She sees a younger worker, well-educated, enter the company and immediately take responsibility from her, and feels threatened. Anita would likely have seen Bill's arrival as an opportunity to free Susan up for bigger projects. Her handing responsibility to Bill was supposed to empower Susan, but eventually it morphed into a sense that Bill might be better suited for a role of higher responsibility, something that Susan eventually sensed herself.
The underlying thread of the different problems is that Susan lacks self-confidence and does not see herself as a leader. She has framed these situations -- and her performance review -- in a negative light. This reflects an underlying lack of confidence that Susan has not been able to identify in herself. Anita, now that she has moved to the other side of the office, has diminished ability to understand this about Susan...
If they were still having their regulator conversations, Anita might have been in a better position to understand Susan's outlook.
In order to address this situation, Susan needs to focus more on positivity and view herself as an important part of the organization. The tone of Anita's evaluation probably will only reinforce Susan's negativity, but also her sense that she lacks leadership status. Her cultural background is more conservative and deferential. Susan prefers more structure that Anita, which means that where Susan expects to always have a boss, Anita expects Susan to want to take initiative. These cultural differences likely lie at the heart of the way these two view authority relationships, and why there is a misunderstanding between what Anita expects of Susan and what Susan expects of her own role and progress in the organization.
