Sandy Baratta, an Oracle vice president, was at San Francisco International Airport waiting to board a plane when she discovered her ticket was canceled. She called Oracle and was told she had been fired. Baratta sued, accusing Oracle of terminating her because she was five months pregnant and because she had insisted on an investigation of Oracle’s alleged pirating of a German competitor’s software. Oracle claimed she was terminated for creating an “unbearable” work environment through her attempts to climb the corporate ladder by pressuring her subordinates to praise her skills to senior management. A jury sided with Baratta and awarded her $2.7 million in compensation for lost wages and stock options. At the time of her termination, she was earning an annual salary of $350,000.