A former Zillow employee has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the portal, accusing managers of age, race and gender discrimination and of retaliatory termination after he returned from his Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave.
The employee, 43-year-old Kenneth Brantley, said he worked for Zillow from 2018 to 2025, starting as a sales executive and moving up the ranks to team lead, business consultant team lead, and field enablement manager from 2020 to 2022, and then to national sales manager of acquisitions, later retitled to manager, acquisitions, agent software and advertising, in 2023. Brantley said the promotions came with raises, stock awards and positive performance reviews recognizing his team’s productivity.
The issues began in 2020, when Brantley started interviewing for higher-level managerial roles. Court documents said Brantley applied and was interviewed nine times for those roles between 2020 and 2023; however, other candidates were chosen.
Brantley said a colleague told him that Small Medium Business Acquisitions Director Jonathan Ney was “actively blocking” his attempts to move to another role. The former employee also pointed to the company’s Engagement and Belonging program as another reason for his struggle, noting that in a 2024 leadership meeting, Senior Director of Enterprise Sales Travis Roberts said he was focused on diversifying his team, which only had “white males.”
“[Roberts’] statement was made in or around the time period of promotion decisions from which Mr. Brantley was excluded,” the complaint read, reflecting his assertion that he was more qualified than the promoted applicants, all of whom were ethnic minorities.
Brantley said his relationship with Ney further soured in 2025, with Ney allegedly pressuring him to give a subordinate, who’d just returned from FMLA leave, lower-quality accounts so they’d quit. Brantley said he refused and reported Ney’s alleged actions to Zillow’s HR team.
He said Ney also facilitated age-based discrimination within the team, with Ney playing songs before team meetings and allegedly telling Brantley he was “too old to know this.” He also claimed Ney made jokes about his baldness, asking Brantley if he wished “he could do that” when colleagues changed their hairstyles. He also said several of his colleagues wore T-shirts with a caricature of his face and the words “and Kenn…” to a Zoom meeting.
The phrase, Brantley said, was a reference to the fact that Ney excluded him from announcements about the team’s achievements.
Brantley said Ney increasingly criticized his performance, sending an email on June 5, 2025, that detailed several concerns. The next day, Ney filed a formal Job-in-Jeopardy warning, which Brantley said he’d never received before. Brantley claimed an unnamed senior manager told him that Ney had been told to “lower headcount without conducting a formal reduction-in-force, explaining the coordinated nature of the simultaneous write-ups.”
On June 7, Brantley had a severe panic attack, leading him to apply for and be granted a 90-day FMLA leave.
He alleged Ney contacted him during the leave about work matters, leading Brantley to file a formal HR complaint against Ney on Sept. 8, the day before he was set to return to the office. The complaint detailed the alleged retaliation and discrimination Brantley saw and suffered, and claimed that Ney had created a hostile work environment.
On the day he returned, Brantley said he had a phone meeting with Ney and HR representative Josh Angles. Brantley said he asked to exclude Ney from the call; however, HR refused. Brantley said the call “ended abruptly” while providing evidence of the alleged discrimination, and that later that day, he was fired.
A Zillow spokesperson said the company is aware of Brantley’s complaint, but declined to “discuss personnel details.”
“We take any allegation regarding our work environment very seriously,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “The claims alleged in the complaint are inconsistent with Zillow’s culture and values. One of our highest priorities at Zillow is and always has been creating an environment where people do great work and treat each other with dignity and respect.”
Brantley is requesting back and front pay, compensatory and punitive damages, the latter of which is capped at $300,000 under Title VII. He also wants Zillow to reimburse what he’s spent on out-of-pocket medical expenses for therapy, medications, and related mental health treatment and any other damages the court deems appropriate.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
Read the full lawsuit below:
