A longtime Wells Fargo auditor with multiple sclerosis says the bank's return-to-office push cost her four years of approved remote work - and her career.
Syreeta Lane sued Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. on May 8 in federal court in Charlotte, accusing the bank of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act after it refused to renew the full-time telework accommodation she had used since 2020.
Lane, a Lead Audit Manager who joined Wells Fargo in January 2008, was diagnosed with MS in December 2014 and told the bank the following year, according to the complaint. Her doctor later certified that a shared office posed a serious risk to her compromised immune system. The complaint says her audit work was done entirely remotely throughout her career - clients were spread across the country, and every meeting happened by phone, email or video.
For four straight years, the filing states, Wells Fargo approved her full-time remote work and intermittent leave without question.
That changed in June 2024. Lane submitted her annual renewal with a physician's certification that full-time remote work was "medically necessary" through July 2025. According to the complaint, the bank's accommodations team sat on the request for roughly two months. After Lane escalated, her assigned representative told her by phone the renewal would go through in full, pending sign-off from her direct supervisor, Senior Audit Manager Dennis Aquino.
That sign-off never came. Instead, the filing says, the bank emailed Lane a "gradual return-to-work schedule" - full remote through October, one day in the office in November, two in December, and three days a week starting January 2025. The intermittent leave piece of her request, the complaint alleges, was not addressed at all. When Lane asked what had changed, her representative told her, according to the filing, that Aquino was "not approving full-time accommodation."
Lane alleges Wells Fargo never engaged in the interactive process the ADA requires. No individualized assessment. No dialogue with her. No follow-up with her doctor. The complaint also alleges, on information and belief, that no undue hardship analysis was conducted - despite the bank having approved the same arrangement for four straight years.
The retaliation claims sharpen the picture. Lane alleges Aquino gave her a "Needs Improvement" rating for 2023 based on a single audit, disregarding positive feedback from every other supervisor who worked with her that year. According to the complaint, key sections of his evaluation were copied nearly word for word from her prior supervisor's review and from another auditor's engagement feedback.
The complaint also alleges Aquino repeatedly told Lane in one-on-one meetings that she was "not doing [her] job" and that he was "going to fire" her, without naming any specific deficiency or identifying the "leadership" he said had complained. On August 9, 2024 - days after Lane disputed the return-to-office schedule by email - he placed her on a formal corrective action and, according to the filing, told her she "should leave the company" unless she showed Auditor-in-Charge performance on two specific audits. The complaint says the scheduling team had already assigned her to a staff role on both, so the standard was impossible to meet.
Lane's MS deteriorated, the filing says, and she went on short-term disability on August 27, 2024. Her claim moved to long-term disability on February 18, 2025, cutting her income to a fraction of her pre-disability earnings. She remains on LTD and is paying out of pocket for benefits the bank previously covered.
The complaint alleges, on information and belief, a broader pattern at Wells Fargo of denying or scaling back remote-work accommodations for employees with disabilities and imposing return-to-office schedules that clash with medical certifications.
Lane filed an EEOC charge on December 5, 2024 and got her right-to-sue notice on February 9, 2026. She is seeking back pay, front pay, lost benefits, compensatory damages, liquidated damages under the FMLA, and attorneys' fees.
The allegations have not been tested in court. Wells Fargo has not yet filed a response, and no court has ruled on the claims.
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