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Nov. 9, 2018

Worlds Collide: Work, Life, and Social Media

Jenny Peters, assistant director of the Schools Assistance Contract at Atek International (Atek), sat at her
computer at 8:00 a.m. on a cold Monday morning in February 2017, trying to slow her racing pulse.1 The prior
afternoon, she had checked her Facebook account and discovered one of her direct reports, Richard Harley,
had posted some sensitive company information to Facebook over the weekend that his friends, including
several people in the company, had seen. Harley had even tagged her in the posts so that they showed up on
her Facebook News Feed. She felt awful but didn’t know how to respond, or what the consequences would be
for herself, Harley, or the company. Peters then logged into her work email and saw a note from her supervisor,
Mike Dupree, who said that he had also seen Harley’s Facebook posts, and would see her at 10:00 a.m. Monday
morning in his office. Peters tried to remain calm, but she had no idea what to do next.

Atek International

Atek, a government contractor, was cofounded in 1967 by Cal Sullivan, a Korean War veteran, and four
former federal government employees. Over time, government contracting became a very lucrative business.
By 2017, Atek was publicly traded and boasted 6,000 employees working in over 45 cities around the world and
a global headquarters in Northern Virginia. Atek took a broad-brush approach to government support, pursuing
contracts in the areas of government, education, energy, health, security, public safety, and social programming.
The company provided comprehensive support including program management, business process, data
analytics, cybersecurity, strategic planning, marketing strategy, and public relations.

Over 30 national governments, including the United States, hired Atek for assistance with ongoing
contracts and in times of humanitarian or disaster crisis. Atek’s commercial client list had, over time, included
more than one-third of the Fortune 500. In 2015, Atek posted a record $1.33 billion in revenue and had enjoyed
8% to 11% revenue growth rates for several years. Government contracts accounted for about 70% of Atek’s
revenues, half of which was from the United States. Atek’s ability to work on sensitive client issues in a
confidential and professional manner was an essential part of its business model.

Since the early 1990s, Atek had been awarded the contract to assist the US Department of Education
(DoED) in servicing its support of programs in struggling school districts, which was called the “Schools
Assistance Contract.” Atek’s team supported federal employees in promoting available resources to state and

1 “When worlds collide” is an expression referring to times when “two separate aspects or relationships in a person’s life collide.” For example, a

friend from one social circle comes in contact unexpectedly, and often oddly, with a friend from a separate social circle. See Urban Dictionary, “Worlds
colliding,” https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Worlds%20colliding (accessed Oct. 23, 2018). The expression may trace back to the
influential 1933 science fiction novel When Worlds Collide by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie.

This disguised, field-based case was prepared by Sean Kumar, JD, Expected GEMBA ’19; Rebecca Goldberg, Guest Executive Lecturer and MBA ’03;
and Elizabeth Powell, Associate Professor of Business Administration and Kluge Endowed Professor, School of Nursing. It was written as a basis for
class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2018 by the University of Virginia
Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an email to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Our goal is to publish materials of the highest quality, so please submit any errata to
editorial@dardenbusinesspublishing.com.

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local programs, maintaining an information portal, processing aid applications, and distributing funds. Bids for
the 2018–23 contract were due in May 2017, and Atek’s proposal team was almost finished with what it was
sure would be another winning proposal.

Peters and Harley

Peters was hired by Atek to work on the Schools Assistance Contract in 2012. Prior to that, she had worked
as a staffer in the House of Representatives handling education policy and social programs. In April 2016, at
the age of 26, Peters was promoted by Dupree to be one of three assistant directors of the Schools Assistance
Contract. He saw potential in her early work at Atek and viewed her as a high potential employee.

Peters inherited two employees who had previously been her peers at Atek and had to fill a third opening,
which had been vacant for months. Other than interns on Capitol Hill, this was her first time as a supervisor,
but she thought she could relate to and communicate well with her two team members. Peters had not received
formal management training, but she was aware of the importance of empowering and developing her team. If
a conflict arose, or if there were delays she needed to address, she brought up the topic and asked her team
members to solve the problem and to inform her of the steps that had been taken.

Peters hired Harley to fill the vacancy in June 2016. It was his second job after graduating from college; the
first had been teaching in Washington, DC, public schools under the Teach for America program. He had
dedicated extra time helping with after-school programs and felt a great sense of personal reward working with
the kids who stayed after school, many of whom had nowhere else to go. He actually believed that his impact
was greater here than in the classroom. When assessing candidates, Peters believed in the passion Harley
conveyed in his cover letter and later in his interview. She hired him, and was careful during the onboarding
process to balance corporate administrative headaches with getting Harley up to speed. HR took care of most
of the hiring administration, including contracts, policies, and nondisclosure agreements; Peters only had to
ensure he completed certain segments of online training within the first six months. Exhibits 1, 2 and 3 describe
the policies related to confidentiality and social media usage that Harley would have received during this time.

Peters’s team had always been close-knit and had an informal culture that was an attractive aspect of the
program. Her team members frequently met for happy hour and socialized when traveling to support the
program. Peters was Facebook friends with her former peers whom she now supervised. After a month on the
job, Harley sent her a friend request, and while she paused before accepting, she thought it was only fair that if
she was already friends with two of her reports, she should be friends with all of them. While not a frequent
Facebook user, as someone who formerly worked on the Hill, she and her friends had often tagged one another
when expressing very strong feelings about the November 2016 presidential election. After the election, like
many people in her circles, Peters was shocked and dismayed by the results and feared what the new
administration would do to the policies she cared about. Facebook became a cathartic outlet for people across
generations. Harley frequently liked and shared Peters’s comments.

The Policy Meeting

On the first Monday in February, Peters was informed of a policy meeting in two days at the DoED. Her
client contact wanted to brief her on guidance received from the White House. She thought this would be a
fantastic opportunity for Harley to learn about the project and meet some of the new key contacts at the DoED.
Peters was excited when she approached Harley and asked what he had scheduled for Wednesday. “I’m
planning on drafting some language for the new client webpage and knocking out the rest of my online training
for HR,” Harley replied.

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Peters said, “You signed all the required paperwork, so don’t worry about the online training until next
week. I’ll help you with the web content later, because I want you to come to the client meeting with me in DC
on Wednesday. HR doesn’t take those deadlines seriously anyways.” And it was decided: Harley would attend.

At the meeting, the acting secretary of education passed on directions from the White House to remove
the websites for “certain programs” while the administration took the time to assess each program and await
Senate confirmation of the new secretary. They stressed that they wanted assistance on preparing a response in
case there was public concern about the approach. The websites were to be taken offline by the end of the
week, but the program review would not be announced publicly for two weeks. The sense was that the
administration was looking to place the Schools Assistance programs on the chopping block. This included the
Atek contract supporting the $1.2 billion for after-school programs, serving 1.6 million children, and
$2.1 billion for teacher training and class-size reduction.

The drive back to the office was a somber one for Peters and Harley. Peters was furious and did not hold
back on her commentary about the new administration and what she thought it meant for the United States. It
was a bleak day. The entire program they supported could be shut down if the White House and Congress
didn’t fund these programs. Harley felt numb. He knew firsthand that these programs were vital in the poorest
communities where many schools were underperforming. The after-school programs were safe havens for
children of working families who had no one to go home to after school.

The passionate discussion between Peters and Harley continued at the team Happy Hour that Friday. When
Harley went home, he poured out his soul on Facebook, tagging all his coworkers. The posts included language
such as: “New administration to kill programs for poorest kids,” and, “The White House has ordered the
shutdown of programs that keep kids safe after school.” When questioned about these assertions in comments,
Harley replied on at least one post, “I work on the contract supporting this for Atek International, and I heard
this firsthand.”

Dupree’s Response

By late Sunday evening, at least two Atek employees who were tagged in the posts had sent emails to
Dupree, Peters’s supervisor. Dupree had directly contacted Harley to ask him to remove the posts around 8:00
p.m., which he did immediately. Also that night, Dupree reached out to his HR contact and a colleague in the
corporate communications office to find out more about how he should address the situation. He had never
come up against this type of disclosure of sensitive, internal company information before. Hadn’t Harley been
through the same onboarding training as everyone else? Why didn’t he know not to do something so stupid
and damaging to the company? Was Peters too chummy with her direct reports? He knew someone had to
“pay” publicly for posting these comments. Dupree considered firing Harley immediately, but wanted to check
in with his HR contact first. Even if the Schools Assistance Contract was now dead in the water, there were
other clients to consider. Atek had to be viewed as a trusted collaborator, regardless of the political climate, or
it would lose more business.

Everyone with whom Dupree spoke agreed that they probably needed a better game plan. Social media
was a reality, and the type of employee staffing Atek’s social welfare programs tended to be passionate and
opinionated.

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Peters Faces the Music

Peters sat nervously waiting outside the conference room Monday morning. Dupree walked out to greet
her and gave her a brief hug. “Jenny, look, I can see you’re upset and worried about this. Right now we just
need to figure out all that has happened, and make the best of it. Okay?”

“Yes, thank you, Mike,” said Peters, feeling only slightly better. She had been able to calm herself somewhat
during the previous two hours, and she had worked with Dupree for so long that she did feel he had her best
interest at heart. But if the Schools Assistance Contract were to be cancelled, would she also be asked to leave?

In the couple of hours prior to meeting Dupree, Peters found herself reflecting on the incident, wondering
where she had gone wrong. She had been successful, in part, because she was always open to learning when
she had made a mistake. Her team seemed to thrive on her collaborative approach and her faith and trust in its
professionalism and work. The team members were also individuals who, like Peters, considered it their
patriotic duty to participate in the democratic process by exercising their freedom of speech.

With a wry smile, she thought of the expression “when worlds collide.” She recognized now that mixing
personal and work relationships and political opinions on Facebook might have contributed to this awkward
and potentially serious situation. Maybe she needed to be more rigorous about advising her direct reports on
company policies. But how should she draw boundaries in a now boundaryless world?

She also began to think about the conversation she was about to have with Dupree, and about what her
next steps would be. What stance would she take with Dupree concerning Harley’s actions? Would she defend
him? Would she accept the consequences or take responsibility herself? How could she look at this as a learning
opportunity and ask Dupree for guidance? Regardless of Dupree’s recommendation on whether or not Harley
would need to be let go, she knew she would need to be the one that spoke with Harley to deliver the next
message.

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Exhibit 1
Worlds Collide: Work, Life, and Social Media
Excerpt Provision of Employee Contract

1. Nondisclosure.

(a) The Employee acknowledges that the Company’s assets include many items, such as (i) financial
information, (ii) products, (iii) product and services costs, prices, profits and sales, (iv) forecasts, (v) computer
programs, (vi) data bases (and the documentation and information contained therein), (vii) computer access
codes and similar information, (viii) software ideas, (ix) know-how, technologies, concepts and designs, (x)
research projects and all information connected with research and development efforts, (xi) records, (xii)
business relationships, methods and recommendations, (xiii) client lists (including identities of clients and
prospective clients, identities of individual contracts at business entities which are clients or prospective clients,
client spending, preferences, business or habits), (xiv) subscription or consultant termination dates, (xv)
personnel files, (xvi) competitive analyses, and (xvii) other confidential or proprietary information that has not
been made available to the general public by the Company’s senior management; (xviii) non-public information
provided to the Company by its clients. The Employee further acknowledges that all information related to the
operation of the Company’s business, including, without limitation, knowledge of the Company’s assets
referenced above and other tangible or intangible assets and other information obtained by the Employee in
the course of employment (collectively, the “the Company’s Property”), (i) are confidential and trade secrets of
the Company (collectively, the “Confidential Information”), (ii) shall remain the property and trade secrets of
the Company, and (iii) may be subject to trademark, trade dress, copyright or similar protections. The Employee
acknowledges that any disclosure of the Confidential Information, even inadvertent disclosure, would cause
irreparable and material damage to the Company.

(b) While the Employee is employed by the Company (the “Employment”) and after termination of the
Employment, for any reason, the Employee agrees, (i) not to use or disclose the Confidential Information or
any Confidential Information of the Company’s clients, other than solely in the furtherance of the Company’s
business, (ii) to take all lawful measures to prevent the unauthorized use or disclosure of the Confidential
Information to any third party, (iii) to take all lawful measures to prevent unauthorized persons or entities from
obtaining or using the Confidential Information, and (iv) not to take any actions which would constitute or
facilitate the unauthorized use or disclosure of Confidential Information. The term “unauthorized” shall mean
(i) in contravention of any written policies or procedures of the Company; (ii) otherwise inconsistent with the
Company’s measures to protect its interests in its Confidential Information, (iii) in contravention of any lawful
instruction or directive, either written or oral, of any employee of the Company empowered to issue such
instruction or directive; (iv) in contravention of any duty existing under law or contract.

Source: Facsimile created by author and attorney Sean Kumar.

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Exhibit 2
Worlds Collide: Work, Life, and Social Media
Contractor-Employee Nondisclosure Agreement

It is understood that as part of my duties under Contract No. 569092, I may come in contact with
Government sensitive information or proprietary business information. I, as a Government contractor, certify
that I will not disclose, publish, divulge, release, or make known, in any manner or to any extent, to any
individual other than an appropriate or authorized Government employee, the content of any sensitive
information provided during the course of my employment. I understand that for the purpose of this
agreement, sensitive information is to include procurement data, contract information, plans, strategies and any
other information that may be deemed sensitive. I further certify that I will use proprietary business information
only for official purposes in the performance of Contract No. 569092, and will disclose such information only
to those individuals who have a specific need to know in performance of their official Government duties. I
hereby agree not to disclose to others any contractual information, including, but not limited to, proprietary
information, trade secrets, financial data, or technical proposals which will be presented to me by the
Contracting Officer or other Government Official. I agree that the described information is “inside
information” and shall not be used for private gain by myself or another person, particularly one with whom I
have family, business, or financial ties. For the purposes of this agreement, “inside information” means
information obtained under Government authority which has not become part of the body of public
information. I specifically will not disclose any such information to employees of my company or any other
contractor employees who have not signed this agreement. I will take all reasonable precautions to prevent the
unauthorized disclosure and use of such information. I hereby certify that I have read the nondisclosure
agreement described above and I am familiar with the directives and policies governing the disclosure of
procurement sensitive information. I will fully and completely observe these directives and will not disclose
such information to any unauthorized person, or use any information obtained for private use or gain at any
time, including subsequent to the performance of duties under Contract No. 569092.

NAME (Please Print)

SIGNATURE

DATE

Source: Facsimile created by author and attorney Sean Kumar.

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Exhibit 3
Worlds Collide: Work, Life, and Social Media
Excerpts from Employee Handbook

Political Activities: We are free to participate in and contribute to causes we choose. You may not, however,
make any political contribution on behalf of Atek or use Atek’s name, funds, property, equipment, or services
for the support of political parties, initiatives, committees, or candidates without the prior approval of the Chief
Compliance Officer. Lobbying activities or government contacts on behalf of Atek, other than sales activities,
should be coordinated in advance with the Chief Compliance Officer.

Social Media: Atek encourages employees to utilize company and private social media resources in a
positive manner. Employees should be mindful of the importance of client confidentiality and that any sensitive
client information learned in the course of business with Atek is not to be disclosed to any third party through
social media or any other means.

Source: Facsimile created by author and attorney Sean Kumar.

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