Heather Fuong is the assistant director of development and communications for Preserve, a fictional national nature conservancy non-profit. She has (somewhat inadvertently on Instagram) come across an allegation of sexual harassment against Marcus Holland, the top choice candidate for a vacant middle-management position in her department. Though Fuong has not been involved in interviewing Holland for this role, two of her direct reports are serving on the hiring committee. Fuong is expected to provide routine approval before Holland’s hiring can proceed. Complicating matters is a guideline that discourages employees at Preserve from screening job candidates on social media, which Fuong might be perceived as having disregarded while coming across the allegation against Holland.
She wonders whether she should simply ignore the allegation (and go ahead with the hire), investigate it further on her own, immediately report it to a supervisor/Preserve’s human resources department, or do something else.