The Workologist: An Awkward Discovery at Work

Dear Workologist:

I recently received a call from a number I didn’t recognize. There was no message, so I Googled the number. One of the search results contained the name of a junior colleague — on what was evidently a site collecting “customer reviews” of escorts.

I have no desire to see this person’s career affected by private activities that don’t affect his work — but I certainly don’t want a client Googling around and finding the same thing. I think I have three options. I could tell him and see if he can clean it up, change his number, etc. (We’re not friends, and this would certainly be mortifying for all involved.) I could talk to his supervisor (with whom I am friendly). Or I could just pretend that I never found it and tell no one. That’s what I’ve done so far.

Matt, Brooklyn

Clearly, the easy path is the one you’re on — but it’s obviously bothering you, and I understand why. That said, you don’t have all the facts, and this whole scenario sounds bizarre. I’m certainly no expert on such sites, but the idea that someone would use his real name and phone in that context seems extremely unlikely. Maybe this guy is a victim of some kind of crossed wires. The Internet, after all, is thick with bad information.

Either way, the bigger issue is what to do when you stumble across embarrassing information about a colleague online. Start by asking what you’d want to happen if the situation were reversed: You’d want to know, right? But that doesn’t mean a confrontation: You could go to your colleague and simply ask if the number you have in your phone is his. Whatever the answer, you then can neutrally describe your experience: call from strange number; Web search; this guy’s name on a site where he might not want it to exist. End the conversation on a note that’s blunt about the stakes but that makes it clear that you’re trying to help, not get him in trouble or even establish whether what you found is true. “It’s crazy what ends up on the Web, and who knows how it gets there, but it might be a good idea to change your number so none of our clients, or anybody else, gets the wrong idea.”

You’ve given him the chance, and the extremely strong motivation, to take care of the problem immediately.

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Dear Workologist:

I work for someone with “anger issues.” He constantly demeans employees who report to him, and some who do not. Recently he was very angry with me over a perceived slight — a paperwork misunderstanding — and told me off in front of a co-worker. Later, he came into my office and picked up where he had left off. I was sitting with my legs crossed, and at one point he demanded that I uncross my legs when speaking with him. When I next saw him, he acted as though nothing had happened.

Should I report this to the human resources department at my company? I could be opening a can of worms that might make it difficult to get another job.

Ed, Los Angeles

If you’ve daydreamed about writing a pilot for an HBO drama about a terrible workplace, your boss has given you solid-gold material with that leg-crossing thing. That’s the good news. The bad news is that if you haven’t been daydreaming about some other job, maybe you should, even perhaps somewhere else within the company.

With that in mind, the first step toward addressing this through official channels is to take advantage of your own uncertainty: have an informal conversation with someone in H.R. about ground rules for lodging a complaint. Don’t name names, but make the outline of the “hypothetical” problem clear.

If Mr. Anger Issues routinely comports himself in the manner you describe, it will not — or should not — be breaking news to H.R. One hopes that the department already has an eye on him, recognizing that a single toxic manager can set off a discontent contagion. That you value your position enough to proceed with caution suggests loyalty that your organization should value; if two or five or seven or more employees are reconsidering that loyalty in the wake of demeaning encounters with one individual — and wasting company time while obsessing about it — the math gets pretty easy.

But it’s possible that your H.R. department isn’t that clever. If the response is a rules-and-regulations wall of indifference, back off and consider your new choices. Stick with a company that’s more concerned with bureaucratic niceties than a functional workplace? Or focus on finding a new situation?

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Dear Workologist:

My business is about helping inventors, makers and entrepreneurs share the stories of their innovations. After long days studying new products, my team proposed making one of our own. It’s a kegerator — a beer keg/mini-fridge hybrid. Kegerators are nearly de rigueur in many start-ups, and as C.E.O. of a young, hard-working team, I am loath to discourage any off-hours social activity or creative enterprise.

But in our company we have 10 interns, and some are underage. I spend my “off hours” with teenagers and young adults, as I have three sons — and that is enough parenting for me. Do you think I would be dodging such responsibilities at the office by blessing our Kegerator Krew?

Jules Pieri, Somerville, Mass.

You certainly have no responsibility to add parenting to your C.E.O. duties. But there is that pesky rule-of-law thing: A 20-year-old intern who flunks a breathalyzer shortly after a company-kegerated wind-down from a hard day’s work in your offices would definitely be your problem.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have an office kegerator. But while you are not your employees’ parent, you are also not their pal: you’re the boss. Laying out the dos and don’ts is your job. The good news is that being a parent is actually helpful: What rules would you expect your sons’ employers to have in place in a similar situation? The answer to that hypothetical is exactly what you should do.

Send your workplace conundrums to workologist@nytimes.com, including your name and contact information (even if you want it withheld for publication). The Workologist is a guy with well-intentioned opinions, not a professional career adviser. Letters may be edited.

Insurance Co. Emails Shielded From Discovery

A federal magistrate judge has ruled in a bad-faith case that documents produced by an in-house attorney at an insurance company who was also acting as an adjuster — emails, letters and an uninsured motorist worksheet — are shielded by the attorney-client privilege.

Legal Profession: Court Eyes Discovery of Attorney-Expert Communication

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court appears poised to reshape the ground rules on whether attorney-expert communications are subject to discovery, as the justices are considering the issue in a pending case and a proposed rule change.

Public-Private Effort Seeks to Expedite Discovery of Autism Drugs

Under a contract with the institute, U.C.L.A. will form a network of researchers at other academic centers that will try to identify promising new and older drug compounds quickly, and conduct early tests to see if they merit additional investment.

The program, part of the “Fast Fail” initiative at the institute, aims to determine within weeks whether a drug works, rather than the years it traditionally takes to evaluate a new drug.

“The whole idea is just getting much better in these early phases at identifying drugs that are going to be efficacious and safe, and thereby greatly speeding the development of effective new therapies and reducing the overall cost,” said Dr. James McCracken, who is leading the effort at U.C.L.A. as director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.

The number of diagnosed cases of autism, Asperger’s syndrome and related disorders in children has been growing in recent years, largely because of increased awareness. A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration concluded that one in 50 children aged 6 to 17 had been found to have autism or a related disorder, a 72 percent increase since 2007.

Although more cases are being diagnosed, no drugs are approved to treat the core symptoms of the disorders, which are characterized by delays in developing effective communication and social skills. Other drugs often prescribed to people with the disorders treat difficult behaviors like aggressiveness, hyperactivity and irritability.

Dr. McCracken said developing effective treatments had been difficult because the underlying causes were poorly understood until the last few years, and some prominent efforts had failed. In 2004, the experimental drug secretin, developed by RepliGen, did not show that it worked in an advanced clinical trial, disappointing parents of children with autism who had placed their hopes in the drug.

Several major drug companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, have scaled back their research in the neurosciences because of the high failure rate, Dr. McCracken said.

Developing drugs to treat neurological disorders is difficult, in part because brain science is still evolving. The field is littered with drugs that scientists had hoped would be effective against diseases like Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia but that performed poorly in clinical trials.

Despite the setbacks, scientific advances in understanding the genetic underpinnings of autism have accelerated, leaving the door open for new drug discoveries, said Robert H. Ring, vice president of translational research at Autism Speaks, a patient advocacy group.

“Autism spectrum disorder is the brave new world of medicine development, and most companies out there — despite a lot of the retraction you’re seeing — they do recognize autism as a clear area of opportunity,” said Mr. Ring, who serves on a committee that helps select which compounds the U.C.L.A. program will test.

Some companies are pursuing treatments. Seaside Therapeutics, a private company in Cambridge, Mass., is developing drugs to treat autism and a form of mental retardation known as fragile X syndrome in a partnership with Roche.

“The approach that people have taken over the years is, ‘This person looks anxious, I’ll give them a drug I use to treat anxiety,’ ” said Dr. Randall L. Carpenter, a co-founder of Seaside and its chief executive. “We hope to treat the underlying molecular abnormality.”

Dr. McCracken said the program would identify four to eight compounds and run them through small trials in humans, testing how the drugs are absorbed and how they affect brain wave patterns that scientists say they believe are linked to autism.

“It’s taken a really long time to kind of crack open and begin to understand part of the disorder of brain biology that underpins autism,” Dr. McCracken said. “This is, to me, the most exciting time because we understand so much more than we did even five or 10 years ago.”

Sovereign Bank, Land Developer Reach Accord in Bankruptcy Discovery Dispute

On the eve of a hearing to determine monetary sanctions, Sovereign Bank settled the underlying discovery-abuse claims with property developer 400 Walnut Associates, which is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Business Valuation and the Discovery Process

Most of the business valuations I prepare are in the context of litigation. In anticipation of such a valuation, I will always prepare a document discovery request. Additionally, I will often need to prepare a supplemental document request list once I review the original submissions. While opposing counsel in most of my cases cooperate by providing the requested documents, some do not. Nevertheless, I am typically working, with counsel, under a court-imposed deadline for completion of the business valuation.

DealBook: Discovery Strikes 2 Deals in Bid for International Growth

Suzy Allman for The New York TimesDiscovery Communications, the owner of Animal Planet, has struck two deals aimed at international expansion.

Discovery Communications struck two deals on Friday aimed at expanding its reach in Europe, including buying the Nordic arm of the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1.

The deal for SBS Nordic, which has an enterprise value of $1.7 billion, will give Discovery 12 television networks and several radio stations, expanding the company’s reach in a fast-growing market. Discovery, known for documentary shows, will also acquire its first-ever portfolio of scripted and sports programs.

Discovery, based in Silver Spring, Md., also agreed to pay about $221.6 million to take a 20 percent stake in Eurosport, the pan-European sports network owned by France’s TF1. The American company has the right to raise its stake up to 51 percent after two years, and eventually has the chance to buy all of Eurosport from its French partner.

Discovery also agreed to increase its existing stock buyback program by $1 billion.

The deals are aimed at furthering Discovery’s reach into international markets, which have been the company’s fastest-growing business. International networks generated about $1.5 billion in revenue last year, up 16 percent over the prior year. That was faster than the company’s core domestic operations, which reported an 11 percent rise in revenue during the same period.

“It’s serendipitous to have two important deals come together at the same time,” David Zaslav, Discovery’s chief executive, said on a conference call with analysts on Friday.

Citigroup and the law firm DLA Piper advised Discovery on the SBS Nordic transaction.

Pepper Hamilton Hires Discovery Services Director

Pepper Hamilton CEO Scott Green, himself no stranger to starting up an e-discovery services component of a large law firm, has hired a new director of discovery services and litigation support.