please answer short reasonable answers. 

 

Sex-Based Discrimination

Q: An employee complained that her supervisor always gives lead projects to men. When I asked the supervisor about it, he told me that it’s because he happens to be more comfortable working with the men in the department. He doesn’t mean to discriminate; it’s just a personality issue. Is this discrimination? Why or why not?

 

Race Discrimination

Q: My employer, a garbage collection company, conducts background checks on all applicants, including getting credit information. Recently, the company rejected an applicant for a driver position after learning that he had bad credit (due to some late credit card payments). He’s African American and was otherwise qualified for the job. I am convinced his race had nothing to do with the rejection, but he filed a charge of discrimination with the state human rights commission. Are we at risk? Why or why not?

 

Age-Based Discrimination

Q: We recently promoted a younger employee into a more senior technical position that requires detailed knowledge of a computer application he learned in college. An older coworker has worked at the company for years and says he would have been offered training in the application; if he had been, he claims he would have been the best choice for the promotion. He says this is age-based discrimination. Is it?

 

Disability Based Discrimination

Q: I recently interviewed a candidate for the traffic reporter job at our commercial radio station. The candidate told me that he’d recently had a “very close call” while on a heli-ski trip and, as a result of his stress from this scare, he is “disabled’ from flying in helicopters. Our traffic reports are made live from our chopper as it flies over the freeway at rush hour. The candidate asked very insistently that we accommodate him by letting him report traffic from the studio or by hiring him into another reporter position. We don’t have any other openings and traffic can’t be reported from the studio. Could he make us hire him?

 

Harassment: Tangible Employment Action

Q: I work in Human Resources. I recently saw a manager at my company giving a subordinate a neck massage while he read a document over her shoulder on her computer screen. When I told him in private it wasn’t appropriate, he told me that if she isn’t complaining he doesn’t think I should either. When I talked to the employee about it, she said she knows the manager likes to do it, it isn’t a “big deal” to her, and she doesn’t want to “make waves” because she is up for a promotion at her next review. Where, if anywhere, do I go from here?

 

Harassment: Hostile Work Environment

Q:  During a break in a meeting of the IT group I manage, Anna, one of my technicians, told an off-color joke about sorority girls. All of the other techs laughed, including Gerilyn, the only other woman. One of the men then told a slightly raunchier dirty job and, again, everyone laughed. No one objected to the joking and, after a couple of minutes of banter, we resumed our meeting. Now Gerilyn has complained to me that she felt the jokes were inappropriate and offensive. But, Anna, a woman, started the whole thing, and Gerilyn laughed right along with everyone else. Her complaint sees bogus to me. How should I handle this situation?