Ask Operation Management Expert

Larry Land establishes a landscaping business under the name "Lofty Lawns." The business handles lawn care and seasonal flowers for apartment complexes, condominium associations, and homeowner associations. Larry wants to keep labor costs, legal liability, and administrative paperwork to a minimum. When he hires groundskeepers, he requires them to sign an "independent contractor" agreement that acknowledges they are independent contractors, not employees. He does not require that they be incorporated or have experience. He provides a free 1-day training seminar on lawn care "the lofty lawn way" to all his workers. He requires them to buy their own white truck and to buy from him (at cost) the trim package that says "Lofty Lawns" on the side and back of the truck. He requires them to maintain their own vehicle liability insurance (and show proof of insurance), and to pay for their own gas and truck maintenance. Lofty Lawn provides all the mowers, leaf blowers, and other landscaping equipment. Workers are required to call in for a list of their day-to-day assignments, drive to the properties, perform the necessary work, call for the next job assignment, etc. They are expected to be "on call" (available) from 8 AM-4 PM, Monday through Friday. While working, they must wear the official "Lofty Lawns" T-shirt (summer) or sweatshirt (winter). Workers are paid a flat fee per property serviced, based on the amount of work and time necessary to complete the job. They must pay their own expenses to travel from one property to another, but they are guaranteed that jobs will not be more than 10 miles apart. They are not paid any benefits, such as health insurance, vacation or sick pay. Lofty Lawns does not deduct any withholding taxes (income taxes or payroll taxes) from their paychecks. Once each week, Larry visits the property where each worker is performing grounds work, monitors the work being done, and instructs the workers if he sees a need for improvement or a change in how they work the property. These weekly inspections can be on any day of the week so that the worker doesn't know when to expect Larry. Based on his worksite monitoring and on customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, Larry adjusts the rate of compensation for each worker twice each year. Almost all of Larry's workers work for him on a 40+ hour week basis and do not work for any other landscaping company. Recently, Will Worker was driving from one customer's property to the next customer, ran a red light, and accidentally struck the car being driven by Sarah Senior, injuring her and damaging her car. Unfortunately, Will had just missed his last auto insurance premium payment, so his insurance company denied coverage. Sarah wants to pursue Larry's business, "Lofty Lawns" for her damages. What is Sarah's theory? Will she succeed? Base your answer to include HRM employment law.

Operation Management, Management Studies

  • Category:- Operation Management
  • Reference No.:- M91888736

Have any Question?


Related Questions in Operation Management

Conflictdefine functional versus dysfunctional conflict in

Conflict Define functional versus dysfunctional conflict in a work group and explain how you can increase functional conflict and decrease dysfunctional conflict. Develop a response that includes examples and evidence to ...

For this assignment you will need to find 2 articles in

For this assignment, you will need to find 2 articles in business that can help describe what are IT strategic initiative being undertaken by an organization are like. Choose a different organization for each of the arti ...

Coping with problems joe is a little nervous he has just

Coping With Problems Joe is a little nervous. He has just been transferred from another plant to take over a production line. Production is down and there is a serious problem with absenteeism. To make matters worse, the ...

Over 30 years ago michael porter identified a holistic

Over 30 years ago Michael Porter identified a holistic approach to understanding how competitive forces shape strategy. He posited that the only way to truly insulate an organization from underlying economic volatility i ...

You are the contracting officer for an air-to-ground

You are the contracting officer for an air-to-ground missile development program. A contract for pre-production models of the missile was awarded by your predecessor and the contractor is behind schedule. In a program me ...

The ikea case provides an excellent opportunity to apply

The IKEA case provides an excellent opportunity to apply strategic management concepts to a large privately-held company that is expanding into India. IKEA is a Netherlands-based Swedish company with a presence in 44 cou ...

Can you answer for me the following questions about social

Can you answer for me the following questions about social loafing and the three main causes of free-riding. 1. Give a description of the phenomenon of social loafing. 2. Give a description of the phenomenon of free-ridi ...

1 analyzing the bridgestonefirestone and ford motor company

1. Analyzing the Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford motor company, is it sufficient to use the ISO/QS 9000 standards as the main basis of vendor/product selection? 2. What position to these cars company ( 1. Volkswagen, 2. F ...

Research the effect of primary and secondary seat belt laws

Research the effect of primary and secondary seat belt laws on the occurrence of motor-vehicle injuries and fatalities. Explain how epidemiologic studies influenced the development of current seat belt laws. Describe how ...

Please provide a brief paragrap of the key takaways from

Please provide a brief paragrap of the key takaways from each of the following topics: Designing Clear Visuals in business reports Designing Successful Documents and Websites Writing Winning Proposals

  • 4,153,160 Questions Asked
  • 13,132 Experts
  • 2,558,936 Questions Answered

Ask Experts for help!!

Looking for Assignment Help?

Start excelling in your Courses, Get help with Assignment

Write us your full requirement for evaluation and you will receive response within 20 minutes turnaround time.

Ask Now Help with Problems, Get a Best Answer

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps even

Why might a bank avoid the use of interest rate swaps, even when the institution is exposed to significant interest rate

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and

Describe the difference between zero coupon bonds and coupon bonds. Under what conditions will a coupon bond sell at a p

Compute the present value of an annuity of 880 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 880 per year for 16 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As

Compute the present value of an 1150 payment made in ten

Compute the present value of an $1,150 payment made in ten years when the discount rate is 12 percent. (Do not round int

Compute the present value of an annuity of 699 per year

Compute the present value of an annuity of $ 699 per year for 19 years, given a discount rate of 6 percent per annum. As