Marry Haggerty, the division manager has the right to think in terms of benefiting the
company, where she is “willing to do what ever it [takes] to make Centralia look good and stay
open.” As a manager is it her ultimate job to keep things running exceptionally well, but also
legally. The employees are afraid of loosing their jobs, therefore are willing to go the extra mile
and show up to work half an hour early and begin working off the clock. This contradicts the
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because the act “requires employers to pay for all hours
worked, whether or not those hours are properly recorded on time cards or time sheets. Under the
FLSA, a work day begins when an employee starts their first work-related activity, and ends
when they finish their last work-related activity of the day.” No employee should have to work
for free when they feel their job is endangered. That would be considered slavery and that is
illegal. The manager lacks to inform the employee that is it not okay to work off the clock,
therefore the employees believe it is acceptable. The manager should inform the employees that
it is not tolerable to work off the clock, before they are given a lawsuit. If an employee were to
get laid off and they were one of the employees who did not go the “extra mile” by working
without pay; they could potentially bring on a lawsuit for illegal activity going on in the
company.
Due to the San Jose facility closing, division manager, Karen Howell believed that using the performance
appraisal scores to downsize the company would be the most appropriate way to cut 20% of each department.
Before sharing the list of employees with the managers from each department, on whom they would have to
terminate she met with the production supervisor, Dave Bradshaw. Where he was thrilled to be able to say that he
has had a few people who he wanted to “get rid of for a long time.” Karen probably thinking that the down sizing
might have become a lot easier, she asks who he had in mind. Dave then names two employees who have
“outstanding performance appraisal scores.” The division manager beyond confused to why he would want to let
go two great employees, she asks why. Leading him to say that one of the employees is too chatty never being able
to finish his work and the other employee never on time to work. If these employees are not so outstanding why
do their performance scores fail to mention that? Karen then went around to all the departments and concluded
that no one took the performance appraisals seriously and just checked boxes to get it over and done with. The
managers feel that the scoring is not that important, therefore do them really fast to get back to the “real work.”