Assignment
Case Exercise Debra Taylor PART A Tom Brown, general manager of BigBox, Inc., sat in the corporate office headquarters, waiting to meet with Vice President of Human Resources Sheila Rutherford. He was there to report on events that took place in his store only days ago. As Sheila invites him into the office, Tom walks in anxiously. She asks Tom to sit down and describe what happened. THE RECOUNT On Thursday, August 26, Debra Taylor, a BigBox store employee, informed her direct supervisor, Joe Ramirez, that she was the victim of a domestic dispute and had hurt her back. She reported that her husband, Gary, pushed her off of a barstool and that she had gone to the hospital for treatment. She asked that for this shift she not be required to perform tasks that would further strain her back. Joe agreed to her request.
During her shift, Debra took a break and sat in co-worker Sabrina Gilroy's car to rest her back. Shortly after, Sabrina came out to the car and told Debra that her husband had just entered the store and that Ramirez had suggested that Sabrina take Debra to a nearby diner until her husband left. When they arrived at the diner, Sabrina called Ramirez. Ramirez told them that Gary had left the store and to come back in through the store's back entrance. Gary had not been disruptive while in the store. PART B Debra was surprised by this act of violence. She had been married to Gary for 26 years without an incident like this one. However, earlier in the summer Gary had suffered from depression and was committed to a mental health treatment center. He checked himself out of the treatment center against the advice of his doctors.
Shortly after the incident, Debra charged her husband with assault. Gary was ordered by a district judge to stay away from Debra until the hearing was held in a few days. The bail conditions did not explicitly state that Gary had to stay away from Debra's place of employment, BigBox. During her Thursday overnight shift, Debra told two other BigBox employees, a front-line supervisor and a store manager, about the barstool incident and that she was having serious marital difficulties. The manager, Brett Jennings, told her he was sorry but to "keep it out of the store." Debra worked her next shift, Friday night, August 27, through Saturday morning, August 28, without incident. During her Saturday night/Sunday morning shift, Gary called the store; when Debra refused to speak with him, he hung up. Later, a co-worker noticed Gary sitting in his car in the store's parking lot. Debra approached him, and he said that he was there to buy socks and left. As Debra was ending her shift that day, she saw Gary entering the store again. 2009 Society for Human Resource Management. Paige Wolf, Ph.D. On Sunday, August 29, during her time off, Debra spent time with her daughters and grandchildren. When entering her daughter's home, she noticed Gary sitting in his car across from the house. Her son-in-law and Gary began to argue. The police were called but could not legally take any action because no physical harm was done. What Debra didn't know was that earlier the same day, Gary had bought ammunition for a hunting rifle from the BigBox store. The salesclerk did not know him or have any reason to question his purchase.
While there, Gary had asked Tom if Debra was scheduled to work that evening. Tom replied that he did not know. As general manager of Big Box, Inc., Tom knew the couple were having marital problems, but was unaware of the domestic violence that had recently occurred. PART C Sunday night, August 29, Debra reported to BigBox an hour before her 10:00 p.m. shift was to start. When she arrived, Tom told Debra that her husband had been in and had asked about her. Debra stood outside the store talking to a friend when she saw her husband drive into the parking lot. She went to the back of the store and stayed in the employee break room as advised by her co-worker, Sabrina. A few moments later, Gary Taylor walked into BigBox, entered the employee break room and started to talk to her. He then took out his rifle, shot Debra in the head, and then shot himself in the head. Gary did not survive his injuries. Debra did. THE AFTERMATH Sheila sat back in stunned silence after hearing the tragic story. There was a knock on the door; Sheila's assistant entered, saying, "I'm sorry to bother you, but we just received this fax from Debra Taylor's lawyer." After reading the letter, Sheila said, "Looks like Ms. Taylor is suing BigBox for negligence for failing to protect her life and for negligent entrustment for selling the ammunition to Gary
Task
A. What do you think Big Box did right, and what did they do wrong? Be sure to use material from the course (or external sources on workplace violence) to support your points, rather than relying solely on your own opinion.
B. Would you view this case differently if other employees had been injured or killed? How so?