CASE #1: AIDS in the Workplace Carla Lombard always worked well with people. So when she opened her bagel shop Better Ba

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CASE #1: AIDS in the Workplace
Carla Lombard always worked well with people. So when she openedher bagel shop Better Bagels seven years ago, she anticipated thatmanaging her employees would be the easy part. She had worked forenough different bosses herself, she thought, to know what it tookto be a good employer. Whether she was up to the financial side ofrunning a business was her worry. As it turned out, however, BetterBagels flourished. Not only had Carla gone on to open three smallerbranches of Better Bagels, but her bakery also made daily wholesaledeliveries to dozens of coffee shops and restaurants around thecity. No, the business was prospering. It was just that thepersonnel issues were more difficult than she had ever expected.Take this week, for example.
On Tuesday, Carla was in the main bagelshop when around noon Tom Walters’s ex-wife, Frances, came in. Tomoversaw a lot of the early-morning baking at that shop, and likemost of Carla’s employees put in his share of time working thesales counter. He was a good worker, and Carla had been consideringpromoting him next month to manager of one of the branch shops.After ordering a bagel, Frances took Carla aside. She beat aroundthe bush for a few minutes before she got to her point, because shewas there to tell Carla that Tom had AIDS. Frances said she wastelling Carla because she “always liked her and thought she wasentitled to know because she was Tom’s employer.” Carla barely knewFrances, and she was taken aback that she was at a loss for words.She was shocked and embarrassed and did not know whether she shouldeven discuss Tom with Frances. While Carla was still trying torecover herself, Frances took her bagel and left.
Carla was still concerned and upsetwhen she saw Tom the next day. Perhaps he had been thinner andlooked tired more often the last few months, Carla thought toherself. But she could not be sure, and Tom seemed to be his usualupbeat self. Carla wanted to discuss Frances’s visit with Tom, butshe couldn’t bring herself to mention it. She has always liked Tom,but---face it, she thought—he is my employee, not my friend. And itis his business. If I were an employee, I would not want my bossasking me about my health.
Later, however, she began to wonderif it was not her business after all. She overheard some customerssaying that people were staying away from the local Denny’sfranchise because one of its cooks was reported to have AIDS. Therumor was that some of his fellow employees had even circulated apetition saying that the cook should go, but a local AIDS supportgroup had intervened, threatening legal action. So the cook wasstaying, but the customers were not. Carla knew something aboutAIDS and thought some of what her customers were saying was bigotedand ill informed. She was pretty sure that you could not transmitHIV through food-including bagel-preparation, but she thought thatmaybe she should double-check her information. But what was reallybeginning to worry her were the business implications. She didn’twant a Denny’s-like situation at Better Bagels, but in hercustomers’ comments she could see the possibility of something likethat happening once the word got out about Tom, especially if shemade him a manager. Carla was running a business, and even if hercustomers’ fears might be irrational or exaggerated, she could notforce them to visit her shops or eat her bagels.
Carla knew it was illegal to fire Tom for having AIDS, and inany case that is not the kind of person she was. But she couldnot afford to skirt the whole problem, she realized, assome companies do, by simply sending the employees home atfull pay. To be sure, doing that deprives the employee ofmeaningful work, but it removes any difficulties in the workplace,and the employee has no legal ground for complaint if he orshe is left on the payroll. And then, of course, there wasalways the question of Tom’s future work performance. Putting thequestion of promotion aside, if he really was ill, as Franceshad said, his work performance would probably decline, shethought. Shouldn’t she begin developing some plan for dealing withthat?
Update:
Frances was ill informed. Tom did not have AIDS, but he haddeveloped multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the centralnervous system. It is not fatal, but the course of the disease isunpredictable. Attacks can occur at any time and then fade away. Aperson can feel fine one day, only to have an attack the next daythat causes blurred vision, slurred speech, numbness, or evenblindness and paralysis. Tom was never worried about losing hisjob, and he was pretty sure he could continue to perform well atit, maybe even move higher in the business either with Carla orwith another employer. But he kept his condition to himself, hidinghis symptoms and covering up occasional absences and trips to thedoctor, because he was worried that customers and colleagues wouldperceive him differently. He did not want to looks of pity if hestumbled or constant questions about how he was feeling.
​​​​​​What ideals, obligations, and consequences mustCarla Lombard consider