But I Didn’t Mean To!

 

David Corbello, the office manager of the Daily Gazette, a midwestern newspaper, was flabbergasted as he spoke with the HR manager, Amanda Dervis. He had just discovered that he was the target of a lawsuit filed by an applicant who had not been selected. “All I did was make friendly inquiries about her children. She seemed quite receptive about talking about them. She was proud of her family. She even told me about every aspect of the difficult divorce she had just gone through. She seemed to want to talk so I let her. I thought I was merely breaking the ice and setting the tone for an effective dialogue. I thought nothing of it when she told me that she needed a day-care facility when she went to work. A year later she claims to have been the victim of discrimination because she believes that a man would not have been asked questions about his children. There’s nothing to this lawsuit, is there, Amanda?”

Questions

1. How should Amanda respond to David’s question?

2. What hiring standards to avoid did David violate?