In my humble opinion, NBC’s The Office is the world’s #1 employment law training aid. All you have to do is (1) watch it and (2) do the exact opposite of everything you see.

To help enhance your viewing experience, each week I provide a critique of the action from an employment lawyer’s perspective.

Last Night’s Episode: “The Promotion.”

The Plot: The company’s ill-advised decision to name Jim Co-manager along with Michael leads to predictably disastrous results.

My Analysis:

1. Issue: Bad Promotion Process/Decision
   Description: The company’s lack of process in promoting Jim (and demoting Michael) could subject it to discrimination claims from Michael, Dwight and others. In addition, having two people (especially people like Michael and Jim) share leadership of a team without clearly articulated roles is a recipe for disaster (as virtually every moment of the episode graphically illustrated).
   Risk: $$$$$
2. Issue: Rampant Insubordination
   Description: Several employees were allowed to engage in blatant and repeated insubordination against Jim in his new role. Dwight called him “idiot,” Kelly called him “jerk” and many others joined in with even less flattering comments. Dwight brought the insubordination to a head by attempting to lead a coup (see “Workplace Violence,” below). The company did nothing to address the unacceptable behavior.
   Risk: $$$
3. Issue: Complaint Process
   Description: The company mishandled Dwight’s complaint about Jim by having Jim (the alleged wrongdoer) “investigate” it.
   Risk: $$$
4. Issue: Workplace Violence
   Description: Enraged by the promotion decision, Dwight made several rather creative threats to do Jim bodily harm. Combined with Dwight’s plethora of previous threats and acts, the company’s failure to discipline Dwight could expose it to serious liability — especially if he actually harms Jim.
   Risk: $$$$$$
5. Issue: Perceived Disability
   Description: Michael made several comments that could lead to perceived disability claims (about Jim being “insane” for thinking that his office was a conference room, along with comments about various skin conditions, including Jim’s allegedly over-sized nose pores).
   Risk: $$$
6. Issue: Bad Raise Process/Decision
   Description: Jim’s and Michael’s attempts to decide which employees were worthy of raises could lead to lawsuits from almost any of them. Rather than consulting with HR, they tried various approaches, including (1) rewarding only one class of employees (salespeople, including Jim’s fiancee, Pam) and then (2) voting for their favorite employees by placing beans on photos of their faces. The poorly executed communication of the decisions further damaged employee morale, nearly leading to an all-out revolt.
   Risk: $$$$
7. Issue: Nepotism
   Description: Allowing Jim to manage his fiancee no doubt violates company policy and exposes the company to claims of favoritism and discrimination.
   Risk: $$
8. Issue: Intoxication
   Description: Rather than facing their problems head-on, Michael and Jim hide in Jim’s office and drank gin.
   Risk: $$
9. Issue: Gambling
   Description: Ryan solicited money from Pam to gamble on college basketball games using his “foolproof” algorithm.
   Risk: $$
10. Issue: Inappropriate Comments
    Description: Once again, virtually every employee made an inappropriate remark. The primary culprits this week were Michael (analogizing toilet paper to planets), Meredith (comment about a possible past fling with Creed), Dwight (comment about Phyllis being “matronly”) and many, many others. At this point, everyone could sue the company and everyone else.
    Risk: $$$$

OFFICIAL “ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A LAWYER?” CONTEST: Anyone who leaves a comment below or sends an e-mail to blawg@manpower.com identifying an employment law issue that I missed will win a valuable prize. If you didn’t get a chance to see the episode, you can view it on NBC’s official web site here.

As always, thanks for your participation!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 8:57 am and is filed under Dumb But Fun Posts, Office, The. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.