Examine the following fact situations Fore each situation Identify the problems that you see?

Question

What strategies & why doyou think would behelpful in resolving the problems? Why? what strategieswould be counterproductive? Why? What could havebeen done to prevent the problems from occurring in the first place? How could they have been avoided? In your responses, specify what you think would be assertive,nonassertive, &aggressive behavior. Beths supervisor,the sr partner is currently going through a divorce & the strain on him hads been enormous One consequence of this is that Beths workload is increasing More of his work is being shifted to her He is extremely sensitive to any criticism about the way he practices law so Beth is reluctant to talk with him about the extra work particularly when he is under so much pressure due to the divorce Yet Beth is worried about her ability to do her job competently in view of the increased work She hopes that things will get back to normal when the divorce is over.

Answer 1

Demand a raise. If you don't get it, walk.

Answer 2

If Beth is an attorney, she has an ethical duty not to take so much caseload that she cannot act competently on each case.

Beth needs to assert herself, and her ethical duties, and draw the line. Her boss may not be aware of how much workload is shifting, or may not care. But that too would be a potential ethical breach by the boss, if his competence is being affected or if he is placing an undue burden on someone that he is supervising.

One option is for Beth to point out that she is getting overloaded, because of the caseload, but without pointing fingers. She could suggest that they hire another attorney or a paralegal temporarily while there is the increased caseload. If phrased properly, this could be a solution to the problem without criticism. This would probably be categorized as an assertive, non-aggressive action.

The non-assertive solutions are obviously do nothing, and let the problem continue (risking disciplinary action) or quit the firm.

I'm sure the aggressive solutions are obvious.

Answer 3

If you say so