Opinion ID: 2757451
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 2010 Annual Performance Evaluation

Text: Torres-Skair received her 2010 performance evaluation from Powrie on March 9, 2011. According to Powrie’s evaluation, Torres-Skair was “consistently below the goals” for prescriptions per week, green lights, and idle time, and her performance had declined during the year. Powrie further stated that Torres- 4 Case: 13-14476 Date Filed: 12/04/2014 Page: 5 of 21 Skair’s “performance d[id] not meet expectations,” that it “require[d] improvement,” and that “[s]he display[ed] a negative demeanor about the position” that came through occasionally on her calls. Due to the evaluation, Torres-Skair did not receive a bonus or stock opportunities with Medco. Over the next several days, Torres-Skair filed anonymous complaints with Medco’s Ethics Hotline’s toll-free number about Powrie and Chavez, claiming that they had retaliated against her for expressing concerns about the job.1 She also complained that Powrie told Chavez that Plaintiff was pregnant and hormonal. Medco investigated the complaint and did not find any retaliation. 3. Torres-Skair is Placed on Administrative Leave and then Discharged Acting on a request from another Medco manager, who interacted with Torres-Skair’s group, Medco began investigating Torres-Skair’s sales calls in May 2011 to determine if she was “refaxing” prescription requests. Refaxing occurred when a pharmacist faxed a request for a customer’s prescription to the customer’s physician after that same request had already been faxed, which resulted in a pharmacist receiving additional credit for the same prescription. According to Torres-Skair, this was common practice and condoned by Powrie, among others. Another Medco manager, Brian Schumm—who also did not supervise Torres-Skair—conducted the research and reviewed Torres-Skair’s sales calls for a 1 Torres-Skair had expressed negative sentiments about the job to Chavez during a focusgroup meeting in February 2011. 5 Case: 13-14476 Date Filed: 12/04/2014 Page: 6 of 21 one-week period in May 2011. From his research, Schumm observed the following relevant issues in Torres-Skair’s calls: (1) Torres-Skair disconnected a call with a customer; (2) she refaxed prescription requests instead of obtaining verbal orders from physicians; (3) she remained on the line for an excessive period of time without leaving a voicemail; and (4) she did not appear to be answering many of the calls that were being routed to her. On May 18, 2011, Torres-Skair notified Powrie that she was contacting Medco’s third-party handler of claims under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), in anticipation of taking FMLA maternity leave. Two days later, on May 20, 2011, Powrie, Narducci (Powrie’s supervisor), and Jennifer Bannon (a human resources manager), conducted a conference call with Torres-Skair regarding Schumm’s report of her sales calls. During the call, Torres-Skair was placed on administrative leave pending further investigation. Afterwards, Torres-Skair called the Ethics Hotline and stated her belief that Narducci, Bannon, and Powrie were “building a case” to provide management reason to terminate her in order to deprive her of maternity-leave benefits. After the conference call, Powrie learned that Torres-Skair had intended to start her FMLA leave that same day. After conducting additional research based on Schumm’s report, Narducci ultimately obtained approval to terminate Torres-Skair’s employment for hanging 6 Case: 13-14476 Date Filed: 12/04/2014 Page: 7 of 21 up on a customer, avoiding calls, and failing to follow standard operating procedure with respect to refaxing. Narducci specifically found that Torres-Skair had violated “Work Rule 11,” which listed “[h]anging up on a customer—or otherwise inappropriately terminating a call” as a serious infraction which could lead to termination without prior warning or other disciplinary action. On May 31, 2011, Bannon notified Torres-Skair in writing that her employment with Medco was being terminated for “issues concerning [her] performance including but not limited to the disconnecting of a member on May 7, 2011.”