1. Should Nicholas have promoted Paul? Why or why not?    

2  What are Nicholas’ legal responsibilities to Paul in this situation?

3  What are Nicholas’ ethical responsibilities to Paul in this situation? How does that balance with Nicholas’ responsibilities to Paul’s would-be-co-workers?

4. If Paul were to be promoted, what strategies could Nicholas use to help Paul achieve success in his new role?

This case focuses on the duty of an employer to accommodate and promote a deserving employee with a significant medical disability.

A long-time, qualified senior employee is diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and the problem for the director of finance in this case is how to manage and employee with an illness that is shown to affect his consistent performance, and whether to promote the employee to a more responsible position.

Paul has worked in the company for 14 years. He is the most senior person in the department and the only one who has a professional designation. He is a consistent and reliable employee and has acquired an immense amount of knowledge about the organization and the financial operations. As his condition was diagnosed, the director responsible for Paul, in consultation with HR department made accommodations and adjustments to how Paul would work. He was allowed to work from home via a laptop, which was not normally assigned to employees at his level. This worked well for the first few years. Paul would have occasional remissions and would work in the office most of the time; other times he needed to stay home two or three days a week. In the beginning his department employee supported him, but increasingly as deadlines forced people to work late into night others began complaining about Paul’s absences. Even to the point of questioning whether he was using his illness as an excuse to be absent at key times.