Q: When I arrived at my office this morning, I found a sealed envelope with my name printed on it in block letters. Inside was an anonymous note informing me that our sales manager has had an illicit affair with the accounts receivable clerk who quit last week.
I don't believe it. My sales manager is married and my wife and I regularly socialize with him and his wife. The head of accounting received a similar note and brought it to me. I told her to toss it in the trash. She mentioned she'd heard rumors about the sales manager and another individual who left our company last year.
She thinks we need to do something. Do we?
A: Many feel tempted to toss anonymous mailings into the trash. Don't. If a problem later erupts, you might be asked, "Were you told?" You will have to admit that you were. Someone felt strongly enough about the situation to write two notes. You don't know that person's motivation. Was it jealousy? Anger? Revenge? You don't know what might happen next.
You need to investigate. If you don't, you leave a potential smoking gun aimed at both your company and the manager. Enough "buzz" now exists that any current or future employee can make a founded or unfounded allegation against the sales manager. If that happens, and a regulatory body or jury rules that sexual harassment occurred, your company faces greater liability. If you investigate and a neutral investigator deems the rumors unfounded, you protect both the manager and your company.
Finally, although you don't believe this allegation, good people occasionally transgress. If that proves true in this case, your sales manager needs to realize his secret's out.
Q: Ten months ago, I visited the emergency room with heart palpitations. I was told they were probably harmless but likely triggered by stress. At my wife's request, I found a new job.
When I resigned, my boss told me he couldn't afford to lose me and begged me to stay with the company. He promised me more time off and a different, less stressful position as soon as he was able to hire one additional person that I could train. I decided to stay with my company.
My boss's promises never came through. Although he'd told me I could have more time off, whenever I mentioned a vacation, he told me it wasn't a good time. He did hire an additional person three months later but didn't ask the new hire to take any of my duties. I finally realized I'd been a fool and called the company that had formerly offered me a job, but learned I'd burned a bridge when I rescinded my acceptance of their offer.
I'm now home, recovering from a heart attack. My boss chatted with my wife, who doesn't want me to go back to work for him, and he told her it was "just as well" because he "couldn't hold my job open" until I fully recovered. I don't know what my prospects are for getting hired by anyone at this point and my medical insurance is tied to my job. Do I have any recourse?
A: You're likely covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act and may be covered under the Family Medical and Leave Act. Your company may need to accommodate you by providing you additional leave and maintaining your insurance. You may also be able to sue your employer for intentional misrepresentation. When a car salesman had a heart attack, and found a new job at a newspaper, his dealership manager promised him a less stressful corporate job. Based on this offer, the salesman decided to stay at the dealership. After the corporate position failed to materialize, the salesman sued for fraudulent misrepresentation in Cocchiara v. Lithia Motors Inc. He won. Although you may worry that you can't prove your boss's misrepresentations, you have tangentially corroborating evidence, based on your discussions with your wife and your turning down an already accepted job offer.