Answer the following case studies: Each answer should be at least one paragraph long and accurately reflect the text’s key points. Your answers should include direct evidence from the reading to support your argument. Please make sure to cite any quotes or paraphrased information. Make sure to proofread your work before submitting it. For this assignment, you are required to compose your response using Microsoft Word. After writing and saving your answer in the Word document, go to the Turnitin submission folder and use the provided upload feature to submit your completed do
Book Title: eTextbook: Managing Human Resources
Chapter 11. Employee Benefits
Case Study 1. Adobe’s Family-Friendly Benefits: An Unexpected Backlash
Case Study 1. Adobe’s Family-Friendly Benefits: An
Unexpected Backlash
Adobe Consulting Services (ACS), a provider of HR software application systems, prides itself
on the variety of benefits it offers employees. In addition to health care, pension, and vacation
benefits, the company offers an attractive family-friendly benefits package including flexible
schedules, child and elder care assistance, counseling services, adoption assistance, and
extended parental leave. Unfortunately, sometimes the company’s progressive work–life
policy experiences a backlash from some employees, as the following case illustrates.
In March 2019, Teresa Wheatly was hired by Adobe as a software accounts manager. With
excellent administrative and technical skills, plus 4 years of experience at Adaptable Software,
Adobe’s main competitor, Teresa became a valued addition to the company’s marketing team.
As a single mother with two grade-school children, Teresa received permission to take Fridays
off. She was also allowed to leave work early or come in late to meet the needs of her children.
Teresa is one of 11 software account managers at Adobe.
The problem for Adobe, and particularly for Janis Blancero, director of marketing, began in
the fall of 2019. On September 15, Dorothy McShee, citing “personal reasons”—which she
refused to discuss—requested a 4-day workweek for which she was willing to take a 20
percent cut in pay. When Dorothy asked for the reduced work schedule, she sarcastically
quipped, “I hope I don’t have to have kids to get this time off.” On October 3, Juan Batista, a
world-class marathon runner, requested a flexible work hours arrangement to accommodate
his morning and afternoon training schedule. Juan was registered to run the London, England,
marathon in May 2021. Just prior to Juan’s request, Susan Woolf asked for and was granted an
extended maternity leave to begin after the birth of her first child in December.
If these unexpected requests are not enough, Blancero has heard comments from senior
account managers about how some employees seem to get “special privileges,” while the
managers work long hours that often require them to meet around-the-clock customer
demands. She has adequate reason to believe that there is hidden tension over the company’s
flexible work hours program. Currently, Adobe has no formal policy on flexible schedules.
Furthermore, with the company’s growth in business combined with the increasing workload
of software account managers and the constant service demands of some customers, Blancero
realized that she simply cannot grant all the time-off requests of her employees.
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Questions
1. Do managers like Janis Blancero face a more complicated decision when evaluating
the personal requests of employees versus evaluating employees’ individual work
performance? Explain.
2.
a.
Should Adobe establish a policy for granting flexible work schedules? Explain.
b.
If you answered yes, what might that policy contain?
3. If you were Janis Blancero, how would you resolve this dilemma? Explain.
Book Title: eTextbook: Managing Human Resources
Chapter 12. Promoting Safety and Health
Case Study 2. Too Much Fatigue and Stress? You Decide
Case Study 2. Too Much Fatigue and Stress? You
Decide
460
Job fatigue and stress are significant problems faced by employees and their managers.
Unfortunately, when a case of depression arises as a result, trying to resolve the problem may
be difficult—sometimes leading to conflict—as this case illustrates.
Donald Knolls was an air traffic control supervisor for International Gateway Airport (IGA),
an airport serving a major metropolitan area. Donald began to experience depression-related
problems largely due to severe stress and fatigue on the job. A few months later, he requested
and was granted a disability leave for treatment of his illness. After eight months, his personal
physician, an expert in depression treatment and a licensed consulting psychologist, agreed
that he was sufficiently improved to return to his former position.
IGA then sent Donald to the physician it had used when Donald first requested his disability
leave. After an extensive evaluation, the doctor concluded that while Donald had made
considerable strides in overcoming his depression, he should not be immediately returned to
his former supervisory position because the conditions of the job had not changed and he was
apt to find the stress too great. Instead, he recommended that Donald be returned to a
nonsupervisory position on a six-month trial basis, with the case to be reviewed at the end of
that time. IGA followed the advice of its doctor and did not return Donald to a supervisory
position. Donald, angered by management’s decision, filed a grievance through IGA’s
alternative dispute resolution procedure, a procedure that could end in binding arbitration.
During several meetings between Donald and management, the employer maintained that it
had the right to rely on the medical opinion of “a fair and impartial” doctor who had
determined that Donald should not be returned to the position that was the cause of his
original stress-related emotional problems. Additionally, management pointed out to Donald
that IGA’s disability leave provision stated that it “may require appropriate medical
documentation if it believes an employee is not fit to return to his or her former position.”
Donald responded, through an attorney he hired to represent his position, that the disability
leave provisions were clear but, nevertheless, biased against an employee because they
completely disregarded the opinion of his physician and psychologist. According to Donald,
“Why bother to get expert medical opinions if they are dismissed?” He further noted, “I have
never felt better. I’m really ready to get back to my job.” Finally, Donald’s lawyer contended
that Donald was the victim of discrimination based on his former state of depression: “What
happened to Donald would not have happened if his illness had been a more conventional
physical injury.”
Questions
1. When conflicting medical opinions are presented, should the advice of a medical
expert count more heavily than the opinion of a general physician? Explain your
answer.
2. Is the charge of discrimination presented by Donald’s lawyer relevant to this case?
Explain your answer.
3. If you were presented with this case, what decision would you reach? Explain.
Source: Source: Small Business Success Stories (Washington, DC: Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, May 25, 2011), http://www.osha.gov.