This Bad Boss Kept a Diver Out of the Water and Blamed Her for Abuse She Faced
Ariel Schlosser was the only woman diver hired on an important job by VRHabilis, a company that specializes in handling underwater explosives.
VRH rarely allowed her in the water.
Before Schlosser started work on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, in an area that was once used for military target practice, Ron Madden, her manager on the project, had discussed how working with women is “nothing but trouble,” according to a witness in a lawsuit later filed by Schlosser.
And after the job began, Madden broke from industry practice to ban Schlosser from diving for extended periods, disproportionately giving her lesser-paid surface tasks, according to testimony.
Madden even texted HR about buying Schlosser a plane ticket so he could “get her stuff and get her off the island,” the court heard at trial, though Madden told jurors he was just “venting” after a few drinks.
In addition to being kept out of the water, Schlosser testified, she faced verbal abuse from a team leader and her peers, with whom she shared a rental house — yet Madden laid the blame for some conflict on Schlosser, saying that she “drank heavily … and lashed out.”
Frustrated, Schlosser finally felt compelled to quit.
Ron Madden is our latest Bad Boss of the Month.
Schlosser sued VRH in federal court, claiming discrimination and retaliation based on her sex. In 2023, a jury in Knoxville, Tenn., VRH’s home base, found that Schlosser had faced a hostile work environment and awarded her almost $60,000 in back pay.
The verdict was affirmed by an appeals court, and the case ended late last year with a settlement on attorney fees.
Schlosser was used to being the only woman in a group of male divers, she testified. Already an experienced recreational diver, she started her commercial training in Jacksonville, Fla., where just one other woman signed up for her cohort — and didn’t last, leaving Schlosser as the only woman to be certified.
She dove on a wide variety of jobs, starting in Hawaii and bouncing around the country on assignments ranging from ship and dam inspections to pipe and water-tower maintenance. Then she heard from a friend about diving for UXO — unexploded ordnance.
UXO diving is about the safe disposal of underwater explosive material, often bombs or artillery shells on military firing ranges. It’s a delicate and risky job, but her friend told her she’d make “a lot more money,” she testified.
“I said, ‘Sign me up,'” she told jurors.
At UXO school, Schlosser was again the only woman in her cohort. She liked the new discipline, however, and enjoyed several UXO jobs — including cleaning up rocket debris in Alaska — where men typically made up about 90% of the divers, she testified.
Ultimately, she applied to VRH on the recommendation of a colleague who was friendly with Ron Madden, her eventual boss. A former classmate at the company also vouched for Schlosser but warned her that VRH was leery of “hiring a female,” according to court documents.
Schlosser was offered a job that called for her to perform three roles: diver; standby diver; and tender, an on-the-surface assistant. In May 2016, she arrived at Cape Poge on Chappaquiddick Island for the project, a cleanup of World War II-era practice bombs.
Schlosser quickly ran into differential treatment, she testified: While her male colleagues unloaded a truck, a VRH manager pulled her aside to test her knot-tying skills, which he then ordered her to practice.
“It made me feel uncomfortable, singled out,” she told jurors. “And the communication wasn’t there … so to everybody else it looks like I’m just standing around” instead of pitching in.
Indeed, Madden witnessed the scene and later chastised Schlosser for “not helping the team,” he testified.
In another early incident, Schlosser had to resurface on her first dive in order to add weight to her VRH-issued belt. Madden testified that the minor glitch was deemed a black mark against Schlosser, even though jurors heard that a far more experienced male diver had made the same miscalculation without penalty.
After less than a week of work, Madden and another VRH executive relied on such black marks to relegate Schlosser to surface duty, jurors heard. The only other diver who was banned from diving, according to a witness, had failed a physical.
Commercial divers typically rotate between their three duties. Active diving pays the highest per-hour rate; standby duty pays less; and tender/surface tasks pay the least, according to testimony. By keeping Schlosser on the surface, VRH was effectively lowering her pay.
Even more frustrating: Schlosser was never told of the ban, she testified, so she kept asking to dive — so much that her team leader, under orders to stymie her, began to denigrate and curse at her.
Oblivious, Schlosser reported the insults to VRH’s HR department. Meanwhile, the team leader asked for Schlosser to be taken off his hands. Schlosser thought that her resulting transfer to another dive crew was a positive act by VRH, she testified, but she later realized it was in response to the abusive leader’s plea.
In any case, Schlosser’s new crew didn’t enforce the diving ban — and Schlosser went on to “objectively outperform … several of her [new] teammates,” in the words of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. But even in her new team, she faced open hostility from a peer, which she testified went unchecked by her new leader.
After VRH managers learned that Schlosser was still diving, Madden sent an email to renew his ban, according to court records.
“I don’t want her diving for at least the next two weeks,” the email said.
“No fair rotation system should be in play,” Madden decreed. “The highest performers will be the divers.”
Despite no longer overseeing her work, Schlosser’s former team leader chimed in to say that Schlosser was “indisputably the least talented,” according to records — and Madden’s response seemed exultant:
“Bam. Perfect! This is what I needed to hear/see.”
Except it wasn’t true: At trial, Madden conceded that Schlosser wasn’t the worst diver numbers-wise — and that a less productive male diver was never banned from diving, even after Madden’s email.
Blocked again from the water, and facing continued harassment from her hostile teammate, Schlosser felt she had no choice except to quit, she testified.
“My gender now feels, in itself, derogatory,” she said in her resignation email.
Schlosser worked other UXO jobs until the COVID-19 pandemic shut down her job site. Pregnant with her first child, she decided to go back to school. At the time of the trial, Schlosser was still working in UXO. She had two kids, two associates degrees, and was headed to study at Virginia Tech, where she subsequently appeared on several Dean’s Lists.
» Read a declaration from Schlosser’s former dive supervisor
The Employment Law Group® law firm was not involved in Schlosser v. VRHabilis, LLC. We select “Bad Boss” cases to illustrate the continuing relevance of employee protection laws for our newsletter’s audience, which includes attorneys and former TELG clients.
Schlosser was represented by attorneys from the Employment and Commerce Law Group.