Thanks for the reply, totally get that the manager averted a self fulfilling prophecy of losing a valued employee.
Did you end up succeeding at the job because of the trust offered by your manager?
Did you end up succeeding at the job because of the trust offered by your manager?
Some in the comments suggested a differentiator about my performance gap was my self awareness that I was doing poorly - I certainly had an anxiety problem in general that was getting in the way beyond work too, but knowing my manager really had my back went very far. I knew of course that I could still get fired, but it meant a lot to me that no one was jumping at the chance.