A federal court jury cleared a Silicon Valley tech company Monday of violating the rights of a transgender man who was fired after posting criticism of the company.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued IXL Learning Inc. of San Mateo last year over its treatment of Adrian Scott Duane, a suit that Duane later joined on his own. They contended IXL fired Duane, an Oakland resident, from his job as a product analyst in January 2015 because he had complained online about the company’s treatment of minority and disabled employees.

IXL said it had accommodated Duane’s need for reduced work hours after sex-reassignment surgery, and described him as a discontented employee whose “collection of false complaints and gripes” had virtually nothing to do with any alleged discrimination. After a one-week trial and less than two hours of deliberation, the U.S. District Court jury in San Francisco found Monday that the EEOC and Duane had failed to prove he was fired in retaliation for protesting the company’s treatment of transgender or disabled employees.

Jeffrey Wilson, a lawyer for IXL, said afterward that the company considered Duane’s online complaint “a false and malicious attack on the company’s products, managers, recruiting practices and the CEO, and fired him immediately for doing so.”

Duane’s lawyer, David Marek, declined to comment on the verdict.

Duane, who holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from UC San Diego, was hired in July 2013 by IXL, which makes math and English learning software for students in grades kindergarten through 12.

He underwent sex-reassignment surgery in November 2014 and, after disability leave, asked to be allowed to spend part of his time working from home while recovering. Duane said the company resisted his request at first and eventually allowed the arrangement, with restrictions that were not applied to other employees. When he learned of the disparity in late December 2014, he said, he posted an anonymous message on Glassdoor.com, a job-evaluation site.

“If you’re not a family-oriented white or Asian straight or mainstream gay person with 1.7 kids who really likes softball, then you’re likely to find yourself on the outside” in job assignments and overall treatment at IXL, the message read in part. It also included complaints about “boring, menial work” and alleged micromanagement by the company’s chief executive, Paul Mishkin.

Duane said he met with his supervisor a week later and told him he had encountered discrimination in the workplace. Two days later, he was called to a meeting with Mishkin, where he said he expected to discuss his complaints. But Mishkin, who had learned that Duane was the author of the Glassdoor posting, asked him about it and then fired him.

In defense of the firing, lawyers for IXL said Duane’s posting showed “a lack of judgment and ethics” and that the “negligible” allegations of discrimination had nothing to do with his dismissal.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko