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 Delivery.

The Plot: Pam’s baby finally arrives.

My Analysis:

1. Issue: Exploiting Babies (and Fungi) to Make Sales
   Description: Jim and Pam both used the impending birth to wrangle sales out of sympathetic clients. Dwight cried foul but then tried to use his cousin’s goat fungus to make more sales himself. It didn’t work. While there is no clear cause of action under these circumstances, an enterprising plaintiffs’ attorney could claim that the resulting sales contracts were made under false/fraudulent pretenses.
   Risk: $
2. Issue: Pregnancy Discrimination
   Description: Several employees (primarily Michael, Dwight and Kevin) made remarks about Pam that could be construed as creating a hostile work environment for pregnant employees. Those comments combined with the approximately 274 previous pregnancy-related comments could form the basis of a nice little lawsuit.
   Risk: $$$$
3. Issue: Endangering Health
   Description: Michael’s actions in encouraging Pam to wait as long as possible before going to the hospital could have exposed the company to serious potential liability had there been a problem with the delivery. He also texted repeatedly while driving Pam and Jim to the hospital.
   Risk: $$$$
4. Issue: Ogling
   Description: Angela accused Nick of ogling her. Some courts have found that repeated ogling can constitute harassment. Here, the fact that it was just one seemingly innocent glance would likely not be enough for a cause of action.
   Risk: $
5. Issue: Nerd Discrimination?
   Description: Michael made several pernicious comments about Nick, including calling him a “weird IT nerd.” While nerds are not a protected class under Title VII or state law, if the comment was in any way related to any sort of perceived disability (unlikely here), it could form the basis of a claim.
   Risk: $
6. Issue: Theft of Company Time
   Description: Like every week, virtually no employees did any discernible work. Michael spent most of the episode trying to distract Pam from her “contraptions” (his term), eventually enlisting the help of the entire office. Kelli spent a considerable amount of time watching birthing videos on the Internet.
   Risk: $$
7. Issue: Sexual Harassment
   Description: Once again, virtually every employee made a sexually inappropriate comment. When he wasn’t trying to distract Pam, Michael spent lots of time acting as Cupid for various employees and making lots of ill-advised comments. Dwight and Angela negotiated the terms of a strange birthing/parenting contract on company time. Andy continued to stalk Erin, finally asking her out (after making her cry). Virtually everything that comes out of Meredith’s mouth is a reference to sex (this week was no exception).
   Risk: $$$$$
8. Issue: Workplace Violence
   Description: While acting as Cupid, Michael pretended to “shoot” arrows and other projectiles at his employees and then followed up by mimicking death and bloodshed. Dwight continued his pattern of bringing lots of dangerous weapons — including a sword and axe — onto the work premises in his car.
   Risk: $$
9. Issue: Invasion of Privacy
   Description: Andy spied on several employees by hiding behind various office plants.
   Risk: $$
10. Issue: Criminally Bad Dancing. Poetry and Recitation
    Description: Andy performed a truly awful version of the YouTube-famous “Evolution of Dance.” Ryan read a painfully bad poem out loud to his co-workers. Erin recited (badly) all the past Kentucky Derby winners. The cumulative effect of witnessing all of these actions could easily result in emotional distress claims.
    Risk: $$$
11. Issue: Illegal Parking
    Description: Michael ignored a “no parking” sign at the hospital, parking in a spot reserved for ambulances. He then compounded the problem by shouting out the name of his employer, throwing the keys into the woods and then running away.
    Risk: $$
12. Issue: Impersonating an Officer
    Description: After affixing a siren to the top of his Trans-Am and then leading a high-speed motorcade from the office to the hospital, Dwight was pulled over for impersonating an officer.
    Risk: $$
13. Issue: Damage to Property
    Description: Dwight and his friends destroyed Pam’s and Jim’s kitchen (among other things).
    Risk: $$$
14. Issue: Smoking
    Description: Michael violated hospital policy by smoking a cigar on the premises and then violated company policy by smoking in his office.
    Risk: $$
15. Issue: Defamation
    Description: Michael lied about Kevin, telling Erin that he had an “elephant heart” due to a childhood medical emergency.
    Risk: $
16. Issue: Various Other Inappropriate Comments/Noises/Actions
    Description: Once again, virtually every employee said or did something inappropriate. Michael made multiple inappropriate noises of a gastrointestinal variety. He also hugged Jim who was hugging Pam. Worst of all, he made a bad lawyer joke (when Jim and Pam were arguing just as the baby was about to be born, Michael said, “Stop arguing. What, do you want the baby to grow up to be a lawyer?”)
    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, March 5th, 2010 at 10:09 am and is filed under Office, The. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.