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 Lover.”

The Plot: Pam finds out that Michael is dating her mom. Dwight tries to spy on Jim.

My Analysis:

1. Issue: Disability Discrimination
   Description: Michael pretended to be blind as a “joke.” It didn’t go over very well. Along the way, he engaged in inappropriate touching and potentially discriminatory comments.
   Risk: $$$
2. Issue: Invasion of Privacy
   Description: Dwight complained that Jim “violated his personal space” by leaving a pen on his desk. Dwight then implanted listening devices in that pen and in a wooden mallard as a decoy.
   Risk: $$
3. Issue: Disdain of HR
   Description: Michael and Pam took turns yelling at Toby, the office HR “professional.” The company’s continual allowance of the degradation of this fine profession is tantamount to ignoring the law and could expose it to increased liability in just about any discrimination or harassment suit.
   Risk: $$$$
4. Issue: Breach of Contract/Emotional Distress
   Description: Michael breached an agreement with Jim not to tell Pam about his (Michael’s) affair with Pam’s mom. Given the explosive results and damaged relationships, Michael could face significant liability. The scream unleashed by Pam as a result of Michael’s breach may have damaged several bystanders’ ears, thereby increasing the potential damages.
   Risk: $$$
5. Issue: Inappropriate Touching
   Description: Dwight gave Michael a creepy massage, replete with bizarro commentary and sound effects. Michael touched Jim and Pam excessively and hugged Toby.
   Risk: $$
6. Issue: Opera-induced Emotional Distress
   Description: An opera played over the company sound system left Creed in tears. It also may have violated copyright laws because a license was not obtained prior to playing it.
   Risk: $$
7. Issue: “Helping” the Community
   Description:  Michael led a brainstorming session on how to get the office more involved in the community. Michael should never be allowed to lead any discussion and the office staff should never be allowed to interact with the public. Violating either of those basic principles is virtually certain to lead to lawsuits.
   Risk: $$
8. Issue: Insubordination
   Description: Pam was allowed to be openly and repeatedly insubordinate to Michael without any consequences. That could limit the company’s ability to discipline other employees for similar future infractions. Note: Pam could have a possible unfair labor practice defense/claim if the company attempted to discipline her based solely on her Norma Rae-like attempt to rally her co-workers into protesting working conditions by chanting “no more meetings.”
   Risk: $$$
9. Issue: How Not to Mediate a Dispute
   Description: After Michael made a “hostile work environment” complaint against Pam, Toby attempted to mediate the dispute. He conducted no investigation, immediately took Michael’s side, tried to conduct the mediation in front of their co-workers and then asked Pam to leave the office. His “efforts” only escalated the conflict.
   Risk: $$
10. Issue: Dress Code Violation
    Description: Ryan’s fedora probably violated the company’s dress code (or at least culturally acceptable standards of good taste).
    Risk: $
11. Issue: Various Other Inappropriate Comments/Actions
    Description: Once again, virtually every employee said or did something inappropriate. The main culprit this week was Michael (touching Pam and Jim, hugging Toby and making comments about national origin, Pam’s mom, etc., etc.). At this point, every employee could sue the company for something and win.
    Risk: $$$$$

OFFICIAL “ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A LAWYER?” CONTEST: Anyone who leaves a comment below 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 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 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.