Question

You’re a manager at a nonprofit. Your supervisee has been a planned-giving fundraiser there for five years. Four years ago, his performance was poor because he was undergoing chemotherapy. Since then, it’s improved to average but, in the past few months has declined severely again—He’s raised only half as much money as before. He explains that his cancer has recurred and has spread to his lymph nodes, so he’s in the middle of a six-month round of chemotherapy and his prognosis is not good. He says he prefers to keep working but if you terminate him, he won’t file a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act. He is his family's sole source of income and his nonprofit salary is modest and so he has little in savings. He’s just getting by. Do you retain him?

include the ethical decision making steps.

Answer 1

Since my supervisee has been working for me for quiet sometime, it would be good to retain him on humanitarian and ethical grounds. He is sole bread earner for his family. He needs income so that his family can survive. Also he would require to continue working so that he could avail the medicare benefits as he requires to undergo chemotherapy.

It would be good if we could make an arrangement for anybody in his family to help him with the work he does so that he would not feel tired when he goes for chemotherapy sessions. For the reputation of the organisation and for the well being of the supervisee it would be good to come up with such an idea. Also getting someone from his family to assist with the work would be a good option since it could help with productive work. Not only would we be helping the supervisee but we would also be helping the family to cope with the crisis by making them independent and training them to do the job when required.

The supervisee's wife could be trained or the eldest member of the family (if they are eligible to work). His family could help with the work while he is undergoing treatment. This would help in the continuation of any tasks that would be handled by the supervisee and also there would be no halt in the income that comes to the family.

Thus, it is advisable to retain the employee with the following conditions for the reputation and ethics of the organisation and also the well being of the family that depends on the income that he get home.