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1. What do you think are some of the factors in the modern workplace that contribute to a theft of time? How can those factors be managed?
2. What does the word Whistleblower mean (legally speaking)? Give an example of whistleblowing.
3. “Retaliation” has become one of the most often cited reasons for employees filing charges with the EEOC against their employers. Please define “retaliation” in the legal, employment sense – and explain when it is illegal. What can an employee do when they feel they have been retaliated against and for what reasons does retaliation rise to the level of an EEOC lawsuit?
4. During the course of a day, employee Jennifer Anniestown (an accountant) constantly opens and updates her Facebook account on her iPad, checks on her lottery ticket numbers, calls and talks to her mother for 30 minutes, her children for 10 minutes (she makes sure they get home safely every day) and her husband every afternoon for 15 minutes to see if he or she is making dinner that night. Her employer, Billybob Thornblower listens to each of her phone calls to make sure that she isn’t talking to his wife, one of her good friends, about his actions at work. (He is always hitting on the salesgirls, in a good-natured way.) Billybob ends up being fired for sexual harassment when one of the salesgirls complains. Jennifer’s new boss, Tracy, notices that Jennifer is doing a ton of personal work during company time. There is no written policy about this issue at the company. To date, Jennifer’s work is exemplary. She always has everything done in a timely manner and her books balance at the end of every day. What should Tracy do about this situation?
5. Last month, Steven Smith was hired as the secretary for lawyer Wayne Wright, who has a drinking problem. Wayne’s last secretary quit when Wayne tried to get her to go out with him on a date. So far, Steven and Wayne have gotten along peachy. Steven is subpoenaed to testify in the harassment lawsuit of Wayne’s former secretary, and says (under oath) that Wayne has treated him great, but that Wayne also admitted he had asked the secretary out on dates regularly and grabbed her inappropriately. Steven is telling the truth. A few weeks later, Wayne and his firm lose the harassment case and have to pay the prior secretary back pay and reinstate her to her job as part of the damages in the case. The firm terminates Steven so that they can put the old secretary back in her job. Steven asks you what you think he should do. What do you say?