Employment Law Case Presentation and Analysis

Facts of the case: Imagine you are an HR manager and your boss and owner of the company, Bill, comes to you suspecting his assistant, Paige, is stealing money from the company. Bill would like a polygraph test conducted to see if Paige is stealing from the company. He would also like you to conduct electronic surveillance on Paige’s work e-mail for anything suspicious.

Additionally, Bill mentioned, “Paige is on Facebook. I know you are, too—why don’t you ‘friend’ her on Facebook and see what information you might find out.”

You have heard rumors of a potential romantic relationship between Bill and Paige (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2014b).

Questions: 1) Discuss all legal and ethical issues with which you are faced in this situation. 2) Assume Paige discovered Bill’s suspicions and that she is not stealing from the company. She feels extremely uncomfortable at work now as a result and wants to quit, but she needs the money. What should Paige do? 3) How should Paige approach any legal cause of action, and what is that cause of action? Should she commence litigation, or is another alternative more preferable? 4) Explain how she should resolve this dispute (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2014b).

Legal and Ethical Issues

1) Discuss all legal and ethical issues with which you are faced in this situation (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2014b).

A variety of legal issues, including intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) (defined as “[e]xtreme and outrageous conduct that intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another person” (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2014a, p. 2)), sexual harassment under the hostile work environment doctrine of Title V...

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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2014). Federal sector alternative dispute resolution. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/adr/index.cfm

U.S. Government Printing Office. (1996). Alternative means of dispute resolution in the administrative process, 5 U.S.C. § 5 (IV). Retrieved from http://uscode.regstoday. com/5USC_CHAPTER5.aspx

U.S. Government Printing Office. (1998). Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 1998, 28 U.S.C. § 651. Retrieved from http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title28-section651&num=0&edition=prelim