Opinion ID: 203640
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: History of Deteriorating Performance

Text: Tobin's bipolar disorder affected his ability to do his job in a variety of ways. His focus and concentration were impaired, and he had difficulty prioritizing and completing work. Most tasks took him longer than in the past to accomplish, and he had difficulty transitioning from one task to the next. Multiple witnesses testified about the jumble of papers that typically covered his desk. Stress tended to worsen his problems in managing his workload. Tobin's limitations made it difficult for him to find prospective customers in sufficient numbers to meet the company's sales goals. Although Tobin had accumulated a large book of business over the years  insurance policies that renewed and continued to bring in significant profits in annual premiums  by the early 1990s he began to routinely fall short of annual quotas for new policy sales. Tobin's supervisor in the mid-1990s, Mike Robin, first took action against Tobin in 1996, giving him a written warning stating that failure to meet his sales requirements would lead to probation and possible termination. Although Liberty Mutual waived that probationary period because Tobin's wife was ill, Robin implemented a nine-week warning period on November 21, 1997, requiring Tobin to improve his performance by increasing sales and participating in sales initiatives. Two weeks into that period, Tobin took his first short-term disability leave of absence, which extended from December 1997 until June 1998. He took a second disability leave from September 1998 until January 1999. Each time he returned to work, he was placed on a reduced schedule for a month before resuming full-time duties. During his re-entry periods, he received additional training and met with his supervisor regularly to review his performance and discuss ways that he could increase his sales. After both leaves, when he returned to full-time work, the warning period that had been suspended when he took his first leave was reinstated. When Tobin returned from the second leave in January 1999, Liberty Mutual hired a nurse to assist him in transitioning back into full-time sales work. Although he managed to sell enough policies in February to avoid a threatened four-week probation, his then-supervisor, Manina Schwitters, stated in a letter dated March 8, 1999, that she would monitor Tobin's sales results in four-week increments for the rest of the year. He failed to satisfy his quota in March (selling only ten policies instead of twenty-four), but successfully completed the resulting probation by selling the required thirty policies. His performance continued to deteriorate, however; he was given another warning period in October 2000, and then placed on probation from November 27, 2000 through January 5, 2001. He failed to sell the required thirty policies during that period and was terminated on January 10, 2001 for consistent poor performance.