Abnormal Psychology
Ellis is a 30 year old mechanic that lives in a middle class neighborhood in Philadelphia, he has been married to his wife Denise for 9 years and has two daughters ages 8 and 5. For the past 7 years, Ellis has worked as (HVAC) mechanic at a large city hospital. Ellis demonstrated superior job skills and was well known for his thoroughness and conscientiousness and motivating others. After only two years of working at his job, Ellis’s manager of the maintenance department promoted Ellis to the first available opening. Over the past few years Ellis performance has gradually deteriorated, starting in his 3rd year at the hospital; Ellis began arriving late and leaving early, at first it was only 1-2 times a month but then it was 1-2 times a week. Verbal reminders went unheeded and eventually Ellis’s supervisor issued a written reprimand, Ellis requested to work the night shift and his supervisor agreed; happy to have Ellis be someone else’s problem. For awhile, Ellis performance at work improved, but it gradually deteriorated to the point he was rarely on time and started missing work altogether, Ellis relationship with co workers was strained due to the fact they felt he shrugged off his responsibilities at work. Ellis supervisor tried to understand and asked Ellis if he had any special health concerns or personal issues but he was vague and even evasive, his supervisor finally became exasperated and told Ellis verbally that if he did not see marked improvement in his performance he would be suspended from his job. To date there has been no improvement, his supervisor issued a written warning and two weeks later after still no improvement, Ellis was suspended from his job. Ellis knew that the next step would be termination so he consulted the coordinator of his unions employee assistance program (EPA) and described his addiction to heroin. The EPA contacted a residential treatment center and arranged for Ellis to be admitted the following week. Without any...
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