Litigation Value: $0 (which is good because Dunder Mifflin has no money left!)

Unfortunately, tonight’s episode was another repeat. Matt Rita did a fantastic job covering most of the employee relations issues raised by this episode when it originally aired in November. In this post, we will discuss two moments not discussed in the previous post.

First, Oscar’s notebook of evidence of sexual orientation discrimination gained a new entry. At the Dunder Mifflin shareholder meeting, Andy attempts to convince Oscar to ask the executives a question about their leadership. Andy asks Oscar how Oscar wants his grandkids to remember him. Dwight responds, “How is HE going to have grandkids?” This sarcastic comment, alone, will not cost DM any money, but it certainly helps Oscar button up his claims. Oscar better cash in his notebook of claims soon before DM declares bankruptcy.

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Litigation Value: $0 (which is good because Dunder Mifflin has no money left!)

Unfortunately, tonight’s episode was another repeat. Matt Rita did a fantastic job covering most of the employee relations issues raised by this episode when it originally aired in November. In this post, we will discuss two moments not discussed in the previous post.

First, Oscar’s notebook of evidence of sexual orientation discrimination gained a new entry. At the Dunder Mifflin shareholder meeting, Andy attempts to convince Oscar to ask the executives a question about their leadership. Andy asks Oscar how Oscar wants his grandkids to remember him. Dwight responds, “How is HE going to have grandkids?” This sarcastic comment, alone, will not cost DM any money, but it certainly helps Oscar button up his claims. Oscar better cash in his notebook of claims soon before DM declares bankruptcy.

read more…

Litigation Value: In the aggregate, $100 million; most of which is punitive damages

OK, so tonight’s episode – The Banker –- didn’t really bring us much new material, but it indeed highlighted five years of near-catastrophic employee-relations failures. As Dunder Mifflin verges on economic collapse, a potential investor dispatches its self-proclaimed “fact-checker” to conduct a due-diligence assessment of the company’s “H.R. liabilities.” While interviewing HR representative Toby Flenderson, the fact-checker poses a series of provocative questions that invoke Toby’s vivid recollection of why he so dearly hates his job. In essence, we rewind the tape a few years. Let’s take a look:

• Racial/national origin harassment/discrimination: Michael Scott mocking Kelly Kapoor’s Indian heritage.
• Inappropriate and/or sexually-suggestive language and innuendos: Michael’s skilled reliance on the phrase “that’s what she said” to transform seemingly innocuous comments into sexually charged double entendres; Michael’s lewd references to Stanley Hudson’s teenage daughter; Michael exposing himself to Pam; Meredith Palmer exposing herself to the entire office; and Michael kissing Phyllis Lapin to dissuade her from complaining to human resources about his sexually offensive language, and then immediately rewarding her graciousness with sexually offensive language.
• Sexual harassment/sexual orientation harassment: Michael kissing the visibly-horrified Oscar  Martinez on the lips to illustrate his tolerance of same-sex relationships; again, Michael kissing Phyllis; and, yet again, Michael’s unbridled references to “that’s what she said.”
• Age harassment/discrimination: Several mean-spirited references to Creed Bratton’s age and his “distinct old man smell.”
• Workplace violence: Andy Bernard ramming his fist through the wall; Pam slapping Michael; Kelly slapping Michael; Jim Halpert slapping Dwight Schrute; Dwight punching Michael, and later pounding him in the face with a shoe; Phyllis hurling a wad of paper into Angela Martin’s face; and Oscar shoving Angela.
• Potential workers’ compensation claims: Michael running down Meredith in the employee parking lot; Andy plunging from a transfer truck into an empty refrigerator box; and Michael ramming the warehouse forklift into a storage rack, causing a cascade of flying metal, boxes, and paper.
• Health and safety violations: Dwight purposely igniting a trashcan paper fire to instigate an unscheduled fire “drill”; and, again, Michael ramming the warehouse forklift into the storage rack.
• Property damage/waste of company resources: Michael and Dwight bouncing a watermelon from the office roof onto a parked car; several mutinous employees shoving paper, books, and supplies to the floor; an employee shattering a plate glass window with a toy-gun projectile; again, Michael overturning the storage rack; Jim disassembling Dwight’s desk and contents (classic) and enveloping them in holiday wrapping paper; and Jim encasing Dwight’s stapler in a Jell-O mold.
• Invasion of privacy/HIPAA violations: Dwight demanding that each employee publicly identify his or her personal medical condition to determine its legitimacy.
• Supervisor-subordinate romantic relationships/inappropriate public displays of affection: Dwight making out with Angela; Angela making out with Andy; Kelly making out with Ryan; Michael’s painfully inappropriate workplace relationship with his boss, Jan (and discussing his repeated vasectomies before the entire office); and Jim’s and Pam’s eternal office romance, despite Jim’s supervisory role (OK, we turn a blind eye to this because we really like them).
• Hostile work environment/miscellaneous inappropriate and outrageous behavior: All of the above, and too many to mention.

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Happy new year, faithful readers! Those of you who surfed away from the BCS national championship college football game — apparently sponsored by some company other than Dunder Mifflin — may have noticed that the most recent episode of The Office was another repeat. An erudite colleague and fellow blogger has already posted on that show, so we needn’t gild the lily here.

Yet, for a blog entitled “That’s What She Said” (emphasis added), it seems untoward to let a full month pass without saying something new. So, allow us to say danke (that’s “thank you,” for those of you who don’t share Dwight’s Teutonic heritage) to the editors of the ABA Journal, who counted us among “the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers.” And danke sehr to the many fans who navigated the mandatory online registration process and dimpled electronic chads for us in the “Lighter Fare” category. Although we came up short — by a razor-thin margin reminiscent of the Sunshine State almost a decade ago — we are not bitter about the results. Unlike Michael, we will nevertheless make good on all the promises we made to family members, friends, co-workers, and others whose support we shamelessly solicited. As for the unwanted spam you may now receive as a result, we can only leave you all with a heartfelt Entschuldigung!