1. Is Mary an independent contractor or an employee? Describe the factors that led to her determination.
She is both, before she was in the contract she was an independent contractor and when she signed the contract she became an employee, when she was asked to leave she became an independent contractor. The aspects that lead me to accept as true that she became an employee is the sentence that states "Mary was asked to considered to continue with the company" which advises the reader that she was an independent contractor and was hired on as an employee to complete the project. Nowhere in the scenario does it state that Mary was offered an employment contract when she started her services with the company. This advises the reader that the position was accepted as an "at-will" position giving the company permission to dismiss Mary at any time for any reason. …show more content…
Has the employer-employee relationship changed over the course of time? If so, how?
Yes, the boss has gotten more at ease with Mary, but the association didn’t change by the way he asked her to leave. At first Mary was a basic programmer. As time went on, management conferred Mary with more roles and access to many aspects involved in the project verses where she was as an independent contractor. Mary's original situation was company/contractor and changed to employee/company when she was asked to continue with the company to complete the project.
Finally, Mary's services were no longer needed due to funding. This is a normal occurrence in today's society as the majority of workers are "at-will." When employees accept "at-will" positions, he or she is required to sign a formal document stating the employee understands the ramification of "at will" employment and that if the employee is terminated, it will not be due to race, religion, gender or disability.
3. Is Mary's release legal under the doctrine of