ABC Corporation is an electronic device company selling cellular phones and tablets. They are a global company with both sales and service departments. The technology industry is highly competitive so ABC Corporation focuses on after sales service levels in order to ensure they have repeat customers. They have 8 call centers worldwide and each call center handles a multitude of customer issues. There is an extremely high expectation that the call centers resolve customer issues in a timely fashion and to the customer’s satisfaction. The call center managers are focused on ensuring their center is the best; that their center handles the most calls, has the highest rated customer evaluations and wins the most recognition for the centers performance. Customer service is at the heart of the ABC Corporation’s mission.
Thomas is the call center manager and runs a tight ship. Thomas has been recognized for having the most productive unit in the organization year after year. Thomas is very proud of his unit and the recognition they receive and he holds his employees to very high productivity standards. Although customer service is critical to the organization, Thomas does not transfer that same mentality to his employees.
Janet is a call center supervisor, one of 10 in the call center. She has been working for Thomas for some time and follows his lead with respect to managing the center and the employees. She tends to focus on her work, rarely takes a break and is completely dedicated to the success of the center.
Michael is a customer service representative and been with ABC Corporation for 2 years. He likes his job but gets frustrated when others don’t work as hard as he does. He is the first to know how hard one has to work to be successful in this call center. The calls come in non-stop, you always have to be polite and the customers can be very upset at times. He prides himself in not only surviving this environment but succeeding.
Kathy is also a customer service representative. She has been with ABC Corporation for 5 years but at this call center for about 6 months. She enjoys her job but feels like the environment in this call center is competitive and hostile at times. She is always nervous that she will lose her job. Her performance has always been good but she finds success more of a struggle since joining the new call center run by Thomas. Kathy and Kareem became friendly since they started in call center at about the same time.
Kareem was hired as a customer service representative after an interview process that proved he could manage the workload, had a pleasant phone voice and a desire to please the customer and represent the company well. Kareem is of Indian decent and is a practicing Muslim. His religion requires that he pray five times a day. This involves a series of movements and recitations from the Quran and there are various standing, bending and prostrating postures. Kareem worked for ABC Corporation for 8 months before being terminated.
Over the duration of Kareem’s employment, Kareem’s number of calls dropped and he was often missing from his work station.
Michael noticed Kareem sitting on a mat, talking to himself and making strange movements with his body often times throughout the day. Michael thought this was odd and could not believe how often Kareem was away from his work station and reported this to his supervisor Janet.
Kathy also saw Kareem leaving his work station but she since they were friends, she asked him about it. He told her he was a practicing Muslim and was required to pray 5 times per day. He also told her that before he prays, he has to wash his hands, face, arms and feet in order to be physically pure in order to spiritually pray. She thought this was fascinating.
Janet then began to focus her attention on Kareem’s performance and the times he was absent from his desk. She determined it was excessive and spoke with Thomas.
Thomas kept an eye on Kareem’s performance closely after discovering the performance deficiencies.
After a few weeks, Thomas made the decision to terminate Kareem’s employment for unproductive work time, excessive breaks and not meeting the performance standards.
Kareem was very upset and decided to consult with an attorney as he feels that he was treated unfairly by being terminated.
Kareem’s attorney sent a letter to ABC Corporation’s Employee Relations department and you, the ER rep are tasked with investigating this concern.
1. What are the legal issues in this case?
