But He's the Boss

But He's the Boss!

Submitted to the INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY FOR CASE STUDIES (IACS)

By

Herbert Sherman, Ph.D. Associate Professor Southampton College - Long Island University

BUT HE'S THE BOSS!

Gerald Mahoney, sales manager and sole full-time employee of the Oreck vacuum cleaner store of Red Hook (New York), was relaxing watching television in the back office. There were no customers in the store at the time and Gerald was tired of repairing vacuums. There always seemed to be a million machines to repair and the owner of the store, John Timmson, was never around to lend a hand. In fact, John would rather be out playing golf or hanging out with his girlfriend than dealing with his business. John never lent a hand with difficult customers, rarely repaired vacuums, was always 'away' when stock came in and Gerald needed assistance to stack inventory. John refused to complete warranty reports, and most importantly, never, ever cleaned the store. John never seemed to be around to do much of anything! As Gerry nestled himself into the big comfortable couch in the back office and slowly dozed off, he contemplated his 40 (forty) hour, five (5) day work week and the unfairness of the situation. His last fading moments of consciousness were focused on the fact that it just didn't seem right that after four (4) months of employment at Red Hook that he (Gerry) did all of this work while John was out having a good time. The Red Hook Oreck Store1 The Paulson Group, Inc., a limited liability corporation, was the major shareholder of three retail Oreck stores located in Dutchess County, New York, in the towns of Poughkeepsie, Red Hook and Fishkill. Each of the stores was separately incorporated, with two of the stores, Fishkill and Red Hook, having minority ownership by the store managers (Poughkeepsie is solely owned by The Paulson Group, Inc.). Mr. Paulson was the sole shareholder of The Paulson Group and the owner of the franchise agreement with Oreck. Each store...