for discrimination.
The California Law Behind the Personality Problem
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) makes it illegal for an employer to terminate, discipline, demote, or harass an employee based on protected characteristics, including:
- Gender identity and gender expression
- Race or ethnicity
- Disability or medical condition
- Age (over 40)
- Sexual orientation
- Religion
- Pregnancy
- Mental health conditions like anxiety or ADHD
While personality alone is not a protected category, when personality critiques are used as a pretext to mask illegal discrimination against one of these traits, they may give rise to a legal claim.
When “Not a Culture Fit” Means Something Else
The phrase “not a culture fit” may sound benign, but courts and attorneys know it can hide all kinds of bias. If a woman is called “abrasive” for being assertive while her male colleague is praised for “leadership,” that is not just office politics. It can be evidence of gender discrimination.
California courts have recognized that subjective evaluations based on personality can lead to discriminatory outcomes when they are applied unevenly, or when employees of a certain gender or race are consistently described with coded language like:
- “Too aggressive”
- “Not professional enough”
- “Overly emotional”
- “Too quiet” or “not engaged”
If those same traits are tolerated, or praised, in others, the pattern matters. That is where legal merit begins to take shape.
Personality and Disability: The Hidden Discrimination
Employees with mental health conditions, such as anxiety, ADHD, or PTSD, are particularly vulnerable to being misunderstood. What a manager calls “overreaction” or “inflexibility” may actually be a symptom of an invisible disability.
Under FEHA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers must provide reasonable accommodations for qualifying disabilities and they must not punish employees for behavior tied to that condition, especially if no accommodations were offered or discussed.
Terminating someone for being “difficult to manage” when the employee has documented anxiety could amount to disability discrimination, especially if no interactive process ever occurred.
The Retaliation Trap: When Assertiveness Becomes a Liability
Here is another red flag: an employee speaks up about discrimination, unequal treatment, or harassment, and suddenly they are labeled as negative, divisive, or “not a team player.”
That label is often the first domino in a retaliation claim. FEHA prohibits retaliation against any employee who:
- Complains about discrimination (formally or informally)
- Participates in a workplace investigation
- Requests a reasonable accommodation
- Asks for protected leave (such as CFRA or pregnancy-related leave)
Once a complaint is made, subtle punishments, lower performance reviews, social exclusion, and removal from projects are not just hurtful. They may be legally actionable.
“Too Emotional” Is Not a Reason to Fire Someone, If It Is Only Applied to Women
California courts have consistently held that gender-based stereotypes in employment decisions are unlawful. That includes the stereotype that women are too emotional, sensitive, or reactive to be effective.
If men are allowed to be passionate or outspoken without consequence, but women are told they are difficult or unstable for the same behavior, that difference in treatment could be evidence of gender bias.
And that bias, under FEHA, is illegal.
How Do You Know If You Have a Case?
Not every personality-based critique rises to the level of discrimination. Employers can have preferences, and not every firing is illegal. But if:
- You belong to a protected category
- You were evaluated differently than peers who behaved similarly
- You were criticized in vague, subjective ways
- You complained or requested leave shortly before negative treatment
- You have a medical or mental health condition that may explain certain behaviors
- You were never given clear standards, documentation, or warnings
Then your termination, demotion, or hostile environment may not just be unfair. Iit may be against the law.
Your Personality Is Not a Problem. Discrimination Is.
California employment law does not require perfection. It requires fairness.
Employers cannot hide behind “culture fit” or “tone” or “vibes” when they are really targeting someone because of who they are or because they dared to speak up. Personality-based feedback is often the mask worn by deeper, unlawful bias.
If you have been fired, sidelined, or isolated for being “too much,” ask yourself: Too much of what? And for whom? It may be time to ask a lawyer.