Barely.
I sat at a table in a local donut shop signing away all my legal rights. A
high-ranking union official watching me dispassionately, while tears streamed
uncontrollably down my face. Totally
distraught after reading a document presented to me as a complaint against me
by my former colleagues, which began with the words: “ We the undersigned…. “ It went on to say that they had a right to a stress free workplace and that I was the cause of all the stress. After that statement, there was broad based, unsubstantiated allegations. The next to last paragraph stated that they were afraid of me (Bill 168). The last sentence (piously) asked HR to resolve the problem. It was signed by everyone in our small department on all three shifts. except one brave person.
Thus terminating six years of employment. A job I was good at. A job I had enjoyed. A job I had intended to stay with until the magic age of 65 – which was only a few years distant.
How had it come to this?
All I wanted was for the
continuing and escalating abuse to stop.
All I wanted was for the company to institute policies regarding
complaints i.e. what was work-related and what was not. What was important and what was trivial. What should involve management and what
should not.
All I wanted was to be able to go to work, do my job and, at
the end of the day, go home satisfied that I’d done a good job.
I wanted to be valued and respected – once again. I had been.
Once. But those days were gone –
long gone. I didn’t know where they had
gone or, more importantly, why.
Most of all, I wanted to be “safe” in my work environment.
Yet, anything I did was turned against me time and time. Each time my co-workers gaining more control. And I losing more.
This is "the end" of this part of my story. The active phase of workplace abuse which apparently continued unabated after I left the workplace on leave after my second back to back stress breakdown.
I had been off approximately five weeks or so this time which means that except for those seven disastrous shifts when I tried to return unsuccessfully in the workplace, I had been gone for almost two months.
At some point, the local Union VP started calling me. I kept trying to explain to him about workplace bullying. At one point, he said he couldn't see me returning to the workplace. Unwisely I told him that I was not coming back.
He never once told me that the grievance I'd filed before the second breakdown was alive and well.
He never once told me really why he was calling.
Since he was not the same person as the Union Rep who was backing the bullies, I thought there was some hope.
I overlooked the detail that this rep was closely related to the other rep.
Oops!
Close to the end of my second leave of absence, he called and wanted to know what I was doing that morning. I was going to the chiropractor because I was experiencing terrific back pain and couldn't drive. So he offered to drive me there.
I should have been suspicious.
Red flags should have been flying around all over the place.
I. Was. Naive.
Returning from the chiropractor, he bypassed the turn to my house. I said so. He replied that we were going for coffee.
Again, I should have seen huge red flags waving briskly in a high wind - and didn't.
We sat down with our coffees, me naively still explaining about workplace bullying when he paused and said that the coworkers had filed a complaint against me. He showed me the complaint then he presented a document for me to sign resigning from the workplace in exchange for an exit package. I was told that if I did not sign, I would be forced to return to work when my leave expired.
I looked at those signatures, especially the last one which was someone I thought I worked well with and was on good terms with, and was devastated.
No HR person was there; however, the Union Rep had someone from HR on speed dial. I was not even aware when I entered the Union Rep's car that I was going to a meeting and would be coerced into signing a legally binding agreement.
I was still on leave at the time. My GAF was still in the 60s. Was I even legally competent to be signing this kind of agreement.
I never entered the workplace again after I left work after the shift where the trainee was intent on running to management over my training.
Ironically, her signature was missing from the "complaint".
The "resolution" was based on the fact that I had a grievance outstanding and these people's "complaint".
I signed. I thought I knew what I was doing. However, in hindsight I realize that there were a lot of things I did not understand. I did not fully understand my signature on this document meant that as far as the company and the Union were concerned, it was over. It was a fait accompli.
I don't even know if having me sign this kind of agreement outside the office while still on leave is even legal.
It was over. The end of my working life.
Yet ...
In a very real way, it was also a beginning.
The real part of the story.
The part of recovery.
Yet, anything I did was turned against me time and time. Each time my co-workers gaining more control. And I losing more.
This is "the end" of this part of my story. The active phase of workplace abuse which apparently continued unabated after I left the workplace on leave after my second back to back stress breakdown.
I had been off approximately five weeks or so this time which means that except for those seven disastrous shifts when I tried to return unsuccessfully in the workplace, I had been gone for almost two months.
At some point, the local Union VP started calling me. I kept trying to explain to him about workplace bullying. At one point, he said he couldn't see me returning to the workplace. Unwisely I told him that I was not coming back.
He never once told me that the grievance I'd filed before the second breakdown was alive and well.
He never once told me really why he was calling.
Since he was not the same person as the Union Rep who was backing the bullies, I thought there was some hope.
I overlooked the detail that this rep was closely related to the other rep.
Oops!
Close to the end of my second leave of absence, he called and wanted to know what I was doing that morning. I was going to the chiropractor because I was experiencing terrific back pain and couldn't drive. So he offered to drive me there.
I should have been suspicious.
Red flags should have been flying around all over the place.
I. Was. Naive.
Returning from the chiropractor, he bypassed the turn to my house. I said so. He replied that we were going for coffee.
Again, I should have seen huge red flags waving briskly in a high wind - and didn't.
We sat down with our coffees, me naively still explaining about workplace bullying when he paused and said that the coworkers had filed a complaint against me. He showed me the complaint then he presented a document for me to sign resigning from the workplace in exchange for an exit package. I was told that if I did not sign, I would be forced to return to work when my leave expired.
I looked at those signatures, especially the last one which was someone I thought I worked well with and was on good terms with, and was devastated.
No HR person was there; however, the Union Rep had someone from HR on speed dial. I was not even aware when I entered the Union Rep's car that I was going to a meeting and would be coerced into signing a legally binding agreement.
I was still on leave at the time. My GAF was still in the 60s. Was I even legally competent to be signing this kind of agreement.
I never entered the workplace again after I left work after the shift where the trainee was intent on running to management over my training.
Ironically, her signature was missing from the "complaint".
The "resolution" was based on the fact that I had a grievance outstanding and these people's "complaint".
I signed. I thought I knew what I was doing. However, in hindsight I realize that there were a lot of things I did not understand. I did not fully understand my signature on this document meant that as far as the company and the Union were concerned, it was over. It was a fait accompli.
I don't even know if having me sign this kind of agreement outside the office while still on leave is even legal.
It was over. The end of my working life.
Yet ...
In a very real way, it was also a beginning.
The real part of the story.
The part of recovery.
No comments:
Post a Comment