Sanderson Engineering is a private non-represented company and is owned by John Williams, CEO. who bought the company twenty years ago. Although John owns the company, he never changed the company name. John kept the Sanderson name to retain the customers Sanderson serviced during that ownership. Sanderson Engineering is based in San Jose, Califomia and has 39 employees at that location. In addition to the office staff, 10 employees work remotely. Sanderson also has 5 outside sales representatives but they rarely come to the office because they are out in the field the majority of their. day. Sanderson does not have a human resources department. Instead, John Williams, CEO and Mariela Ruiz, VP take care of the majority of human resources functions. The Department Managers are responsible for their own recruiting, onboarding, discipline, and training. Mariela updates policies, procedures, and the Employee Handbook. The company does not have a progressive discipline policy. Instead, the company maintains a policy that allows flexibility to discipline employees on the merits of the infraction including immediate termination. The company clearly documents the "employment-at-will" on all documents including the Employee Handbook and offer letters. The company pays all health premiums for employees and contributes 4% to the employees 401K as long as the employee contributes 10% of their wages to the plan. The company enjoys a low fumover rate, and the average employee has over 10 years with the company. Employees consider the environment as a family environment and employees are considered high producers. The majority of the employees have a bachelor's degree or above. Employees recelve 80 hours of PTO upon hire, 120 hours of PTO starting year 3 , and 160 hours of PTO on his or her 5th year, all PTO eamings are based upon continuous employment. Employees get a 5% pay increase if they receive an exceeds or above on their annual performance review. This policy is well documented in the employee handbook and is a policy Mariela authored and approved herself. The company also maintains one of the highest benefits packages in the industry. Rachel Griffin works for Sanderson Engineering as an Office Manager She started as a receptionist in 2010 and was promoted to Office Manager in 2019 . Although she is an Orfice Manager. she is paid an hourly rate of $19.00 an hour. Mariela has not received a pay increase since her promotion in 2019. Sam White has worked for the company for over 30 years and was one of the few employees who worked for the previous owner. Sam is the Sales VP and oversees the entire sales representative team who are in the field the majority of the time. Prior to Sam's promotion in 2020 to VP. he held the position of Engineering Senior Manager. Sam is well liked by the statf and is considered a fair person with a high level of emotional intelligence. Sam is being considered for another promotion to Sr. VP and will take over some of Marie.

1. Sanderson Engineering is a private non-represented company and is owned by John Williams,
CEO. who bought the company twenty years ago. Although John owns the company, he never
changed the company name. John kept the Sanderson name to retain the customers Sanderson
serviced during that ownership. Sanderson Engineering is based in San Jose, Califomia and has
39 employees at that location. In addition to the office staff, 10 employees work remotely.
Sanderson also has 5 outside sales representatives but they rarely come to the office because
they are out in the field the majority of their. day. Sanderson does not have a human resources
department. Instead, John Williams, CEO and Mariela Ruiz, VP take care of the majority of human
resources functions. The Department Managers are responsible for their own recruiting,
onboarding, discipline, and training. Mariela updates policies, procedures, and the Employee
Handbook. The company does not have a progressive discipline policy. Instead, the company
maintains a policy that allows flexibility to discipline employees on the merits of the infraction
including immediate termination. The company clearly documents the "employment-at-will" on all
documents including the Employee Handbook and offer letters. The company pays all health
premiums for employees and contributes 4% to the employees 401K as long as the employee
contributes 10% of their wages to the plan. The company enjoys a low fumover rate, and the
average employee has over 10 years with the company. Employees consider the environment as
a family environment and employees are considered high producers. The majority of the
employees have a bachelor's degree or above. Employees recelve 80 hours of PTO upon hire,
120 hours of PTO starting year 3 , and 160 hours of PTO on his or her 5th year, all PTO eamings
are based upon continuous employment. Employees get a 5% pay increase if they receive an
exceeds or above on their annual performance review. This policy is well documented in the
employee handbook and is a policy Mariela authored and approved herself. The company also
maintains one of the highest benefits packages in the industry. Rachel Griffin works for Sanderson
Engineering as an Office Manager She started as a receptionist in 2010 and was promoted to
Office Manager in 2019 . Although she is an Orfice Manager. she is paid an hourly rate of $19.00
an hour. Mariela has not received a pay increase since her promotion in 2019. Sam White has
worked for the company for over 30 years and was one of the few employees who worked for the
previous owner. Sam is the Sales VP and oversees the entire sales representative team who are
in the field the majority of the time. Prior to Sam's promotion in 2020 to VP. he held the position of
Engineering Senior Manager. Sam is well liked by the statf and is considered a fair person with a
high level of emotional intelligence. Sam is being considered for another promotion to Sr. VP and
will take over some of Mariela's responsibitities if he gets the position. Sam eams $167,000.00 a
year. He has not recelved an increase since his promotion. Jennifer Haus is a Senior Engineer
and started with the company in 2018 . She is currently the interim Engineering Manager reporting
to Laura llingworth. Senior Engineering Manager Jennifer is very competitive and interviewed for
the permanent Marager position, but thinks the interview did not go well. She is a talented
Engineer and holds a masters degree in Civil Engineering. She is currentlyattending a doctoral
program in Engineering. Jennifer earns $103,000.00 a year and has received a pay increase every
year on her work anniversary, but she wishes she would get performance reviews to prove she

2. deserves the promotion. As the Interim Manager, Jennifer is responsible for the engineering team
of 10 people, and she oversees the Office Manager who types all of the reports for the
Engineering Department Jennifer describes the Engineering team as competent and trusts their
judgement. Jennifer rarely communicates with the Office Manager because she is located in
another part of the building. Engineers are responsible for getting their reports to Rachel for typing,
and the engineers must approve Jennifer's work.History in employee file: Rachael's previous
manager, Sam White, documented a verbal warning on january 3, 2012, for failure to clock out for
lunch at the required time. Sam's written recommendation for improvement for Jennifer was to
make sure she clocked in and out for her lunches at exactly 1pm and in at 2pm without exception.
Rachael's performance reviews were all accounted for, and all were rated a meets expectation
except for the 2016 and 2017 reviews that rated her as exceeds. Aachel received her reviews
every year in July without fail. Sam White documented a verbal warning for Jennifer on September
18, 2019, for taking a longer lunch than she was allowed. Rachael wrote a written response, which
indicated she took a longer lunch because her daughter was ill, and she took her to the doctor
during her lunch. A note in Rachael's file from Jennifer Haus dated 06-12-2014, documented a
conversation with Rachael about a customer compliment. The customer sent a letter to the
company praising Rachael for her quick response to the customer's request. and her attention to
detail. Jennifer wrote in the report that Rachel does not have to worry about her job because
customers love her, and she is a good worker. Documentation dated 04-11-2022. Jennifer
documented a written disciplinary report stating that Rachel had been late to work 8 out of the last
10 scheduled workdays. Rachael's written comment on the disciplinary report stated she was late
because of personal reasons. New hire paperwork was all accounted for including the Employee
Handbook acknowledgement, sick pay and vacation policy acknowledgement, attendance policy,
training and job description acknowledgement, Arbitration Agreement, and pay schedule. FACTS
On December 13, 2022, Jennifer called Rachael into her office to discuss attendance violations.
Jennifer had all the necessary termination paperwork with her (eg., final check, COBRA, 401K
contact information, EDO, etc). Jennifer had a termination form in her possession and told
Rachael she was being terminated for the following violations: January 3, 2011 - Verbal warning
September 18,2012 - Long lunches - verbal warning April 11, 2022 - Written Warnine tate 8 times
in 10 days July 11, 2022 - Late to work 30 minutes July 12, 2022 - Late to work 2 hours August 15-
18, 2022 - Late to work 2 hours each day September 20, 2022 - Took a longer lunch than
permitted October 9 - October 13, 2022-No lunches were taken but puncher were on her timecars
November 15,2022 - No breaks were taken During the termination meeting. Rachael said she was
late on those dates because her daughter was ill, and she had to get last minute childcare
because her daughter could not go to school. She took a longer lunch to take her daughter to the
doctor. She also stated that she did not take lunches and breaks because there was no one to fill
in for her and she could not leave the reception desk unattended. she said she was following
explicit direction.Prompt: Rachel contacted an attorney about possible legal representation;
however, she did not retain her. The attorney was very interested in representing Rachel and said
she most likely had a very strong case. The attorney asked her to contact the CRD to get a right-
to-sue letter. Use your knowledge to come up with a list of possible violations the attorney might
use in a legal case.