Elizabeth Cornman is a Wiccan with an ax to grind.
Cornman, of Hanover Park, is suing her employer, Mary Kay Cosmetics, for harassment and discrimination based on her religious beliefs.
Cornman is a practicing Wiccan and pagan who worships several gods and the air, water, earth and fire, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.
She was hired at the cosmetics company in July 2000 as a customer service representative.
But it wasn't until the next year, when Cornman married a Wiccan priest and began revealing more of her Wiccan-ness at the office--sporting ankle tattoos and necklaces of Wiccan symbols, for example--that she caught flak, she says.
Cornman says she was unfairly disciplined for damaging a copier when all she did was shut the door on the machine too hard, and was accused by her supervisor of "victimizing" a colleague.
Managers also removed a sand garden from her desk, the suit states. Cornman used the garden to draw "runes," or religious signs that "gave her a guiding principle for the day."
In July, after Cornman had filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she received a poor performance review. She had always gotten rave reviews until then, she says.
The suit seeks unspecified back pay damages and $300,000 in emotional distress damages.
Neither Cornman nor a Mary Kay company representative could be reached Friday.
Cornman's attorney did not return phone calls.