Assignment Instructions

The United States is in a period of major transition from an economy where mass production manufacturing industries constituted the core to a one in which industries based on information and knowledge form the core.  In addition to the shift from mass production to knowledge-based enterprises, both the workforce and consumer population has also changed significantly.   These changes have stimulated changes in employment laws and regulations as well as in management and human resource policies and practices.

Read:

1. Muhl, C.J.  The Employment-at-will Doctrine:  Three Major Exceptions.
2. Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination
3. K. Reardon, “The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk. – The case study concerns a woman who believes that she and other women are being discriminated against in her company.

Forum:

1. If Liz Ames at Vision Software sends the memo she has written to her boss and is subsequently terminated would any of the exceptions to the “employment at will” doctrine apply to her case?  Would she be protected under any federal law?  Explain your reasoning.
2. Josie Zaroft, a 56 year-old senior software engineer at FutureApp, has informed the human resource department that in advance of scheduled gender reassignment surgery, she would like the staff to refer to her using only female pronouns.  The head of HR, Susan, once dated Josie when she was known as Joe, a biological male.  Susan calls Josie in for a performance review and states that Josie will not receive a previously-promised promotion because her transition will make it difficult to manage the team of older male tech workers who just wont understand this she-male fad. Susan further states that Josie must be crazy and is too old to be performing drag in the office.  Has Josie suffered from any discriminatory practice under federal law? Identify which federal laws prohibiting job discrimination might apply, and explain why.

Reply to this person’s respond in 3-4 sentences

1.  This is a very hard case, we can look towards the likes of Charlie Rose, Matt Laur, and others for advice, of the laws versus the street rules. Legally Liz should not have been fired. She was using HR to express her opinions against sexism, but in reality, as seen with Rose and Laur, the stores were covered up and the people who raised the flags were fired. Liz says He’ll dismiss me as a radical feminist or a chronic complainer. The employer is always at a huge advantage, Liz could raise the flag, and then they could fire her for something else that could be totally fake, and it would be very hard to prove it otherwise.  Technically she is protected under federal law, but the company would most likely fire her for something else and it would be nearly impossible to prove that she was fired for her memo. 
2. Josie for sure is facing a discriminatory practice simply because the government says harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, genetic information, or age; are protected under the Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions And Answers. It is very simple, they cannot legally not promote her due to gender or a surgery of any kind. It is not only wrong but illegal.