whether the reason Navistar gave for its decision was merely a pretext for discrimination. Id.
Hights purported "proof of pretext" was her own affidavit, in which she controverted, denied and set forth explanations and justifications for many of the incidents of "uncooperative" behavior (upon which her employer relied upon in determining that her probationary performance was unsatisfactory), and certain inconsistencies in the discovery record of Navistar's evidence of her on-the-job behavior and performance. However, like Plaintiff here, neither Hights' affidavit or any of the inconsistencies in the discovery record contained any allegation of race discrimination.
The court determined that Hights had established a factual issue as to whether she had behaved as alleged by her employer, but the court held that such a factual issue was not enough to withstanddepartment in Troy for at least nearly two years (as opposed to Plaintiff's barely one to two month tenure at the time of her request for transfer) and both Zook and Hoffpauir were "solid performers" with no job performance problems at the time of their request for transfer (unlike Plaintiff who was already experiencing performance problems at the time she expressed an interest in transferring). Moreover, Ms. Hoffpauir was a "hardship case" in that her husband had been transferred to Denver, Colorado and she would have had to leave the company unless EDS transferred her to its Colorado facility. [See VanDyke Affidavit, paragraphs 2-4.]
[11]  At pp. 15-16 of her Brief, Plaintiff cites Hights for the proposition that when an employer points to a plaintiff's performance deficiencies as