Franco was a handy person and seemed to always know how to fix, assemble, improve, and generally

make things work. He had setup shop as Franco Fixes Things. When he first started, business was slow,

but he was lucky to get business from Paperclipz $$ a local office supply and furniture store. Paperclipz

had a huge office furniture collection and offered assembly services as an add$-$on to customers.

In $2023,$ the store used Franco$$s services for a dozen customers of Paperclipz. Franco would get weekly

emails on possible furniture assembly jobs. Franco had to agree to Paperclipz$$ suggested service fee if he

wanted the referral and was required to schedule the installation within $2$ weeks of accepting the

referral. The store discouraging scheduling work in the evenings. Franco used his own tools and was

allowed to give his own business card to the customer for future jobs.

Paperclipz basically became Franco$$s only source of business that year. In $2024,$ due to customer requests

Paperclipz asked him to work exclusively with them. He accepted and was given a Paperclipz email

address and phone number. He was required to report to the nearest office at $9$ am to $5$ pm Monday

through Friday. Paperclipz required him not to $$moonlight$.$ In other words, he could not take on

customers directly. Franco followed all the provisions.

He enjoyed his new role and quickly made friends with some of his co$-$workers. They invited him to lunch

and went bowling and did rock climbing with him occasionally after work.

Maria really enjoyed working with Franco and had a good time when they all got together for bowling.

Maria was wondering if Franco was single. One day she learned from John, another co$-$worker, that

Franco was gay. She was still friendly to Franco, but was no longer personally interested in him. John was

the only one who knew Franco$$s sexual orientation at the time. Maria told others at work, $$What a shame

Franco is gay because he is a great co$-$worker and boyfriend material.$$

Jeremy, another colleague, was not aware of Franco$$s sexual orientation, but after he learned about it

from Maria, he became distant from Franco. He often chose not to be on Franco$$s bowling team when

they all went after work. During the day, he would often leave Franco$$s requests to the end of the shift.

One day, Jeremy could not maintain composure, and said to Franco he could not believe how he could

be so good at building things and at bowling despite his sexual orientation. Franco laughed it off and did

not think much of the comment. After that, every morning Jeremy saw Franco, he would say things like,

$$What a shame bro.$$You$$re kind of a rebellious dude.$$ And $$I just do not get it man.$$

Franco was starting to feel awkward at work when he was assigned projects with Jeremy. He could not

tell if Jeremy was frustrated because of a difficult project or because he did not want to be around Franco.

He learned that Jeremy had been talking to the other men in the company and asking them whether they

really wanted to hang out with Franco outside of work. Franco was no longer invited to the bowling get

togethers. Franco started to feel alienated and even though they still assigned assembly projects to him,

he told his supervisor that he felt coldness. One week later, and before his supervisor addressed the

issue, Jeremy told Franco, $$I$$m curious, do you at least play the dominant role in your relationships?$$

Franco was angry to hear that question and quit that same day. He came to Get Workx Dunn and

Associates, an employment law firm to see if what he experienced was actionable as harassment

discrimination.

You are a paralegal at Get Workx Dunn and Associates. Your firm has taken on work for Franco, a new client. Franco recently quit his job after what he says were intolerable conditions created by one coworker in particular. Your supervising attorney, Super Lawyer, Esq., has asked you for assistance.

The attorney has asked you to do an initial potential claims analysis. Specifically, he believes there may be a hostile work environment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act for workplace harassment. He wants you to sort through the intake interview summary to do a preliminary claims analysis. He also wants you to briefly analyze if the very first role that Franco had with Paperclipz might be construed to be an employee role, or if it is likely an independent contractor. This information may be important later for determining damages.

Please use the ABC Test and the Hostile Work Environment framework to prepare the initial claims analysis memo for your supervising attorney. Make sure you use the Memo format in the Library module. You can include the rules as$-$is$,$ you do not need to re$-$state or paraphrase them, but be sure to include them as the rule.