“We’re putting you on a performance plan.” When I heard those words my face flushed and I instantly felt sick to my stomach. It was all I could do to sit there and listen to my manager detail out the ways in which I had failed to meet expectations. I had been working for nine months at what I thought was a dream job, as an Associate Brand Manager for Haagen-Dazs. When I got the job it seemed too good to be true. It was a coveted position in the Bay Area, where there are so few brand management jobs, many of which involved working on a product as exciting as canned tomatoes (literally). I had tried for two years to break into brand management with no luck, and would have killed for a job managing canned tomatoes! When I got the job at Haagen-Dazs I couldn’t believe they had…