FINAL CASE STUDY INSTUCTIONS:

Please read the following and after carefully, reading through the facts, identify the issues and concerns you have as a student trained in Human Resource Management. This final case study requires you to spot issues based on what you have learned in this section, and from your other training and experience, by explaining the law/procedures/rules around the issue/s and then analyze and come to a conclusion on how the issue should be addressed. This question encompasses a complete relationship between the employee and employer. Think about what you have learned during this class about best practices to establish a good foundation for creating a successful relationship between an employee and employer. Be sure to identify what you spot as problems with in this relationship and what could have been done to create the best opportunity for the employee/employer relationship from ending as the facts do in this case study.

CASE STUDY:

Jane is a 34 year old college educated women. She has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. She is a single mom with two children who are 8 and 12 years old. The oldest child has chronic health issues and is regularly in the doctor’s office or emergency room as a result of the health issues. Jane is employed by a commercial bakery in Pottsville as a day shift manager. Jane has been with her current employer for 11 years. Jane is paid an hourly wage of $31.50 an hour and she has health insurance benefits for her and her children, a 401(k) plan that her employer matches contributions made by her, two weeks paid vacation, all paid federal holidays and 5 paid sick days annually. The bakery is considerate of Jane’s need to be at home for her children by 3:30 pm Monday through Friday and does not require her to work on the weekends. Jane loves her current employer but she has a goal of using the management skills she has gained over the years with her psychology degree in a position that would allow her to provide more for her family and to get more reward from her career. There is a small store that accompanies the bakery and the public is welcomed to purchase goods from the bakery in the company store. Laney is a comptroller for a local soft drink plant located near the bakery. Laney is a regular customer and she and Jane have become acquaintances from Laney’s frequent visits to the bakery store. Laney and Jane have shared stories about their backgrounds and even discussed future goals. Jane has mentioned more than once to Laney that she would like to use her degree at work and that is the one draw-back to her job with the bakery. Rock Bottom Soda Company is where Laney works and it employees 43 folks in jobs that vary from senior management to bottle washers. Laney works in the accounting department. Laney has been with the company for 8 months and is happy with the work but concerned about the financial condition of the company given what she knows from accounting. Robert is the Manager of the Human Resource Department for Rock Bottom Soda. Robert’s past experience is in sales and he took a few courses in college about Human Resource Management. Robert and Laney are friends and often eat lunch together. While at lunch one day Robert mentions to Laney that the Director of Operations, Fran, told him the company needed to hire a general manager and a Safety Compliance Officer among other jobs. The company is in need of the help immediately because the current General Manager, Bertha, is retiring and there is a lot of employee turnover in the company. Robert mentions to Laney there is a $500 referral bonus for any employee that refers to the company a candidate that is hired. Laney the next day while at the bakery mentions the job opportunity to Jane. Jane is intrigued by the opportunity and asks Laney how she finds out more about the job. Laney tells her that she can put her in touch with Robert to get more information. When Laney tells Robert of the potential job candidate Robert tells Laney if you agree to split the referral fee with me I will walk over to the bakery and introduce myself to Jane. Laney agrees. Jane is flattered that Robert would take the time to come to the store and introduce himself. Jane not wanting to discuss the possible job offer at works asks Robert if he has an advertisement or job description to share with her. Robert says that he has not had a chance to write up a job description but based on what he has heard about Jane he thinks she would be a perfect fit. Robert asks Jane to meet him at Rock Bottom Soda Company the next day for a tour of the organization. Jane agrees to meet him the following morning. The next morning Robert meets with Jane and he walks her around to the different departments explaining to her what each department does and introducing her to each department manager. These are the managers Jane would ultimately supervise if she decides to work for Rock Bottom Bottling Company. Robert informs Jane he is also hiring a few other employees at the same time for other positions. One of the positions is for the Safety Compliance Officer that would report directly to the Director of Operations. This position does not report to Jane. Jane is told by Robert she would start at $48.00 an hour and she would have health benefits for her and her family and the option to participate in the company 401(k) with a 5% employer match of withholding, one week of paid vacation and sick time to start. Jane politely tells Robert she needs time to think about the offer and she will get back to him. Jane mentions to Robert that she would like a position that would allow her to use her education background in psychology. Robert replies “oh you will be able to do that here because many of the employees you will manage need understanding and help”. Robert advises Jane she is perfect and that if she wants the job it is hers and she just has to call and accept. After considering the offer Jane decides it is in the best interest of her family to take the position. Plus she is really excited about helping the employees she will manage. Jane calls Robert and tells him because the job seems to be everything she is looking for she would like to accept. Robert tells her that is great I will see you on Monday morning. Jane arrives at Rock Bottom Bottling Company on Monday morning and is excited for her new work opportunity. Robert greets Jane and walks her to her new office and introduces Jane to Bertha the general manager Jane is replacing. Robert introduces the ladies and says Bertha will be training you and answering any questions you have. This is Bertha’s last week so please listen to everything she has to say about your new position. Robert leaves to go about his day and scoop up his referral fee. Bertha, immediately turns to Jane and says “you know, I didn’t want you to be hired! I told my brother-in-law to apply because he is way more qualified than you. All you dumb Polacks are the same.” Jane caught off guard took a minute and then tried to correct Bertha telling her that she was not polish. Jane’s heritage is Italian-American. Bertha replied “You’re all the same you just lie about everything.” For the next few days Bertha refuses to speak to Jane or answer any questions Jane has. Jane eventually asks to speak with Robert about the matter and he tells her he can’t make time until the following week sometime near the end of that week because he is too busy hiring. Jane tells him she will just have to take the meeting because there does not seem to be a choice. As the meeting draws closer, Robert contacts Jane and tells her he can’t meet at the time scheduled and he will get back to her with a new time. Another week goes by and there is no word from Robert. Jane goes to Robert’s office to see him and schedule something because not only was Bertha abusive to Jane she did not train Jane. Jane has been operating for the past few weeks on her own, feeling like she doesn’t understand or know what her job is. Robert is not in his office and his assistant tells Jane that he will contact her with a meeting time. Frustrated, Jane goes to visit her friend Laney. Laney listens to Jane’s experience and tells her she is really not sure who Jane should talk to about the problem. Jane is frightened to lose this job because she needs the money and health insurance. She knows it is too late to go back to the bakery. The bakery hired an employee to take Jane’s place that Jane had been training. The bakery had a training program in place to prepare for changes in employment. Over the next few days, Jane continues to ask her co-workers for help as to who she can talk to about her concerns. She is told by the folks she talks to that Robert is the only one that she can expect to help her. Jane finally walks into the office of the Director of Operations, Fran, looking for help. Fran listens to Jane and when Jane is done expressing her concerns Fran tells Jane “I can’t help you with this”. This is an HR problem. Fran suggested she just go back to work and “hang in and eventually you will figure this place out”. Three days later Jane is told by Fran that she has to stay late that night. Jane explains that she does not have the ability because her children need her home by 3:30 pm when they get out of school. Fran tells Jane it is not her problem and she should have thought about it before taking the job. Jane makes an emergency call to ask a favor from a neighbor to watch her children for the night. Jane is working later that night in the back plant when she notices the newly hired Safety Compliance Officer, Pat, dumping sewage from the bathroom into a manhole located in the in the plant factory. Jane reads the notice near the manhole that dumping anything in the manhole is a violation of the Pottsville environmental code. Jane advises Pat she can’t dump the waste into the manhole and Pat replies “shut up you do-gooder”. I heard about you from Robert and the others. You Polacks come in here thinking you are better than everyone and trying to change everything with your big ideas of helping people. I don’t need help from you, keep your nose out of my business. Jane is shocked by Pat’s response. The next morning Jane reports to Fran, Pat’s supervisor, what she saw the night before. Fran tells Jane she is not surprised because the company is financially struggling and Pat was trying to save the company money. Fran suggest that Jane just go back to work and forget the incident. Jane states that she can’t just do that and thinks the town should be advised. Jane also reports that Pat made slanderous remarks to her about her being a Polack. Fran shrugged her shoulders and went back to working at her desk. Jane realizing that the company would not take any action took it upon herself to call the Pottsville environmental department to report the violation she witnessed. The Pottsville enforcement office contacts Rock Bottom Bottling the next day advising them of a complaint that has been filed and that an investigation is under way. Robert shortly after being advised of the same calls Jane into his office to advise her that she was being demoted for failure to achieve the objective of increasing employee moral as general manager. Her new job was part-time with an hourly rate of $20.00 and no benefits. Jane is distraught at the news of her demotion and is distracted by the turn in events. While walking out of work that day Jane slips and falls on Zinger soda that the bottling company has been in the process of bottling that day. Jane lands on the sidewalk hard. Able to get to her car and drive to the Pottsville Hospital Jane spends many hours in the emergency room that night due to a broken arm. She calls into work sick over the next 3 days because of her medical issue. When she returns to work on the 4th day she is advised that she has no longer is eligible for employment because she failed to follow company policy for calling out of work. Jane explains to Robert she never received any kind of information about company policies. Robert advises Jane that Bertha was responsible for providing her with the same and upon reviewing her employee file he sees that none of the necessary new hire paperwork has been completed. Robert tells Jane that should she try to claim unemployment or workers compensation he will deny she was an employee. As you can imagine Jane is financially broken as a result of this turn in events and the medical bills are stacking up.

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