 Another type of case that might cause problems for this account invokes unnecessary or otiose threats designed to force another to serve one’s purposes. Here is an example of such a case. An elderly salesperson thinks that his company is trying to force him into retirement by keeping its latest sales leads from him. Desperate to make a sale, he intends to use his office manager to obtain the latest leads. The manager has the password to a database housing the leads. He tells her that he really needs to close some deals, and unless she gets the latest leads for him, he is going to reveal to everyone in the office that she is lesbian. He believes reasonably, given his incomplete understanding of her and of the attitudes of his other co-workers, that this revelation would be damaging to her reputation. But the office manager takes the salesperson, whom she thinks of as a friendly colleague, to be making an ill-advised joke. Virtually everyone in the office is already aware of her sexual preference. And, she believes, the salesperson is cognizant that it is company policy that all salespeople are to be granted access to the latest leads upon request. She gives him a puzzled look and agrees to get him the leads right away.