ABBIE KATZ CASE Abbie Katz is a 28-year old single woman who has a young child and a newborn due in seven months. She has worked her way through school while paying for college with both scholarships and her own money. She held various jobs throughout high school and into college. Abbie grew up in a nice suburban neighborhood with her parents and two siblings. During her teens, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. For years, it was uncontrollable, but when she was nineteen, with new medications her epilepsy has been controlled with her ongoing prescription drugs she is required to take for the rest of her life! She may have a seizure one to three times per year. Abbie receives excellent grades in college and someday plans on becoming a CPA but with a young child she does not have the ability to work in an accounting firm and devote her time in her career and for studies. She is currently working as an accounting clerk at the XOXO Credit Union. During the last twelve months, Abbie has called off work twice, both times were due to seizures she had and it typically takes her 2-3 days to fully recuperate and regain her strength and overcome headaches she gets with the seizures. The first time she called off it was on the 1st of the month when it is extremely busy within the accounting department. Due to her absence, her manager had to complete a majority of her work that is due by the 5th of the month, leaving her manager extremely angry. The second time she called off due to a seizure she returned to work the day after it occurred. She was not feeling up to par and noticed that she could not concentrate that well. After doing some of her work, she ended up going home for the remainder of the day and was off for another two days to recuperate. A month later, Abbie then discovered on the morning she came in last month while not feeling well, she entered some wrong transactions which caused one of credit union’s largest business customers to get a delinquent notice. It was for a $100,000 payment that was posted incorrectly. The COO of the business came to the credit union and threatened to close the business accounts. Once again her manager was not happy with Abbie and gave her a disciplinary warning as a result of that error. Two months later Abbie posted a $20 payment incorrectly to another customer’s account. Six months after that, she posted a $500 payment to an incorrect business customer’s account. Abbie’s manager is now convinced that it is Abbie’s pregnancy that is causing her to make all these errors. The manager requires Abbie to take the remainder of her pregnancy off because the company can no longer have errors in the books. Despite these errors as described, during the same twelve month period, Abbie reconciled all the bank statements each month error free, received two letters of appreciation from business customers who are happy with her quick responsiveness, she successfully trained a new accounting clerk during orientation, and willingly accepts overtime when offered to employees in the department. Abbie is known for her compassion and well-mannered temper when dealing with customers and other staff. She is liked by most co-workers. Many of her co-workers are supportive to her when she takes some extra breaks throughout the day because they realize she is having a difficult pregnancy and often times they do see her sick throughout the morning. While Abbie was off work based on her manager’s requirement, the company discontinued her health insurance because of her inactive status at work. She also learned that she did not receive her annual pay increase that all other co-workers received. Annual raises are based upon individual performance. In addition, she did not receive a 10% pay increase on a new salary scale for accounting clerks. The Human Resources Manager determined the pay for the XOXO Credit Union accounting clerks did not align to those of other credit unions within the geographical location and salary data. Upon Abbie’s return from her six week maternity leave, she learns that her manager hires Hunter Kelly to fill the vacancy of a newly created position of Senior Accounting Clerk. This position requires previous work in a credit union and an educational background leading to a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting or Finance. Hunter starting salary was 5% more than Abbie’s current rate. There is one employee whose name is Tiffany, an African American female. Tiffany is also an accounting clerk and is very upset with how Abbie has been treated by co-workers. When Tiffany was pregnant six months ago there was little compassion from her co-workers. In addition, the department manager put her off work because Tiffany had a doctor’s slip stating one of her work restrictions during her last trimester was a ten minute break for every two hours worked. According to the manager, there was too much work during the day to allow all these breaks for the department. Obviously, Abbie is very frustrated and is unmotivated to do her best work. She strived to move up within the XOXO Credit Union.