Employee Discrimination - Employee Discrimination in the Workplace

Employee Discrimination in the Workplace

TeNasha Hussey

Law 531 : Business Law

Pamelya Herndon

November 12, 2012

Employee Discrimination 1

The Employee Discrimination Video is an example of how age discrimination can occur in the workplace. The video is about an employee, Isabelle, who is not able to keep pace with the constant changes within the office. One of her colleagues, Karen, complains about the way Isabelle answers her clients on the phone and wants Isabelle terminated because she feels that Isabelle is running a little too slow and is not willing to change the way she responds to her customers. I will be giving my opinion whether or not I feel that it was legal to terminate Isabelle and to determine if she has a case against Quick Takes Video for age discrimination.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) describes age discrimination involving treating someone (an applicant or employee) less favorably because of his or her age ("Age Discrimination", n.d.). The ADEA is defined discrimination against people who are age 40 or older. This act protects employees of age against discrimination when concerning any aspect of employment, including termination. The ADEA is an added protection to the Title VII a law that prohibits discrimination. Under this particular act, Isabelle would have a strong and stellar case.

Firing Isabelle would not violate any laws. As stated in the video, the manager could have taken another route prior to termination by first documenting the things Isabelle was doing wrong, advise her on how she can improve and then allow her an allotted amount of time to adjust to the changes. From a manager's point of view, the performance of an employee is critical to the success of the business. The mistakes Isabelle was making could hurt the business by possibly losing clients. Isabelle was given specific instructions by Karen, how she wants her calls to be answered if she were not in the office, but Isabelle did not want to try to at least conform to the change and continued with the her way. Another issue management had was in her performance. Isabelle could not keep pace with the work that needed to be done in the office on a deadline. Karen claimed that Isabelle was slow, forgetful and did not follow instructions very well. Karen used several derogatory terms related to Isabelle's age such as "old biddy". She also made comments concerning the effect she believed Isabelle's age had on her performance.

Isabelle would have a solid case if she let it be known that she had no proper documentation or knowledge that she was even doing anything