John Brown, a 22-year-old African American, had been employed for only two-and-a-half weeks as a licensed practical nurse in a local hospital’s alcohol and drug treatment center. John worked the 11 P. M. to 7 A. M. shift. His responsibilities included having charge of the keys to the drug cabinet. One morning at 1 A. M., he became ill. He requested and received permission from the night supervisor, Margaret Handley, to go home. A short time later, the supervisor realized that John had failed to leave the keys when he signed out. She immediately tried to reach him by telephoning his home. More than a dozen attempts to call John proved futile; each time Margaret got a busy signal. Finally, at 3 A. M., a man answered but refused to call John to the phone, saying John was too ill to talk. She became frantic and decided to call the police to retrieve the keys. The police arrived at John’s home at 6: 30 A. M. They found him preparing to leave to return the keys to the hospital. The police took the keys and returned them.
Later that day, John reported to work on his assigned shift, apologized for not returning the keys, and questioned the necessity of calling the police. Two days later, the unit director, Marcus Webb, informed John that he had been terminated. The reason cited for the discharge was that he had failed to leave the drug cabinet keys before leaving the hospital and that the keys had been in his possession from 1 A. M. to 7 A. M. the following day. John learned that Margaret Handley had been verbally reprimanded for her handling of the case. John filed an appeal regarding his dismissal with the human resource director of the hospital. However, the unit director’s recommendation was upheld. Following this decision, John immediately filed charges with the EEOC that he had been discriminated against because of his race. Both the night supervisor and the unit director were white. He requested full reinstatement with back pay. He also requested that his personnel file be purged of any damaging records that alluded to the incident.
Question
1. What would your decision be if you were asked to decide this case?
2. Should a supervisor and a lower-level employee be disciplined equally? Explain.