Opinion ID: 747869
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Text: 5 The ACN Centers and staff tends [sic] to be nuclear families within themselves and extended families among the other Centers and the ACN Administrative Office. You do not communicate well with individuals and have a tendency to offend by not explaining, asking, or offering a rationale. You need to understand that staff must feel that we work with and for them, not that they work for us. The ACN Administrative office is to help the Center, staff and physicians provide optimum, cost-effective patient care. Staff situations require interaction in a nonjudgmental fashion. 6 You must communicate at the level of the employee, both verbally and in written form. Many calls are received in the ACN Administrative office requesting interpretation. Frequently, the perceptions [sic] of persons requesting such clarifications is that they are looked down on, or talked down to. 7 Your written communication can be greatly simplified decreasing confusion or the need for interpretation as well as time spent both writing and processing such lengthy or complicated communication. 2. Prioritization and Time Management 8 The first priority in [sic] the medical care environment. Time management must include communication of problems and on-going projects or issues to follow-up with correspondence, as needed. You appear to enjoy the peripheral tasks more than the day-to-day activity. Day-to-day is priority. 3. Communication 9 Improvement is anticipated in calling in for messages, letting support staff know where you are, (daily, general). Contact Centers at least twice a week. Ask if the have a few minutes. 4. Follow-through 10 Attention to detail, again, suggesting the use of a tickler system. 11 R. 22, Loose Pleadings, Vol. 1, Exh. A., Exh. 9. Johnson's evaluation also stated that there were critical weaknesses in his performance which needed to be addressed, and she extended his probationary period an additional 60 days. 12 Johnson advised Mr. Washington that during this extended period, she expected him to meet with her on a daily basis to discuss his activities, to schedule bi-weekly formal meetings with Johnson (or her secretary) in order to set goals for him and evaluate his progress in certain areas, and to provide her with a written response to the evaluation. 13 Johnson also discussed Mr. Washington's weaknesses with him in a meeting on January 14, 1991. During this meeting, Johnson offered specific examples of the areas of improvement cited in his 90-day evaluation and how he might rectify his communication problems and inattention to detail with respect to staff coverage and responding to people. Pl. Answer to Def. Statement of Material Fact, p 29. Mr. Washington admits that during this meeting he assured Johnson that she would start to see improvement in his performance. Id. At around this same time, Johnson hired Jennifer Kramer, a manager at one of the defendant's clinics for eight years, to begin training for the position of a fourth Assistant Administrator, a position which Johnson admitted was short-lived and was eliminated after Kramer took Mr. Washington's position upon his termination. Mr. Washington asserts that Johnson approached him soon after Kramer started and asked him to give up half of his centers to Kramer to provide her with her own centers and because he had too much on his plate. He refused. 14 Chicago Osteopathic asserts that Mr. Washington did not completely comply with the conditions of his extended probationary period, and that complaints about Mr. Washington continued to be reported to Johnson. Consequently, on January 25, 1991, Johnson told Mr. Washington that the position was not working out and that he should begin to seek other employment. She also stated that he could resign by March 15, 1991, and if he did not, she would terminate him on February 8. 2 15 On February 6, 1991, Johnson had a meeting with Mr. Washington in which she gave him a memorandum entitled Unsatisfactory Performance which documented Mr. Washington's performance since his prior evaluation in early January. 3 Mr. Washington was suspended without pay on February 8, 1991. He asserts that Johnson told him that the suspension was for insubordination for not saying good morning to her that day. Chicago Osteopathic claims that Mr. Washington was suspended because he failed to meet with Johnson on February 7, 1991, as she requested. Mr. Washington was terminated on February 11, 1991, after Johnson received a Termination of Employment memorandum from Chicago Osteopathic's Human Resources VicePresident, Theresa Banaszak. Mr. Washington admits reviewing and signing the termination memorandum. 16 Mr. Washington's version of the events which led up to his termination includes additional allegations. He testified, for example, that Johnson had told him on two occasions in January 1991 that she would make up any information she felt she had to in order to justify his termination. He also stated that she warned him not to speak with his co-workers about her statements that she would fabricate information or tell them about the threats she had made. In addition, Mr. Washington testified that Johnson had made several derogatory statements about African-Americans while he was employed at Chicago Osteopathic. For instance, he stated that she had told all of the Assistant Administrators to be careful about hiring AfricanAmericans because they can't speak correctly. 4 He also testified that Johnson told him in approximately November 1990 to quit trying to talk like you're white and to get all those dictionaries off your desk and quit acting like you're white. R.23, Exh. B at 132-35. He also stated that while taking a potential client on a tour of one of the clinics in or around December 1990, Johnson told the personnel director of the potential client not to be alarmed at the dark complexion of one of the clinic's physicians because although he was AfricanAmerican, the picture was taken soon after a vacation in the sun. Id. at 156-66. Mr. Washington also stated that Johnson told him that other employees at the clinics did not like him. In its Answer to the Complaint, Chicago Osteopathic denies that the statements mentioned above were made by Johnson. 5 17 Mr. Washington filed discrimination charges with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He received a rightto-sue letter from the EEOC on February 6, 1995, and filed this suit under Title VII in May 1995.