Reference no: EM133160054

Scenario:

Sarah was hired as an administrative assistant at a busy marketing firm. She was a promising candidate with extensive experience and keen attention to detail. She was bright, cheerful, and professional, which made her perfect for the front desk, as she was the first point of contact in the office. She caught on quickly, and everyone in the office got along great with her. After about six months, her work began to slip, and absenteeism became a problem. She was calling in sick for reasons of her own health and issues connected to being the head of a busy family of 6 and managing work-life balance. While she was at work, her performance was noticeably affected as she was often distracted and short while dealing with clients at the front desk. Other administrative duties such as typing up reports and filing were often done late or not thoroughly completed. Her relationship with her coworkers has been affected as they have noticed that she is no longer as friendly and helpful, and she has started making mistakes. Her absenteeism has continued; after taking five sick days over the course of roughly eight weeks, Sarah was given a verbal warning that she no longer has any sick days available. Shortly after this warning, she called in sick but said she was well enough to work from home. Her shift from home was not as productive as was promised, and so when she returned to work the next day, she was given a written warning that it is unacceptable to use sick days to work from home while not being productive. A few weeks after this, Sarah called in sick for a shift crying and explaining that she has been dealing with personal issues to do with her marriage and couldn't bear to leave the house. Sarah also explained her unproductive day at home was due to constant fighting with her husband since his boss gave him the day off. She confessed that in addition to being distracted from fighting with her husband, she found it hard to self-motivate when not being in the office environment. This is an additional concern, as the office is reconfiguring and has plans to start implementing increased remote work, sometime in the near future.

Sarah says she understands the significance of the warnings given regarding her absenteeism and other performance issues. She says she has plans to deal with the stress coming from her home life and promises to work hard to turn things around at work. At first, things seem to be improving, her demeanor is more positive, absenteeism is down and she is producing good work, but not too long after, her performance starts to slip again. She starts coming in late, missing deadlines and handing in incomplete work. She often appears to be distracted, lacking in confidence, and not fully engaged.

1. Using the Mager & Pipe Model, identify the gap between desired and actual performance;

2. Summarize findings;

3. List three recommendations explaining how to prevent this from happening again