Plaintiff's performance problems had become so pronounced that customers began experiencing problems and EDS personnel *683 began complaining about her. Thus, on March 20, 1989, her immediate superior, Diane Haas, informed Plaintiff that she was going to be put on a Performance Improvement Plan ("PIP"), a structured work plan setting forth particular tasks for the employee to perform, geared at improving performance. When she was informed that she was being put on a PIP, Plaintiff, reacted angrily and left work (apparently without permission) for the rest of the day. Ms. Cox's reaction to the PIP had been so negative that the next day, Ms. Haas, Haas' supervisor, Michael VanDyke, and Curvie Burton, who is apparently above both Haas and VanDyke in the EDS supervisory chain-of-command (and who, likePlaintiff, is black), met with Plaintiff to discuss her job performance and her negative reaction to the PIP. Following that meeting, Burton revoked Plaintiff's PIP. Burton, however, advised Plaintiff that she was expected to maintain an adequate level of performance.
On March 23, 1990, Ms. Haas gave Plaintiff a "Review of Goals and Objectives", outlining performance improvements that Ms. Cox needed to work on. Shortly thereafter, on March 27, 1990, Plaintiff filed a charge of race discrimination with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.[2]
Then, on April 13, 1989, Plaintiff met with Diane Haas for a formal performance appraisal. At this appraisal meeting, Ms. Haas discussed Plaintiff's performance, including her deficiencies, with specificity. Haas evaluated Plaintiff's performance as "marginal", the lowest performance rating, and advised Ms. Cox as to what