Reference no: EM132873021

Question

The abrasive and aggressive director of Avondale Industries' site in Long Beach, CA, had alienated the company's board of directors to the point that they wanted to fire him. However, doing so without just cause would cost the company $1.2 million in a severance package. In his contract, just cause was defined as 1) serious, repeated problematic behavior that was not corrected following warning/notice or 2) highly offensive misconduct. Unfortunately, there was no paper trail for his problematic behavior. Therefore, when the director was out of town, the company searched his email and computer files-company policy allowed for searches on work computers, something of which the director was aware and acknowledged in his signed contract. In the director's emails, an exchange occurred between him and a vendor that discussed female employees by name and included many inappropriate sexual comments. When the director returned to work, a member of the board handed him a termination letter, a copy of all the emails, and a copy of the company policies on computer use and sexual harassment. Which of the following statements best explains why the company was able to legally search the computer and use the offensive emails to terminate the director?

-Because the company had disclosed its privacy policy to the employee, it could legally search his work computer and could use the emails for termination.

-The computer was company property, and the director should not have used it for private purposes, especially when those purposes were so offensive.

-Because the company had no paper trail to document the director's bad behavior, it was necessary for the company to find and provide documentation to justify his termination.

-The director's comments, even though he thought they were private, made the company open to sexual harassment lawsuits.