Ashley has been a nurse at Eastern Maine Medical Center (EMMC) for the past six years and has an exemplary employment history. She is currently expecting her first child, and is due in three weeks, at which time she will be taking maternity leave. One of her tasks at work is to enter patient data into the computer for maintenance of computerized medical records. Her workstation is designed so that she must stand at the computer to enter the data rather than sit.

Ashley's friend and fellow co-worker Liz works with her at EMMC, and they have similar duties. Because Ashley has been having some swelling in her ankles and feet, Liz offers to let Ashley use her workstation because Liz's station allows her to sit down to enter data.

As the two nurses are working one afternoon, they simultaneously receive an email that was obviously sent by accident from a hiring physician, James to another physician, Eric. The email reads:

"Those stupid compliance officers are all over us again to get more male nurses in here. I have been trying to hire more guys, but they're hard to come by. I'm going to start offering them twice the pay that we're paying our female nurses to see if we can get some more guys down here in pediatrics."

Ashley and Liz are furious that they will be offering male nurses twice the pay just because they are male! However, they know nursing jobs are hard to find, so they keep their mouths shut.

Later in the day, Ashley is sitting at Liz's workstation diligently entering medical data into the computer, when her supervisor, Megan, comes over and angrily demands that she return to her own workstation. Ashley explains that she has been having some swelling and needs to be seated as often as she can, but Megan tells her that she must use her own station, and indicates that if she will not follow the rules, she is going to be terminated.

Ashley attempts to work at her station, but it is just too painful. Worried about her health, she speaks to a representative in human resources about getting some accommodations to her workstation. HR speaks to Megan about the incident and Megan is furious. She fires Ashley immediately, citing "an insubordinate attitude" as the grounds for her termination.

Please discuss any employee rights that have been violated here. For each individual, please describe whether their actions within the work environment were appropriate or inappropriate, and how the situation should have been handled.

Next, please consider whether Ashley did or did not meet her responsibilities as a health care employee.