Assignment: Diversity Dilemmas

Imagine that you are working in the HR department of your company. You come across the
following scenarios in which your input has been sought.

1. Aimee is the mother of a newborn. She is very dedicated to her work but she used to stay for
longer hours at work before she had her baby. Now she tries to schedule her work so that she
leaves around 5:00 p.m. Her immediate manager feels that Aimee is no longer dedicated or
committed to her work and is considering passing her over for a promotion.
2. Jack is a married male, while John is single. Your company has an assignment in a branch in
Mexico that would last a couple of years. Management feels that John would be better for this
assignment because he is single and is free to move.
3. Brett, a sales employee has painful migraines intermittently during the work day. He would like
to take short naps during the day as a preventative measure and he also needs a place where he
can nap when a migraine occurs. His immediate manager feels that this is unfair to the rest of the
employees.
Assignment Instructions

 Review each of the scenarios listed above.

 Write two paragraphs for each of the three scenarios. In the first paragraph describe the
factors that should be considered in evaluating this situation. In the second paragraph
include the specific recommendation that you make to the manager who is asking your
advice.
 Finally, write a brief summary of your experience completing this assignment. Were these
dilemmas difficult to address? What further tools or information do you need – through this
course or other educational experiences – to prepare you to address issues like these in the
workplace?
 
 In scenario 1, I don’t feel the boss need to deter the progression of this woman due to the

fact of her wanting to have a baby. The factors needing to be looked at are her work ethic, does

she come to work on time and does what she’s asked. Her skill level, is her knowledge valuable

to the projects given. If she’s doing what she’s supposed to do and very well, she won’t be

leaving at 5:00 for the rest of her time working for this company. She just had a baby and needs

to take care of it. As long as she completes the tasks given, that should be the only thing needed

to look at.

If I were the manager over her I would consider everything she’s done to get to the point

of me considering promoting her. I would be more sensitive to the fact that she’s just had a baby

and family comes first. For the first year to two years, I would try to spread out her daily duties

she’s responsible for, so she could make it home in time to get her newborn. When Aimee did

not have additional responsibilities at home, she often worked late and went above and beyond.

If she was going above and beyond and the one in the office doing six reports, but others are only

doing two reports and not going above and beyond, it’s not fair to not consider her for promotion

now that she has a baby and still getting her work completed by 5:00.

In scenario 2, the first factor that needs to be looked at is there a travel rotation? On most

jobs there is a rotation chart for workers working overtime, so the same employee won’t get all

the overtime while there are others not getting any. The second factor is between those two, who

is the most qualified to be there for two years and help make the company remain open. The

third factor to consider is if Jack is married, does he have kids. If he doesn’t, his wife may be

able to come with him and not cause any problems in his marriage because he’s gone for two
years. With John being single, he does look like the obvious choice to take the job/trip, as I said

earlier; he may not be the most qualified.

I would suggest to the manager to look at the likability of the individual being chosen to

go. Depending on the job, I would make sure the chosen worker could someone the company

could trust to keep the company going. The expertise of the individual chosen will definitely

need to be considered. I would also suggest to the manager to possibly look at another individual

besides those two.

In scenario 3, the first factor that needs to be looked at is the fairness factor. It wouldn’t

be fair to the other employees if just one employee is given the opportunity to sleep during the

workday for an illness that could be controlled if he went to see a doctor. The next factor would

be has he gone to a doctor to have this diagnosed? If so, what was the prescribed method of

getting rid of them?

I would suggest to the manager to look at what are other things that can be done to help

Brett with his migraines. If he can provide documentation showing his need for reasonable

accommodations, then they can and should be met, but if he can’t provide the documentation,

you can assume he’s faking and have the matter dropped. If the accommodations are met, the

manager will need to be ready for the amount of complaints that are going to come from the

other salespeople at the business wanting the same thing to happen to them for their ailments.

These dilemmas weren’t easy to address in my opinion because of the position I have in my

workplace. I’m a manager and have to deal with scenarios like this all the time. I don’t like to tell

someone they can’t do something because I feel if they came to me about a situation, they
probably need to have it happen. I know that can be looked at as being “soft”, but I see it as

having some compassion to your employees. If you help them out, they’ll help you out. I believe

what else was needed with these scenarios was some more info on their backgrounds. If these

employees were not good workers, it wouldn’t be hard to tell them they were not going to be

able to do what they were in line for, but if they are great employees and excelled at everything

they did in the work it wouldn’t be hard to push to get the accommodations or promotion, or take

the trip they want. I also believe managers need to have training to help them deal with issues

common to these instead of just dealing with work problems.