Opinion ID: 4375386
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Work duties

Text: Terri Reynolds-Rogers (Rogers1) began to work for DHSS as a Health Program Manager I in August 2006. She has a bachelor’s degree in zoology and completed two years of medical school. Her job duties with DHSS involved implementing the Medicaid program: she began by screening paperwork from nursing homes and hospitals related to authorizations for long-term care and was later given duties related to the Medicaid Waiver program.2 1 The appellant identifies herself as “Rogers” in her brief, and we follow her convention. 2 The Medicaid Waiver program“provide[s] disabled Alaskans with in-home care services as an alternative to institutionalization.” Radebaugh v. State, Dep’t of Health & Soc. Servs., Div. of Senior & Disabilities Servs., 397 P.3d 285, 287 (Alaska 2017). -2- 7340 Rogers’s immediate supervisor during most of her employment with DHSS was Rita Walker, whose supervisor was Leanna Hunter. At one point Walker’s supervisor had been Odette Jamieson, who “remain[ed] in the chain of command to the end of [Rogers’s] service” as Hunter’s supervisor. For the first few years Rogers’s employment with DHSS was unremarkable, though she described some friction between herself and Walker. Her first performance evaluation, in June 2011, rated her overall performance as “mid acceptable.” The evaluation set out goals for the following year, including weekly meetings with Walker, a “[d]ecrease [in] use of unscheduled leave,” cross-training for other positions, showing “improvement in acceptance of supervision,” and “[c]onsistently follow[ing] chain of command.” Rogers strongly disagreed with the rating and asserts that she filed a lengthy rebuttal. In the summer of 2011 DHSS began to change Rogers’s work requirements. Some changes appear to be related to the goals in the June 2011 evaluation; these included expanding Rogers’s duties to encompass training in the Medicaid Waiver review process. The parties disagreed about why Rogers’s duties increased: Rogers asserted that it was retaliation by Walker, while DHSS contended that it was part of an effort to cross-train her and make better use of her education. Rogers points to a tasks spreadsheet that she and management developed, which in her opinion shows she was being asked to do more than eight hours of work in a seven-and-a-half-hour day. The record reflects ongoing problems between Rogers and Walker relating to a variety of issues: unexplained absences, Rogers’s use of her time while at work, the way she processed incomplete long-term care authorization requests, and her willingness to accept supervision and follow the chain of command.