It often baffles me how companies can be so foolish, but maybe it's because they are so focused on the task at hand (making money and staying in business) that they lose sight of the "big picture." 

They need some management training ASAP!  Send soem RI's over there!!!

Do you listen to yourself when you talk; or do you just fade in and out?

Not me, I am the document queen. 

"Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure. "
George W. Bush

But at this point, all it would look like is mean-spirited a$$-covering.  That's the lesson here:  The first one to get their story told tends to be favored.  Since the employee got her story told first (and since her story fits a "template", i.e. "big bad corporation takes advantage of helpless employee") then that's the story that gets told, regardless of the real facts. 

Not only what Martin said, but also you have to think of this from a litigation pov.  The woman has gone to the press and is garnering popular support...I wouldn't be at all shocked if she has already lawyered up.  If she hasn't, she should be getting alot of phone calls from attorney's over the next day or two.

There is going to be a lawsuit...mark my words...and the best thing the company can do is dummy up on this issue and say their piece in court, because they aren't going to win in the press.  In the meantime, they sit back and go over every word she says with a fine tooth comb, hoping that she contradicts herself or trips up in her story somewhere.  And you can bet that every piece of paper with her name on it that exists in that company is being reviewed.

Only half the story is out there...I wonder what the other is?

I actually doubt that she'll go the litigation route.  Remember that most employment in the US is "at will" which means employees can be terminated at any time for any reason or for no reason.  Unless she can show some bad faith on the part of the employer, some kind of contract or quasi-contract,  invoke promissory estoppel or show some discrimination under Title VII of the civil rights act, the employer would come out fine. 

But in the "court" of public opinion (where the law doesn't matter,) she's already won, and will probably either be offered another job very quickly or rehired by her old employer just to get the egg off their face.   

Isn't the media grand!

LGOPs (Little Groups of Paratroopers)
After the demise of the best airborne plan, a most terrifying effect occurs on the battlefield. This effect is known as the "Rule of LGOPs" This is, in its purest form, a small group of "Pissed-Off American Paratroopers". They are well trained, armed to the teeth and lack serious supervision. They collectively remember the Commanders intent as "March to the sound of guns and kill anyone who isn't dressed like you... " or something like that. Happily they go about a days work! 

"With all due respect, Sir, nobody told me NOT to blow it up!"