Factual Scenario: Company X hires 23 year old African-American male employee (CJ) to work as a customer service representative at its call center in State Y. During his first week of training at the new job, CJ encounters Ivey, a trainer. Part of the training involved using cue cards with real life examples of situations that CJ could encounter as a customer service representative. Some of the cue cards contained profanity which Ivey would sometimes read in front of the whole class.

CJ complains to Ivey that her use of profanity violates his religion as he is a devout Christian. When Ivey continues to read from the cue cards, CJ complains to CC from HR that Ivey is violating his religious beliefs. CJ also complains that he believes Ivey is racist and that many of his classmates can confirm his allegation.

CJ does not get along with MH, a female employee at the call center. CJ e-mails CC from HR and claims MH is harassing him because she asked him out on a date and would stare at him nonstop at work. CJ claims he does not feel comfortable working around MH.

Curious about MH's past, CJ decides to research her on the internet one day while at work. Upon investigation, CJ discovers that MH had been charged with (but not convicted of) a serious felony almost a year before she was hired by Company X.

With this new information about MH at hand, CJ creates an anonymous e-mail account and sends an e-mail about MH's charges to the entire company, and asks that MH be terminated immediately.

In the e-mail he calls MH a monster and claims that she needs to be punished for her crimes.

Assignment: You are the HR professional assigned to investigate this issue. Your supervisor has asked you to submit a written plan in 5 days about your next steps and how you intend to approach the investigation. Among other things, your plan should outline:

• (1) the reasons you believe an investigation is necessary, including the issues that need to be addressed;
• (2) the risks/pitfalls associated with the investigation;
• (3) the goal(s) of your investigation; (4) how you intend to deal with the parties involved pending the investigation;
• (5) your plan to gather information;
• (6) the individuals you intend to interview, and why; and
• (7) a short list (no more than 10) of proposed questions for CJ and MH.