Employer's Duty of Care and Issues of Compensation

1. Explain whether Jake’s actions are in or out of “his scope of employment

Jakes actions are within the scope of his employment as manager servicing. Being a manager, Jake is responsible for the end to end and orderly running of his department, including meeting the outputs expected and he cannot take shelter under ‘being overworked’. He has to plan his departmental functioning in a manner to cause minimum disruptions for meeting the business objectives of Herman. It is possible he has been working overtime which might have resulted in fatigue, lower level of alertness and possibly leading to his injury. Holding a managerial position, his age cannot be an excuse for not being able to discharge his responsibilities, though it might have contributed to his injury from impediments to free movement due to arthritis. The ensuing constrained movement would have contributed to his injury. Jake cannot blame Herman for his predicament arising possibly out of his own lack of care. This is all the more so as he is in a managerial cadre and expected to mentor, manage and guide those under his control. His reaction to Herman’s call will only send out a wrong signal to Herman, and his own colleagues and juniors.

Jake cannot ask for overtime being a manager and has to carry out his responsibilities coming under the purview of servicing (oil change) that is within his scope of responsibility. Jake can possibly engage with Herman for additional support to take on the new tasks of free oil change for his cars arising out of Herman’s business decision without consulting Jake. Jake can insist on instituting a method and system for work measurement, quantum of work output and link it to compensation, so that there is parity between his efforts and rewards. Jake should also work with Herman to jointly arrive at a system to