A Really Hostile Environment

Litigation value: $ 30,000

There is no question that Jim Halpert, acting manager at Dunder Mifflin Scranton while Michael Scott was away, did a terrible job of diffusing and/or preventing a fight on company property on “The Duel” episode of The Office. Fortunately, the fight between Dwight Schrute and Andy Bernard didn’t lead to any serious injury. Otherwise, we might be talking about more than $30,000 this week.

Both Dwight and Andy could make claims that the company should have intervened and stopped them from brawling. Realistically, neither of these dorks’ claims is going anywhere. No jury is giving Dwight’s big head and beet-stained teeth big money because Dunder Mifflin didn’t protect him from Andy’s 4 mph Prius attack. That said, companies can be held liable for fights between employees at work in some circumstances, so we’ll say $30,000 just to show that there’s something, although not much, to their claims.

Normally, when HR professionals are dealing with fights at work, it’s about things like the thermostat, or what kind of food to order to make everyone happy. But when those fights are more serious in nature (not to minimize the conflict over the thermostat setting), the company has to use reasonable efforts to prevent anything from happening. Think of this as one of 40 obscure rules you should memorize before you’re 5.

Hopefully your employees are happy, and no one is fighting over anything. And hopefully Michael gets back soon so Scranton gets back on track. And hopefully that’s the last time I ever write that.

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  Troy Foster