Executive Assistant Case

687 Words2 Pages

In this case, being a successful executive assistant highly depends on trust and one’s ability to keep personal information about his or her client secret. Furthermore, this is especially so in the entertainment industry because an entertainer’s reputation and career could be destroyed if certain information is leaked to the press or entertainment columnist for public scrutiny. So, an employer must rely on the ethical behavior of his or her employee and their ability to maintain confidential information about them. However, one can easily concluded that trust is needed from both parties in order to maintain equilibrium. Nevertheless, on the other hand, an entertainer could destroy the career or make it hard for him or her to find employment …show more content…

Ross tainted her reputation and character with defaming accusation. Furthermore, I believe that defamation of character, without citing any specific job performance problems, was used as a retaliatory measure for Ms. Davis voluntarily resigning from her position with the legendary singer, Diana Ross. Yet, Ms. Davis never used the defendant as a reference for a job and no one had ever contacted the defendant stating otherwise, I do not believe that Ms. Ross had a right to defame her character in such a demeaning manner. Furthermore, the defendant statements could hurt the plaintiff’s current work status or her potential for future employment elsewhere in the entertainment industry as an executive assistant. Although Ms. Ross cited that she terminated these former employees due to his or her work or personal habits, she did not cite what they were and left it to the interpretation of a future or current employer, which lends itself to a defaming interpretation of the character of Ms. Davis, the executive …show more content…

Ross and that it was not intended to defame the plaintiff’s character in any way, but the plaintiff’s belief is that Ms. Ross’s letter gave a false narrative of her performance while working for the defendant. “In defending against a defamation suit, the employer is obviously on solid footing if he can establish that his statement was, indeed, true” (Yulish, & Heshizer, 1989, p. 355). Therefore, I believe that the court in this case as in any lawsuit, must identify how a plaintiff was harmed or may be harmed by a defendant’s actions. In this case, as an executive assistant, trust, integrity, and confidentiality is a immediate and primary concern to any employer, especially for one whose careers is in the entertainment industry. Therefore, as a legendary entertainer whose career expands decades, Ms. Ross’s negative statements about Ms. Davis and others carries weight inside and outside of the entertainment industry and must be backed up with documented proof or the people mentioned in her letter will become tainted and unemployable without any substantiated evidence to back-up the defendant’s

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