Every time Paul Talanda drives by a Kentucky Fried Chicken he’s an emotional cocktail: he feels depressed, alienated, hurt, nostalgic. For 15 years he worked for the company at restaurants north of Chicago. He started in high school as a part-time server and within two years advanced to management, eventually opening new restaurants, hiring and training employees, and conducting orientation sessions. In 1990 the restaurant Talanda managed had such high profits and received such good evaluations that the company promoted him into the President’s Club, an elite group of managers whose members were called on to train new managers and attend division meetings on new products and procedures. Talanda and other regional club members also sat on the Chicago safety committee, which was formed to reduce safety hazards on the job. For their hard work and expertise President’s Club members received not only prestige and recognition, but a new watch and a plaque honoring them for “outstanding achievement in sales performance, customer satisfaction, and management innovation.” By all measures Talanda was an asset to the company. But when he refused to discriminate against one of his employees, Kentucky Fried Chicken fired him.
In 1981, when Talanda was 18, he began dating Christy Lanphier, who worked in the same restaurant he did. They married four years later, and Kentucky Fried Chicken offered to cater their wedding for free.
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“He was probably one of the most consistent and caring managers in the company,” says Victor Elarde, one of the managers Talanda trained. “He ran a good store. He was sharp. I don’t think there were many like him who really cared about the rules and guidelines like he did. I’ve worked with about 100 different managers, and I’d say he’s in the very top ten.”
According to a memo Overly later wrote, now part of the lawsuit, the next day she asked Talanda to remove Bellson from the front counter. “She told me she objected that I hired Dorothy and that she couldn’t believe I’d hire a person like that,” Talanda says. “I was kind of listening in awe to see where the conversation was going.” Overly told Talanda to immediately reassign Bellson to the back of the restaurant, in the position of either prep person or cook.
In a last-ditch attempt to persuade Overly to reconsider, Talanda said, “Well, she’s very friendly, you know.”
Talanda didn’t know if Bellson’s dental condition qualified as a disability, but he strongly believed that Overly was asking him to violate the spirit and intent of the policy. Moreover, he thought moving Bellson on those grounds would be immoral–he wouldn’t feel right about treating her differently from other employees based on something as superficial as a toothless smile. Do unto others, he thought.
