Virginia Rulon-Miller had been an IBM employee for years, starting in 1967 as a receptionist in Philadelphia, and working her way up through a series of promotions to marketing manager in San Francisco by 1978. She began dating Matt Blum, who was an accountant with IBM when they met, but who left to work for a competitor. Ms. Rulon-Miller continued to see Mr. Blum and to flourish in her management position. In 1979 she received a

$4,000 merit raise and was praised by her supervisor, Philip Callahan. Then one day Callahan left a message that he wanted to meet with her. Rulon-Miller testified:

I walked into Phil’s office and he asked me to sit down and he said, Are you dating Matt Blum? and I said What? I was kind of surprised he would ask me and I said: Well, what difference does it make if I’m dating Matt Blum? … And he said, well, something to the effect: I think we have a conflict of interest, or the appearance of a conflict of interest here. And I said, Well, gee, Phil, you’ve pointed out to me that there are no problems in the office because I am dating Matt Blum, and I don’t really understand why that would have any, you know, pertinancy to my job. You said I am doing an okay job. I just got a raise. And he said: No and he said: I’ll tell you what. He said:

I’ll give you a couple of days to a week. Think this whole thing over. I said: Think what over? And he said: You either stop dating Matt Blum or I’m going to take you out of your management job.

And I was just kind of overwhelmed.

The next day Callahan called her in again, told her “he had made up her mind for her,”

and when she protested, dismissed her….

Ms. Rulon-Miller sued and won $300,000—in large part (and ironically) due to IBM’s own policy. Developed by its Chairman Thomas Watson, Jr. (see page 79), the policy protected her from exactly the kind of treatment she had received. According to Watson, there should be a clear distinction between an individual’s on- and off-the-job life. Performance—“

the one thing the company can insist on from everyone”—should be measured;

private life should remain private. See Rulon-Miller v. IBM, 208 Cal.Rptr. 524 (1984).

Internet Assignment: Find a case from your state in which an employee claims an employer has overstepped the line between work and private life. What happened? What was the legal basis for the court’s decision?