Netflix exec sues over $1.1M job loss after disclosing medical ketamine therapy

Kevin Baillie stood up during a vulnerability exercise at a Netflix retreat in Northern California in January and told his colleagues something true about himself: he had undergone ketamine therapy for depression. The drug had been prescribed and administered by doctors at a Santa Barbara clinic in 2022, after his mother died. It was legal, medically supervised, and it had helped him. He shared this during an exercise explicitly designed to encourage employees to be open about their personal experiences.

Three months later, in April, Netflix fired him. Baillie, who had served as vice president and head of creative at the company's Eyeline Studios visual effects division, earned roughly $1.1 million a year. The company also withheld what could have been as much as a year of severance pay. Now he is suing, claiming that his disclosure of medical ketamine treatment became the reason he lost his job.

The lawsuit, filed in court and reported by The New York Post, alleges that Netflix's investigation into Baillie's conduct mischaracterized his therapy. When an investigator questioned him on March 18, according to the complaint, the ketamine treatment was presented as potential recreational drug use—a framing that distorted what Baillie had disclosed. Ketamine is a Schedule III controlled substance, but it is federally approved as an anesthetic and is prescribed off-label for depression. The FDA has also approved Spravato, a ketamine-derived nasal spray, specifically for treatment-resistant depression under medical supervision. What Baillie had done was legal and medically appropriate.

The investigation also examined other matters: his use of profanity and his consumption of alcohol. During the same retreat, Baillie had mentioned that his former father-in-law had taught him to drink a Guinness while standing on his head. A colleague asked him to demonstrate. He did. His previous performance review had addressed his language but had not directed him to stop swearing entirely. "Drop one or two less f-bombs but don't stop entirely," the review said, according to the complaint.

What makes this case peculiar is Netflix's own stated values. The company's public culture memo promotes vulnerability and candor. It describes the organization as a professional sports team rather than a family. Managers are instructed to apply a "keeper test" when deciding whether to retain employees—asking themselves whether they would fight to keep this person if they wanted to leave, or whether they would hire them again knowing everything they know now. "If the answer is no, we believe it's fairer to everyone to part ways quickly," the memo states. The company also says that workers should receive regular feedback and be evaluated on their entire record. "You willingly receive and give feedback; you are open about what's working and what needs to improve; you admit mistakes openly and share learnings widely," the site declares.

Baillie's attorney stated in the lawsuit that "the ketamine therapy issue has factored into the termination." He is seeking a jury trial, lost wages, compensatory and punitive damages, and damages for emotional distress. Before joining Netflix, Baillie had worked on visual effects for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Harry Potter" franchises. As of the time this lawsuit was reported, Netflix had not publicly responded to his allegations. The case now sits in the gap between what a company says it values and what it appears to have done when an employee took those values at face value.