Joseph is a paralegal for a mid-sized law firm. He has a dispute with Susan, one of the attorneys for whom he works. He misunderstood Susan’s instructions to prepare a research memorandum and failed to do it. The failure caused great hardship for one of the firm’s clients. Susan reprimanded him and gave him a warning that he would be fired if he ever failed to complete a project again. Joseph was furious. He felt that it was Susan’s fault for giving him inadequate and ambiguous instructions. He e-mailed his co-workers about the incident and vented his anger to them. He called Susan names and made derogatory remarks about her. His friends e-mailed him back and soon there was a flurry of e-mail activity about the incident. It was the policy of the law firm for management to monitor all e-mails. The office manager, during a routine e-mail review, found all the subject e-mails and forwarded them to Susan. She was furious and fired Joseph for creating a hostile work place through his e-mails. Management supported Susan’s decision to fire Joseph.
a. Was Joseph’s firing justified? If so, why? If not, why not?
b. Did the office manager have a right to monitor the employees’ e-mail? Why or why not?
c. Did the office manager have a right to forward the e-mails to the attorney? Why or why not?
d. Did Joseph have a right to expect that his e-mails to other employees would remain private? Why or why not?