D eborah, 49, has been a customer service representative for a computer software company for 8 years. She had been an exemplary employee and was in line for a promotion. Unexpectedly, she was assigned a new supervisor and her mother became ill. She began taking more and more time off to take her mother to health care appointments. She was often an hour or two late when she did come to work. Her productivity declined. She frequently complained to her new supervisor about having too much work to do and not enough time to do it. As a result, Deborah's relationship with her supervisor became strained. Her supervisor was under pressure from upper management over Deborah's performance problems.A few months after Deborah's productivity began to decline, she had a performance improvement meeting with her supervisor. Her supervisor indicated she felt Deborah had been exhibiting a negative attitude and that if her performance and attendance did not improve, Deborah likely would lose her job. Deborah became angry, said she was doing the best she could, and walked out.
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