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: St. Patrick’s Day.

The Plot: Here’s NBC’s official description: “Michael struggles to impress his new boss.”

My Analysis:

1. Issue: Viagra Stopped Being Funny in 2003
   Description: Michael opened the episode with an inappropriate (and lame) Viagra joke.
   Risk: $
2. Issue: National Origin Discrimination
   Description: Several employees made inappropriate comments about those with Irish heritage. Michael called St. Patrick’s Day, “the closest the Irish will ever get to Christmas.”
   Risk: $$
3. Issue: Mega-desk Addiction
   Description: Dwight openly struggled with withdrawal from the “mega-desk” he created by pushing his and Jim’s desks together while Jim was on paternity leave. Knowing Dwight, it won’t be long ’til he files some sort of complaint.
   Risk: $$
4. Issue: Damage to Property
   Description: Jim (twice) knocked Dwight’s personal effects off the mega-desk and onto the ground.
   Issue: $$ 
5. Issue: Pets in the Workplace
   Description: Sabre’s CEO probably violated company policy (and maybe even workplace safety regulations) by bringing her two monstrous dogs into the workplace.
   Risk: $$
6. Issue: Emotional Distress from Actually Working
   Description: The employees seemed to be in shock from having to do some actual work because the new CEO was in town.
   Risk: $$
7. Issue: Sexual Harassment
   Description: Andy continued his rather pathetic pursuit of Erin, showing up at her house even though she went home sick from work. Andy exacerbated the situation by wearing a way-too-short kilt (which he admitted was actually his sister’s old field hockey uniform).
   Risk: $$$
8. Issue: Workplace Violence
   Description: Like every week, Dwight appeared to be on the verge of a major eruption. He compared himself to a volcano, saying he was “about to erupt with the molten lava of strategy.” I have no idea what that means.
   Risk: $$
9. Issue: Sick Employees
   Description: The company apparently has failed to adopt any of the government’s recommendations circulated in the midst of the H1N1 scare. Erin spent most of the episode sneezing all over the premises and no one did anything ’til approximately the 267th sneeze.
   Risk: $$
10. Issue: “Reverse” Discrimination
    Description: Actually, there’s no such thing as “reverse discrimination.” Discrimination is discrimination. Sabre’s creation of a training program available only to “people of color” could face challenges from non-minority employees.
    Risk: $$$
11. Issue: Promotion
    Description: The new CEO promoted Daryl on the spot, based solely on a cartoon he drew  to illustrate potential cost savings in the warehouse. Promoting someone without following an established process could expose the company to potenial discrimination complaints by those who didn’t get promoted. In addition, Michael made rather insensitive comments to Daryl — suggesting that his promotion was because of blackmail or some other nefarious plot unrelated to his skills and experience — could lead to a complaint.
    Risk: $$
12. Issue: Torturing the New Dad
    Description: Dwight spent most of the episode trying to convince Jim to return home to care for his newborn so that Dwight could claim the mega-desk again. Dwight went so far as to sing Jim the Cats in the Cradle song to try to make him feel guilty. It actually worked (a first for anything Dwight was ever attempted).
    Risk: $$
13. Issue: Misrepresentation
    Description: Jim got permission to leave early after lying to the new CEO about a client meeting.
    Risk: $
14. Issue: Overtime
    Description: Several non-exempt employees were required to work overtime. Hopefully, the company will pay ‘em appropriately. Wage and hour suits can be both painful and expensive.
    Risk: $$$
15. Issue: Drunk Employees
    Description: Michael offered to buy all the employees a drink at the bar in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Even though they turned him down, several employees were visibly intoxicated. Michael, Packer and Meredith formed a highly inappropriate conga line.
    Risk: $$
16. Issue: Various Other Inappropriate Comments and Actions
    Description: Once again, virtually every employee said or did something inappropriate. As always, Michael led the pack, making comments about Oscar’s sexual preference and other things too disgusting to print here. Packer averages more vulgarities per second than any other character on TV.
    Risk: $$$$$$$

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 12th, 2010 at 5:15 am and is filed under 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.