Litigation Value: $600,000 (eventually)
One day soon, when all is said and done, Ryan’s comments are going to cost Dunder Mifflin about $600,000. Maybe more. Managers really should know better than to tell employees that the company is launching a new technology initiative for a “younger” and “more agile” company. They really should know better than to say it twice. Add to that Dunder Mifflin’s history of attempting to “squeeze” out older branch managers with a mandatory retirement age and the routine mocking of the human resources department, and you’re looking at an age discrimination case that has very little hope of getting thrown out before trial (and a half-decent chance of losing once you get there). Just not yet. After all, Dunder Mifflin didn’t take any adverse actions against anyone this week. But give it time, I’m sure they will give someone every reason to challenge them.
I’m not sure who the $600,000 will go to yet, but if I had to guess the lucky recipient, then my money would be on Creed. Especially if Dunder Mifflin finally learned about the “Debbie Brown” cover-up (where Creed attempted to hide his failure to stop the distribution of paper containing watermarks with cartoon ducks engaged in lewd conduct by blaming it on an innocent employee) and fired him. We all know that Creed will do anything for a few extra bucks. This may just be his lucky day.
Hey what happened to the Launch Party episode? Even me being a 1L was able to pick out some litigation there. I loved that episode. Any thoughts on it?
I respectfully disagree. Creed is unlikely to be the beneficiary of Ryan’s comments. Ryan’s comments will have little weight unless Creed is terminated in the near future. In which case, Dunder Mifflin would have an indisputable legitimate business reason for firing him – the cartoon watermark. Any attorney hired by the incompentence-plagued paper company is likely to discover the “Debbie Brown” cover-up – not to mention Creed’s drug habits, cult leadership, and fake deaths. Stanley is a much more likely candidate.