Fred Mariorino - Wrongful Termination

Introduction

In the case of Fred Mariorino, we are introduced to a situation where a former employee has submitted a lawsuit against his employer for wrongful termination. We are introduced to the organization, Schering-Plough, and his supervisor, Jim Reed. Fred worked at Schering-Plough for 35 years and was described as a top salesperson. Jim was assigned the area that included the sales territory Fred was in. Jim approached Fred in one of their earlier meetings and told him he would be dependent for assistance, as he was one of the senior men. Jim brought with him a new way of measuring sales force performance and pushed Fred for more sales in certain areas. From there things seem to get messy and unravel very fast.

Schering-Plough Corporation is a well-established pharmaceutical company, which combined two older companies with a merger in 1971. The company is headquartered in Madison, New Jersey. The company has over 500 sales force members, who are assigned districts with sales managers. The sales managers are in charge of nine to twelve districts. Fred was a salesman who received numerous awards and accolades. Receiving top honors among a group so large is quite an accomplishment.

Jim attempted to work with Fred to improve. He used very stressful tactics to include account growth, which would not account for more established territories and accounts over new ones. Jim would go to Fred’s home to see when he started his day, even though the team was allowed a flexible workday. According to the case, a workday could start anytime, but the representative had to put in a full days worth of work. In the end Jim, would fire Fred for not meeting assigned sales quotas, falsifying company documents, and not growing his accounts at the rate decided based on other’s sales performances.

Stressors

Jim Reed is a sales manager at Schering-Plough, who was assigned the South Jersey sales district. This sales territory was the area where Fred worked successfully for so long. The manager’s main role is to help the organization reach its goals and objectives (Kemp et al., 2013). A successful manager is responsible for ensuring sales folks are provided with the right tools and training to help them reach sales goals (Cravens et al., 1993). The good manager is a good communicator, creates a positive work environment, whereby confidence and trust is built into the sales force (Tanner and Castleberry, 1995). Jim Reed did not prove to be a good communicator with some of his comments like “senior men” and the like. Jim was definitely direct and felt he was communicating well, but he did not. Also, Jim was creating a hostile work environment, which demoralized Fred. A research report by Kemp shows the connection of a sales manager’s support or lack of it and the increase or decrease of sales (Kemp et al., 2013). In