Reference no: EM133353244

Janie was just hired into a manager training program by Nightly Inns and was excited about the potential benefits after her graduation from Towson University. Working part-time and going to school full-time was the norm for her, but this position replaced her two part-time jobs. With this new position, she would be the one to assign work times. Her luck continued when she met her mentor, Tony, who was the son of the owner. Nightly Inns was a franchise chain in the United States. Owners bought into the chain with a $500,000 franchise fee and paid for the construction of the Inn. In return for the fee, Nightly Inns gave each owner a comprehensive package of marketing, management, accounting, and financial materials to boost success rates to over 90 percent. In addition, Nightly Inns assisted each owner with groups of people that trained staff for every new job, from housekeeping to accounting. The new-hire training course for each type of employee was developed and based on the best practices within the industry. This particular Inn had been in business for 10 years and was seen as successful.

As Janie went through the manager training program, everything she heard was great. It sounded like Nightly Inns was a career path she would want to pursue long-term. Six months into her job, however, Janie started to hear strange rumors. For example, on the night shift she found there was heavy employee turnover and most were females. Janie began to investigate by scheduling herself onto several night shifts. One night, as she chatted with one of the front desk employees, she discovered the girl planned on quitting. She was 17 and worked at this Nightly Inn for a year. "Why are you leaving?" asked Janie.

Her reply startled Janie. "I don't want trouble, just my last paycheck, a good letter of recommendation, and that's it."

As Janie pressed her for more information, the 17-year-old opened up. She spoke about Tony talking suggestively about her to other employees and how he made suggestive physical gestures when she was around. She told Janie about other female employees treated similarly, and this always occurred during night shifts when Tony was on duty.

Digging a little deeper, Janie spoke to several former employees. Most were fairly young female employees. They told her essentially the same thing. For example, Tony would routinely make suggestive comments to female employees. In one incident under Tony's watch, some male employees flirted with female employees, including undocumented workers. Tony reportedly sat there with a smile. They also told her Tony allowed customers at the Inn to offer their room keys to female employees.

After a few weeks, Janie heard the same story from younger female employees and even some of the maids. Their responses to these situations were similar. They ranged from "Tony told me if I was older he would ask me out" to "I don't want to make a big deal out of this because it might appear I'm a tattle tale." Another common excuse for not reporting was that Tony assured them this was part of the Inn's business and was normal. Most employees were afraid to report on the boss's son and put their jobs on the line.

Janie reviewed the section of the franchise employee handbook. It clearly stated sexual harassment of any kind would not be tolerated and should be reported immediately to the proper manager. Janie could tell from the manual the allegations against Tony constituted sexual harassment. While the Nightly Inn Franchise Corporation had no ethics hotline, Janie thought this could be a legal issue.

She knew putting pressure on the female employees to report the behavior of the boss's son was problematic. Janie also felt that going to Tony personally about these allegations may not be a wise move. If the behavior was reported to the owner, it would become an official allegation and possibly impact the Inn's reputation and image in the community, and she would be responsible for it. The things these women were saying had not personally happened to her yet.

Be sure to include the following in your original response which should be at least four paragraphs with at least five sentences each:

1. Why should Janie get involved in reporting if she has not experienced any of the allegations the other employees are making?

2. Do you see any factors in the culture of Nightly Inn that would create the current dilemma facing Janie?

3. What are some steps Janie could take to resolve her concerns?