This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
On contacting my union rep he informed me "we were now at the stage of going forward with a personal grievance" .
"Why on earth are we doing that?
His reply their response to your offer to just let it rest, is they have issued you with a final written warning
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
I hadn’t even had the courtesy of a second warning.
What the hell I thought ..
Then it dawned on me I had caught them out.
They must have been shitting themselves.
Rather than deal with me with honesty and god forbid intregrity " lets get him out the door quick smart"
Iain Galloway had previously smugly said "that this will end at mediation and duly it did ,as that is where they wanted me all along.
Surprise surprise
I was effectively a dead man walking,and so to the mediation
In the famous words of the godfather I was given an offer I couldnt refuse,that is all I can say, that sealed my fate and prevented me from telling anybody what had transpired by confidentiality agreements that are part of the mediation process.
What do those words mean you say ?
Well the dictionary says something like this.
Forced under duress into signing a document documents and or commiting any act,acts because the refusal of same leads to acts to herendous to contemplate
The mediation occurred with instructions from the mediator that all was held in confidence, this was expressed both at the start of the meeting and firmly expressed at the conclusion.
Imagine my surprise when contacted later that night, by a concerned workmate, that they were aware of some of the confidential details of the mediation.
I reported the breach to my union rep and to the head of HR Telecom Wayne Peat
The law had been broken.
Present at Mediation. Peter Cooper Davies, (Union representative), Paul Evans-McLeod, Patrick Evans-McLeod, Mediator...Alison Cotter of DOL Telecom HR, Hannah Sullivan, Michelle Young, Shaun Holt...
Then they HR mediated on the breech themselves, decided nothing could be done about it because of confusing statements except give the team manager concerned a strong talking to
Here again the make thier own rules around what laws will be obeyed.
Revisit the code of ethics , refresh your minds.
Determine which if any were applied.
Sorry they can’t be their own judge and jury they need to revisit the Law section 141 of the Act
telecom or Shaun is faced with a immediate $3000 fine
It doesn’t matter who made the breech just the fact a breech was made so once again they are acting outside the law.
Other events of a dubious nature deliberately said to cast me in the worst possible light occurred during the mediation but the confidentiality agreements preclude me for mentioning them
Towards the latter stages of this pitiful debacle, I had registered on advice of my support team the whole thing as a serious harm incident to the Department of Labor Health and Safety division. They were concerned enough to start an investigation, concluded late November 2009
THAT IS NOW ON THE MINISTER OF LABOURS DESK AS WE SPEAK PEOPLE WILL AND ARE GOING TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE
I have given 39 years 3 month of my life to Telecom, what do I have to show for it I'm, on the dole my health is stuffed, my marriage in tatters, my house in the trust and good graces of family
WHY because four individuals with a agenda that has all the appearances of being illegal, four individuals whose cumulative experience doesn’t even come close to the time I have served and in their arrogance thought they could get away with it.
Sorry no NOT GOING TO HAPPEN
They effectively have ruined me, and have brought Telecom into disrepute by their actions.
Is it too much to be treated fairly, with respect, with honesty and integrity.
I will restore my good name...here I stand I can do no other.
I PUT THIS TO MANY PEOPLE WITHIN TELECOM STATING MY CASE I STARTED AT THE TOP WITH THE CEO AND WORKED DOWN THIS PROCESS IS STILL ONGOING I WILL TABLE THIER ANSWERS AND REACTIONS I WILL ALLOW YOU THE COURTESY OF DRAWING YOU OWN CONCLUSIONS
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Thursday, January 14, 2010
health and safety 2002 amendment act ignored
This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
Remember this in my last blog.
Paul, Telecom’s immediate and ongoing expectations relating to this are as follows:
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you are aware of, and comply with, any and all of Telecom’s Policies and Guidelines. These are all available on the Exchange intranet site.
You are to review these on a regular basis.
Now if that is the expectation required of me it is also the expectation that management should adhere to as well.
Don’t you think.
No management will decide which set of rules they will obey.
Remember earlier I indicated that I thought I was being micro-managed.
Well in a meeting on 23 of June2009 Shaun and Michelle admitted in front of me and Peter Cooper Davies that "yes I was being micro-managed "
So what transpired next has the appearance of breaching yet again. telecoms polices, if not the law.
This will something for the lawyers.
So what did they do, lets join the dots
Micro-management is a recognized form of workplace bullying.
Work place bullying is a stressor,stress in the work place is a hazard and has been since the health and safety in employment amendment act 2002.
They should have known this.
If they where doing their jobs correctly in all facets.
As they required of me.
But no its one set of rules for the goose and another set of rules for the gander
Confident they would be called to task for it inside their little clique they in the most part paid lip service to it but didn’t really act on it.
So to confirm my thoughts I sought the advice of Bryan Abraham National Health and Safety Manager for Telecom New Zealand
From: Paul Evans-Mcleod
Sent: Saturday, 11 July 2009 10:33 a.m.
To: Bryan Abraham
Subject: some clarity please
Bryan I would like to keep this communication confidential between us for the moment
Over the past 71/2 months I have found my self in constant dispute with my managers , recently an admission was made by the managers that I was being micro managed, which from the outset I was well aware of
Micro management is one of more recognisable aspects of workplace bullying; workplace bully is a recognised stressor in the work place
Management has two letters from my doctor to indicate that the on going and continued stress is impacting heavily on my mental health, emotional health and my marriage
Management do recognise I am under a great deal of stress and have advised me to and I have up taken EAP to help to cope but the micro managing continues
That being said do I have a case with regards below to file a complaint to OSH
Warm regards
Paul
His reply
From: Bryan Abraham
Sent: Monday, 13 July 2009 12:22 p.m.
To: Paul Evans-Mcleod
Subject: RE: some clarity please
Hi Paul,
As discussed, DoL (OSH) do very much identify workplace stress as a workplace hazard - they have a number of publications on the subject on their Internet site. http://www.osh.dol.govt.nz/
Bullying - along with numerous other situations (i.e. workload / hours of work etc.) can be stressors. These are documented in the attached DoL (OSH) publication - bullying specifically mentioned on page 24 - line 4 , and page 54 - para 7.3 (3).
http://www...search.dol.govt.nz/index.html?q=healthy+work+stress+guide&qwithin%5B%5D=All+sites&SearchSubmit=Search
Now remember that Bridgette Dalzell and possibly others are reading my emails
Here is a chance for them to back out of the nonsense that’s going on any pretext and stop but no action was forthcoming
So on the 140709 I attended yet another meeting present, were myself Iain from HR and Shaun, Peter.
Yet again Shaun when thru my misdeeds with regard to my behaviors on queue which was mostly in the form of you only declared ownership in 7 of 9 calls you only read the pop up in 6 of 9 calls blah blah etc
I had my head in my hands leaning across the top of another chair quite honestly I was passed it all my health was in tatters as was my marriage and I had had just about enough of the bullshit
So I let them go on a bit and then interrupted them quietly
Do you people recognize that you are breaking the law?
What?
I said do you people recognize that you are breaking the law?
What do you mean?
Lets see if you idiots (by this time I had little patience for them and their behavior and certainly no respect)
So I stepped them thru my thinking
Micro-management is a recognized form of workplace bullying. Work place bullying is a stressor;stress in the work place is a hazard and has been since the health and safety in employment amendment act 2002
Did you also know that you four, not the company are liable for the breech and could be subject to a period of two years in jail and or a $500,000 fine?
And yes Iain I have had it confirmed THAT I am right in my thinking, by one of your own people Iain,
Bryan Abraham
Do you know he is Iain? He is the National Health and Safety officer.Do you know who for Iain?
Telecom
Iain responses
Are you threatening us
No I said I am advising you, that you are in breech of the act nothing more nothing less
I then lost it I am afraid all the crap I had been putting up with spilled out I let rip and gave them their pedigree
I said I could die tomorrow from all this stress and you lot wouldn’t even send flowers
Iain the smug little prick said yes we would
With that said I could feel myself losing it,so I left the room
I went up to my desk and emailed Bryans letter to Iain
I went to the lunch room a got a cold coke and stood staring out the window taking deep breaths to calm my self down.
I still remember thinking that if the window was open, I should jump
My mind and body where heavily fatigued from all the stress.
I wasnt thinking rationally
I then went back to the meeting
I apologized immediately for the bad behavior and offered them a easy out
I said lets put all this crap behind us.
Accept mistakes have been made on both sides, accept that lessons had been learnt, wipe both slates clean and leave it at that.
Their response continue with the meeting almost as if nothing different had transpired
Yeap my cause was lost
The meeting concluded they noticed that I was extremely agitated.
yeah go figure and advised that I should take the rest of the day off
I thought stuff it I will
So I went back to my desk packed up and went to my car
As I was driving home I started to get extreme pain in my chest.
I though shit I am not having another heart attack am I
I resolved there and then the job wasn’t going to kill me.
In hindsight I should have gone back to work and collapsed dead in Shaun’s arms in front of all the staff
I said to myself if the pain still exists as I pass my doctors on the way home I going to pull in
Which I duly did
I explained I had chest pain that was quite severe I was immediately rushed into the surgery placed on a heart monitor and oxygen for an hour
I explained what had just occurred to the doctor I said I didn’t know if it was a stress reaction or a heart attack
At the end of the hour they sent me home with advice to take the next few days off so I did
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Remember this in my last blog.
Paul, Telecom’s immediate and ongoing expectations relating to this are as follows:
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you are aware of, and comply with, any and all of Telecom’s Policies and Guidelines. These are all available on the Exchange intranet site.
You are to review these on a regular basis.
Now if that is the expectation required of me it is also the expectation that management should adhere to as well.
Don’t you think.
No management will decide which set of rules they will obey.
Remember earlier I indicated that I thought I was being micro-managed.
Well in a meeting on 23 of June2009 Shaun and Michelle admitted in front of me and Peter Cooper Davies that "yes I was being micro-managed "
So what transpired next has the appearance of breaching yet again. telecoms polices, if not the law.
This will something for the lawyers.
So what did they do, lets join the dots
Micro-management is a recognized form of workplace bullying.
Work place bullying is a stressor,stress in the work place is a hazard and has been since the health and safety in employment amendment act 2002.
They should have known this.
If they where doing their jobs correctly in all facets.
As they required of me.
But no its one set of rules for the goose and another set of rules for the gander
Confident they would be called to task for it inside their little clique they in the most part paid lip service to it but didn’t really act on it.
So to confirm my thoughts I sought the advice of Bryan Abraham National Health and Safety Manager for Telecom New Zealand
From: Paul Evans-Mcleod
Sent: Saturday, 11 July 2009 10:33 a.m.
To: Bryan Abraham
Subject: some clarity please
Bryan I would like to keep this communication confidential between us for the moment
Over the past 71/2 months I have found my self in constant dispute with my managers , recently an admission was made by the managers that I was being micro managed, which from the outset I was well aware of
Micro management is one of more recognisable aspects of workplace bullying; workplace bully is a recognised stressor in the work place
Management has two letters from my doctor to indicate that the on going and continued stress is impacting heavily on my mental health, emotional health and my marriage
Management do recognise I am under a great deal of stress and have advised me to and I have up taken EAP to help to cope but the micro managing continues
That being said do I have a case with regards below to file a complaint to OSH
Warm regards
Paul
His reply
From: Bryan Abraham
Sent: Monday, 13 July 2009 12:22 p.m.
To: Paul Evans-Mcleod
Subject: RE: some clarity please
Hi Paul,
As discussed, DoL (OSH) do very much identify workplace stress as a workplace hazard - they have a number of publications on the subject on their Internet site. http://www.osh.dol.govt.nz/
Bullying - along with numerous other situations (i.e. workload / hours of work etc.) can be stressors. These are documented in the attached DoL (OSH) publication - bullying specifically mentioned on page 24 - line 4 , and page 54 - para 7.3 (3).
http://www...search.dol.govt.nz/index.html?q=healthy+work+stress+guide&qwithin%5B%5D=All+sites&SearchSubmit=Search
Now remember that Bridgette Dalzell and possibly others are reading my emails
Here is a chance for them to back out of the nonsense that’s going on any pretext and stop but no action was forthcoming
So on the 140709 I attended yet another meeting present, were myself Iain from HR and Shaun, Peter.
Yet again Shaun when thru my misdeeds with regard to my behaviors on queue which was mostly in the form of you only declared ownership in 7 of 9 calls you only read the pop up in 6 of 9 calls blah blah etc
I had my head in my hands leaning across the top of another chair quite honestly I was passed it all my health was in tatters as was my marriage and I had had just about enough of the bullshit
So I let them go on a bit and then interrupted them quietly
Do you people recognize that you are breaking the law?
What?
I said do you people recognize that you are breaking the law?
What do you mean?
Lets see if you idiots (by this time I had little patience for them and their behavior and certainly no respect)
So I stepped them thru my thinking
Micro-management is a recognized form of workplace bullying. Work place bullying is a stressor;stress in the work place is a hazard and has been since the health and safety in employment amendment act 2002
Did you also know that you four, not the company are liable for the breech and could be subject to a period of two years in jail and or a $500,000 fine?
And yes Iain I have had it confirmed THAT I am right in my thinking, by one of your own people Iain,
Bryan Abraham
Do you know he is Iain? He is the National Health and Safety officer.Do you know who for Iain?
Telecom
Iain responses
Are you threatening us
No I said I am advising you, that you are in breech of the act nothing more nothing less
I then lost it I am afraid all the crap I had been putting up with spilled out I let rip and gave them their pedigree
I said I could die tomorrow from all this stress and you lot wouldn’t even send flowers
Iain the smug little prick said yes we would
With that said I could feel myself losing it,so I left the room
I went up to my desk and emailed Bryans letter to Iain
I went to the lunch room a got a cold coke and stood staring out the window taking deep breaths to calm my self down.
I still remember thinking that if the window was open, I should jump
My mind and body where heavily fatigued from all the stress.
I wasnt thinking rationally
I then went back to the meeting
I apologized immediately for the bad behavior and offered them a easy out
I said lets put all this crap behind us.
Accept mistakes have been made on both sides, accept that lessons had been learnt, wipe both slates clean and leave it at that.
Their response continue with the meeting almost as if nothing different had transpired
Yeap my cause was lost
The meeting concluded they noticed that I was extremely agitated.
yeah go figure and advised that I should take the rest of the day off
I thought stuff it I will
So I went back to my desk packed up and went to my car
As I was driving home I started to get extreme pain in my chest.
I though shit I am not having another heart attack am I
I resolved there and then the job wasn’t going to kill me.
In hindsight I should have gone back to work and collapsed dead in Shaun’s arms in front of all the staff
I said to myself if the pain still exists as I pass my doctors on the way home I going to pull in
Which I duly did
I explained I had chest pain that was quite severe I was immediately rushed into the surgery placed on a heart monitor and oxygen for an hour
I explained what had just occurred to the doctor I said I didn’t know if it was a stress reaction or a heart attack
At the end of the hour they sent me home with advice to take the next few days off so I did
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
we will act fairly and with honesty at all times
This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
More lies
These people can’t even keep track of their own lies, what they are saying or what they are doing .
Considering the fact that they aren’t paying to much attention to answering my questions I’m not surprised
Paul Evans-McLeod – Likely outcome Meeting
Level 5 Meeting Room 1 pm 25 May 09
P E-M: Yes. I have been exonerated around the issue of the credit.
Where is the complaint from the customer?
This customer has a track record of raising the same issues.
There was this complaint and two others. I was frustrated. The T stick case was finished and I was exonerated. The IHC case was difficult - and was resolved.
SH: With regard to these calls – they came across to the customer as condescending and rude.
P E-M: I was trying to resolve the matter
P C-D: Is there a recording of this call? It was an unfortunate experience – this was their perspective as against an employee of 30 years standing
S H: No there is no recording of this phone conversation
Now just hold on a minute
Refer back to my last blog
Escalations – 2 customers laid complaints regarding your customer service
Escalations throughout the period 02/02 and 03/02 related to poor tone and manner described by the customer as “condescending and rude”.
On call recorded 17/03 you were recorded saying to your customer “will go back to the original premise where you be quiet and you listen, Ok? All I ask of you is yes or no answer and not a story OK?” (Play call in nice)
Play indicates a recording, does it not?
I mean really wtf is going on here.
They have it in one meeting,
then deny knowledge of it in another
About now I thinking, these people must think I’m an idiot, but because they have the power to do as they please, ethics are thrown out the window.
There is no one to hold them accountable
Little do they know that they will be soon be held accountable.
Written warning Excepts
Regarding the Operational Separation undertakings significant training has been provided and several safe guards put in place to ensure that you are aware of your obligations. All staff has an individual duty of care to ensure our obligations are met. We do not accept that you could reasonable disregard our expectations in light of the several safeguards that are in place to support you in meeting these obligations. We do not accept that these could be considered “same old, same old”.
It is Telecoms role to assign the level of risk; regardless of whether you personally deem it to be relevant.
What this about
Operational separation is a serious issue with serious consequences
This bullocking was about an mf service order I short leaded because a customer had requested some urgency about it.
Yeap this is how desperate the were, happy to bag me for anything.
Yes it was wrong but an mf service order. wtf.
I genuinely wasn’t aware mf service orders came under the operational separation umbrella
Shaun commented in a performance improvement plan 11 th of May, in answer to the above breach that I had “attended operational separation training when it was rolled out, he also at the time completed the skill check “
What was wrong.
The fact that most of my team passed the skill check for operational separation training as me, by the process of elimination and by every one assisting each other.
I commented on this, to both the trainer and Shaun but my concerns where brushed aside.
How irresponsible is that?
I passed on my own merits,as with my vast background in telecom, I was one of the few on site that actually understood the physical requirements involved in the reality of achieving this process.
Still, when I have seen team members, just about asleep during some training sessions with their heads in their crossed arms, on the desk, not actively engaging in the training, you can’t really expect much else.
God help them all one day, someone is really going to blow it,it will cost them a fortune in fines. It is now their problem.
Xt mobile training
Well all that were involved in that, know the outcry that there was in the last training session, just before it was released.
Well, in our session, normally I’m the vocal one, asking questions.
In this one, everybody was disgusted that no one's managers,had the balls to get us more help.
We all perceived,rightly so, that the release, for those of us at the coal face, was going to be a night mare.
As it proved to be
I, like others, made my feelings known.
We all jumped on the band wagon.
However I’m the only one that was dobbed in,by Owen,to Michelle, for my comments.
How fair is that?
According to Owen, my comments caused “a chain reaction within the team, undermining our new call plans, and the team’s perception of their value “refer performance improvement plan 16 June.
I knew it was Owen, as I caught sight of him in Michelle’s office
So I got slammed with this for my troubles, as a written warning
Paul, Telecom’s immediate and ongoing expectations relating to this are as follows:
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you are aware of, and comply with, any and all of Telecom’s Policies and Guidelines. These are all available on the Exchange intranet site.
You are to review these on a regular basis.
(The irony here , is that it applies to them as well, so they are aware of the expectations, and in the future will be advised of the same responsibility expectations)
This is the trap.
They have you by the throat, with nobody can do this, not even themselves.
Thru out the whole affair, one set of guidelines they have put aside, is adhering to telecoms code of ethics.
So if I’m out the door for a failure in this area, so should Michelle, Bridgette, Iain and Shaun,but they are not are they.
So its one rule for them and one different rule for them
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you fully participate positively in all training sessions, team meetings and associated events; you are to support your colleagues, your team leader and the trainer.
I am perfectly happy to participate positively, which is why, I’m one of the few awake,asking questions when I perceive failures in the presentation.
Again I saved the company $3.8 million when I persisted in reporting the APPCO debacle.
The managers, and team leaders knew there were problems, but didn’t have the balls to take marketing on.
• It is your responsibility not to take actions which would bring the company into disrepute. You are accountable for your actions both with your customers and colleagues in whatever capacity in which you are representing Telecom.
Yeah right.
It is ok to screw (in the sexual sense) your colleagues in company time. Nothing will be done about it .
Turn up to work "Pissed" We will look after you..
Its ok to be bias and dishonest in your disciplinary process, to do it on some ones instructions.
Not as a fair and balanced performance issue that rates you across the whole site.
• To address areas for improvement identified in your weekly performance improvement plan
• Meet all expectations in the Operation Separation Compliance and Code of Conduct.
• Yeap right.
Is passing the skill test by the process of elimination and a group effort supported by the team leader and trainers complicity,an honest approach
• Adhere to the Call Structure - including but not limited to – asking a series of open questions to ensure that you have adequately understood the customer’s situation and provided the necessary solution.
• On every call you will strictly adhere to all aspects of the Telecom call structure, you are to use professional language at all times.
On the last two, we will do our best,but as per Terri Wilson survey,no one on site is achieving same.
But I’m one of few to have a written warning about it.
wtf go figure
I wont bore you with much more.
We could go on and on showing and explaining each of thier mistakes but I will leave that for the lawyers (Its all documented)
I think you have the picture they where after me a using every tool in their arsenal
telecom fair and balanced.
yeah right
I was getting rail roaded out the door, by any means possible.
What great managers we have people
Now I have allowed you a peek behind the scenes you see the reality of thier actions showing their duplicity again in thier own words they have been found wanting
Pretty dispicable behaviour, but its going to get worse.
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
More lies
These people can’t even keep track of their own lies, what they are saying or what they are doing .
Considering the fact that they aren’t paying to much attention to answering my questions I’m not surprised
Paul Evans-McLeod – Likely outcome Meeting
Level 5 Meeting Room 1 pm 25 May 09
P E-M: Yes. I have been exonerated around the issue of the credit.
Where is the complaint from the customer?
This customer has a track record of raising the same issues.
There was this complaint and two others. I was frustrated. The T stick case was finished and I was exonerated. The IHC case was difficult - and was resolved.
SH: With regard to these calls – they came across to the customer as condescending and rude.
P E-M: I was trying to resolve the matter
P C-D: Is there a recording of this call? It was an unfortunate experience – this was their perspective as against an employee of 30 years standing
S H: No there is no recording of this phone conversation
Now just hold on a minute
Refer back to my last blog
Escalations – 2 customers laid complaints regarding your customer service
Escalations throughout the period 02/02 and 03/02 related to poor tone and manner described by the customer as “condescending and rude”.
On call recorded 17/03 you were recorded saying to your customer “will go back to the original premise where you be quiet and you listen, Ok? All I ask of you is yes or no answer and not a story OK?” (Play call in nice)
Play indicates a recording, does it not?
I mean really wtf is going on here.
They have it in one meeting,
then deny knowledge of it in another
About now I thinking, these people must think I’m an idiot, but because they have the power to do as they please, ethics are thrown out the window.
There is no one to hold them accountable
Little do they know that they will be soon be held accountable.
Written warning Excepts
Regarding the Operational Separation undertakings significant training has been provided and several safe guards put in place to ensure that you are aware of your obligations. All staff has an individual duty of care to ensure our obligations are met. We do not accept that you could reasonable disregard our expectations in light of the several safeguards that are in place to support you in meeting these obligations. We do not accept that these could be considered “same old, same old”.
It is Telecoms role to assign the level of risk; regardless of whether you personally deem it to be relevant.
What this about
Operational separation is a serious issue with serious consequences
This bullocking was about an mf service order I short leaded because a customer had requested some urgency about it.
Yeap this is how desperate the were, happy to bag me for anything.
Yes it was wrong but an mf service order. wtf.
I genuinely wasn’t aware mf service orders came under the operational separation umbrella
Shaun commented in a performance improvement plan 11 th of May, in answer to the above breach that I had “attended operational separation training when it was rolled out, he also at the time completed the skill check “
What was wrong.
The fact that most of my team passed the skill check for operational separation training as me, by the process of elimination and by every one assisting each other.
I commented on this, to both the trainer and Shaun but my concerns where brushed aside.
How irresponsible is that?
I passed on my own merits,as with my vast background in telecom, I was one of the few on site that actually understood the physical requirements involved in the reality of achieving this process.
Still, when I have seen team members, just about asleep during some training sessions with their heads in their crossed arms, on the desk, not actively engaging in the training, you can’t really expect much else.
God help them all one day, someone is really going to blow it,it will cost them a fortune in fines. It is now their problem.
Xt mobile training
Well all that were involved in that, know the outcry that there was in the last training session, just before it was released.
Well, in our session, normally I’m the vocal one, asking questions.
In this one, everybody was disgusted that no one's managers,had the balls to get us more help.
We all perceived,rightly so, that the release, for those of us at the coal face, was going to be a night mare.
As it proved to be
I, like others, made my feelings known.
We all jumped on the band wagon.
However I’m the only one that was dobbed in,by Owen,to Michelle, for my comments.
How fair is that?
According to Owen, my comments caused “a chain reaction within the team, undermining our new call plans, and the team’s perception of their value “refer performance improvement plan 16 June.
I knew it was Owen, as I caught sight of him in Michelle’s office
So I got slammed with this for my troubles, as a written warning
Paul, Telecom’s immediate and ongoing expectations relating to this are as follows:
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you are aware of, and comply with, any and all of Telecom’s Policies and Guidelines. These are all available on the Exchange intranet site.
You are to review these on a regular basis.
(The irony here , is that it applies to them as well, so they are aware of the expectations, and in the future will be advised of the same responsibility expectations)
This is the trap.
They have you by the throat, with nobody can do this, not even themselves.
Thru out the whole affair, one set of guidelines they have put aside, is adhering to telecoms code of ethics.
So if I’m out the door for a failure in this area, so should Michelle, Bridgette, Iain and Shaun,but they are not are they.
So its one rule for them and one different rule for them
• It is your responsibility to ensure that you fully participate positively in all training sessions, team meetings and associated events; you are to support your colleagues, your team leader and the trainer.
I am perfectly happy to participate positively, which is why, I’m one of the few awake,asking questions when I perceive failures in the presentation.
Again I saved the company $3.8 million when I persisted in reporting the APPCO debacle.
The managers, and team leaders knew there were problems, but didn’t have the balls to take marketing on.
• It is your responsibility not to take actions which would bring the company into disrepute. You are accountable for your actions both with your customers and colleagues in whatever capacity in which you are representing Telecom.
Yeah right.
It is ok to screw (in the sexual sense) your colleagues in company time. Nothing will be done about it .
Turn up to work "Pissed" We will look after you..
Its ok to be bias and dishonest in your disciplinary process, to do it on some ones instructions.
Not as a fair and balanced performance issue that rates you across the whole site.
• To address areas for improvement identified in your weekly performance improvement plan
• Meet all expectations in the Operation Separation Compliance and Code of Conduct.
• Yeap right.
Is passing the skill test by the process of elimination and a group effort supported by the team leader and trainers complicity,an honest approach
• Adhere to the Call Structure - including but not limited to – asking a series of open questions to ensure that you have adequately understood the customer’s situation and provided the necessary solution.
• On every call you will strictly adhere to all aspects of the Telecom call structure, you are to use professional language at all times.
On the last two, we will do our best,but as per Terri Wilson survey,no one on site is achieving same.
But I’m one of few to have a written warning about it.
wtf go figure
I wont bore you with much more.
We could go on and on showing and explaining each of thier mistakes but I will leave that for the lawyers (Its all documented)
I think you have the picture they where after me a using every tool in their arsenal
telecom fair and balanced.
yeah right
I was getting rail roaded out the door, by any means possible.
What great managers we have people
Now I have allowed you a peek behind the scenes you see the reality of thier actions showing their duplicity again in thier own words they have been found wanting
Pretty dispicable behaviour, but its going to get worse.
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Thursday, January 7, 2010
let play spot the lie
This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
Excepts taken from meeting notes 240409
Those present Shaun Hoult. Peter Cooper Davis, Michelle Young, Myself
As part of this process I was brought to task for two customer complaints
One involved a call from a young adult who was quite severely intellectually handicapped, her speech was mumbled, she was distraught and upset .
She was very hard to understand and each time I tried to explain what was happening ,because of her distress and her urgency to get the problem sorted out , she keep talking over me.
Each time I tried to calm her down she would start over again
Having had experience with people with this disability, I knew you had to treat them firmly ,so I said to her “can you just be quiet for a while , I will ask you questions to see if I have the problem sorted , you just answer yes or no spoken firmly but nicely
I gained agreement and started again being very patient with her
I asked a question and she started again oh dear
Most reps would have flagged it by now
This is what transpired in their words
Escalations – 2 customers laid complaint regarding your customer service
Escalations throughout the period 02/02 and 03/02 related to poor tone and manner described by the customer as “condescending and rude”. On call recorded 17/03 you were recorded saying to your customer “will go back to the original premise where you be quiet and you listen, Ok? All I ask of you is yes or no answer and not a story OK?” (Play call in nice)
How could these comments make your customer feel?
Reassured she knew I was focusing on her, got her back to the point, otherwise she could go on and on. I had a polite manner, trying to get to the bottom of it, be firm and direct, yes or no, took time. I have no issue with IHC, I know how to deal with them and show compassion.
Peter – To be fair that customer was challenging, whilst the company could enforce and deal with it in an appropriate manner, she would have been happy with that conversation, she had a better understanding and understood what was being asked.
Michelle – Paul how could those comments have been construed by our customer?
Paul – I have worked with intellectually challenged people, she would have felt reassured. It could have been construed as patronising or condescending, I’m not that kind of person. I listen to the customers and to be blunt they seem happy.
Now remembering that telecoms code of ethics states in part that they should be honest, they have just lied to me both are complicit in doing it
Note Michelle’s comment, not really interested ,just noting things down but not really engaging in what I had to say
Michelle, you dummy
the young lass is intellectually handicapped she lacks the ability to construe anything.
you have just telegraphed your intent with regards to what is going to happen to me
Now I realize that I’m not going to get a fair hearing in any of this, it could not have been made clearer, the whole thing is a farce.
I resign myself to answering the questions the best that I can.
I think to myself how the hell can these people have any credibility when they are deliberately setting me up and lying to me
I am happy to be judged amongst my peers and will admit that I, m not 100% perfect on every call but for the most part I am doing my best
Having been in Shaun’s team for approximately eight years I perceive he has abandoned me aquesient to Michelles or Brigettes orders to save his own job.
Shaun you have been found wanting, after all the help I have given you over the years , to say I was disappointed would be a understatement, work politics who needs it when it requires you to act without honour.
So I left the meeting pretty pissed off, as you can well imagine his people are our managers and are supposed to operate honestly.
yeah right
Nothing to do now but waited for the outcome of the meeting
I end up with a written warning 300509
Written Warning– Failure to meet defined KRA performance standards required in your role as a Customer Service Representative and compliance with Telecom Policies.
One thing the hypocrites accuse me of is my actions
“It also brings into doubt the necessary relationship of trust and confidence between Telecom and you. “
Consideration of your explanations
Having carefully considered your explanations we do not accept that your explanations satisfactorily justify your actions for the following reasons;
I do not accept that language that could be construed as patronising or condescending is appropriate in your attempts to control a call or were you deem the customer to be intellectually challenged. All customers have the right to expect a polite and professional service standard.
I thinking ,you idiots, you lie to me, you are not carefully considering any of my explanations. your actions and your body language indicate there is little or no respect shown in Michelle’s eyes or actions she reads like an open book
The entire procedure , indicates to me that you are following, a predetermined path, with a predetermined outcome and you are fast becoming irritated by my presence ( they tried but they just couldn’t hide it )as I’m not making it easy for you because I’m frustrating you at every turn
You people should have a written warning for failure to meet telecoms code of ethics with regard to dealing with people honestly
you bunch of hypercritics
These are the actions of people that we should look up to ,they have been found woefully wanting their own words and actions have caught them out
They have been caught acting dishonestly and with premeditation as to the outcome ,why because neither of them have the personal integrity that Bridgette Dalzell stated confidentially that she had in them
Acting dishonestly thus taints the whole process ,if they fail to act with integrity here, what hope is there for the integrity of the whole process?
My cause is lost it’s a just a witch hunt done at either Bridgette’s request or Micheles, either way I’m out the door it just a matter of how long I can delay the process
So back to the complaint and the young lady. what happened ?
She was in trouble, because she was staying at her uncle’s place and had been ringing her boyfriend in another neighboring toll area.
Many times a day this had run up a large bill .
Her uncle was not happy and had given her a sound telling off, so she was doubly upset, one for the telling off as people with this disability are very sensitive and two because she wouldn’t be allowed to call her boyfriend .
I got it all sorted out by adding "talk it up nearest neighbor "
Now have you spotted the lie yet
they stated in writing that two customers had laid complaints one of them
described by the customer as “condescending and rude”.
Well here it is
There is no way this intellectually handicapped girl had the intelligence to make a complaint I’m not denigrating her it just a statement of fact her disability just doesn’t allow her thought process’s to work that way
There is no way she would use a word like “condescending” she is not capable of understanding the concept let alone the meaning.
Someone please show me her COMPLAINT letter
yeah right
This statement alerted me to a number of things
1 someone (Shaun) had been instructed to spend a lot of time going over, every call on every day to find any mistakes I had made and use them to beat me up with
2 if the above was happening it was proof I was being micromanaged
3 someone was determined to have me out the door they where operating from a position of power so they held all the cards
So I leave it for a while thinking I will seek confirmation at a later date
On June 15 09 at 4.15 Shaun challenged me regarding three calls that I had made the previous day where I had missed ownership statements on all.
Further proof that he was spending all day looking for my mistakes
I challenged Shaun re what was happening I ask him how long this nonsense was going to go on.
His answer was I had to be 100 per cent on all calls all the time
I was angry, as no one in the site was achieving that impossible target!!!!
I informed him I considered it work place bullying by micromanagement disguised as performance management
He was a little bit pissed off with me as I was getting aggressive in my tone and I was doing in front of the team, his fault, he should have taken me into an office to talk to me
His defenses where down so I asked about the complaint made by the intellectually handicapped girl
He finally admitted it was an “observation”
So why didn’t he just state that at the outset?
Why the need to put it forward as a complaint?
why lie?
The team heard his omission...
So the agenda they had in regards to me, was finally confirmed all be it in a oblique way
I drove home a little bit gutted by the shallow hopeless people I had thought had more moral fiber than they were showing.
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Excepts taken from meeting notes 240409
Those present Shaun Hoult. Peter Cooper Davis, Michelle Young, Myself
As part of this process I was brought to task for two customer complaints
One involved a call from a young adult who was quite severely intellectually handicapped, her speech was mumbled, she was distraught and upset .
She was very hard to understand and each time I tried to explain what was happening ,because of her distress and her urgency to get the problem sorted out , she keep talking over me.
Each time I tried to calm her down she would start over again
Having had experience with people with this disability, I knew you had to treat them firmly ,so I said to her “can you just be quiet for a while , I will ask you questions to see if I have the problem sorted , you just answer yes or no spoken firmly but nicely
I gained agreement and started again being very patient with her
I asked a question and she started again oh dear
Most reps would have flagged it by now
This is what transpired in their words
Escalations – 2 customers laid complaint regarding your customer service
Escalations throughout the period 02/02 and 03/02 related to poor tone and manner described by the customer as “condescending and rude”. On call recorded 17/03 you were recorded saying to your customer “will go back to the original premise where you be quiet and you listen, Ok? All I ask of you is yes or no answer and not a story OK?” (Play call in nice)
How could these comments make your customer feel?
Reassured she knew I was focusing on her, got her back to the point, otherwise she could go on and on. I had a polite manner, trying to get to the bottom of it, be firm and direct, yes or no, took time. I have no issue with IHC, I know how to deal with them and show compassion.
Peter – To be fair that customer was challenging, whilst the company could enforce and deal with it in an appropriate manner, she would have been happy with that conversation, she had a better understanding and understood what was being asked.
Michelle – Paul how could those comments have been construed by our customer?
Paul – I have worked with intellectually challenged people, she would have felt reassured. It could have been construed as patronising or condescending, I’m not that kind of person. I listen to the customers and to be blunt they seem happy.
Now remembering that telecoms code of ethics states in part that they should be honest, they have just lied to me both are complicit in doing it
Note Michelle’s comment, not really interested ,just noting things down but not really engaging in what I had to say
Michelle, you dummy
the young lass is intellectually handicapped she lacks the ability to construe anything.
you have just telegraphed your intent with regards to what is going to happen to me
Now I realize that I’m not going to get a fair hearing in any of this, it could not have been made clearer, the whole thing is a farce.
I resign myself to answering the questions the best that I can.
I think to myself how the hell can these people have any credibility when they are deliberately setting me up and lying to me
I am happy to be judged amongst my peers and will admit that I, m not 100% perfect on every call but for the most part I am doing my best
Having been in Shaun’s team for approximately eight years I perceive he has abandoned me aquesient to Michelles or Brigettes orders to save his own job.
Shaun you have been found wanting, after all the help I have given you over the years , to say I was disappointed would be a understatement, work politics who needs it when it requires you to act without honour.
So I left the meeting pretty pissed off, as you can well imagine his people are our managers and are supposed to operate honestly.
yeah right
Nothing to do now but waited for the outcome of the meeting
I end up with a written warning 300509
Written Warning– Failure to meet defined KRA performance standards required in your role as a Customer Service Representative and compliance with Telecom Policies.
One thing the hypocrites accuse me of is my actions
“It also brings into doubt the necessary relationship of trust and confidence between Telecom and you. “
Consideration of your explanations
Having carefully considered your explanations we do not accept that your explanations satisfactorily justify your actions for the following reasons;
I do not accept that language that could be construed as patronising or condescending is appropriate in your attempts to control a call or were you deem the customer to be intellectually challenged. All customers have the right to expect a polite and professional service standard.
I thinking ,you idiots, you lie to me, you are not carefully considering any of my explanations. your actions and your body language indicate there is little or no respect shown in Michelle’s eyes or actions she reads like an open book
The entire procedure , indicates to me that you are following, a predetermined path, with a predetermined outcome and you are fast becoming irritated by my presence ( they tried but they just couldn’t hide it )as I’m not making it easy for you because I’m frustrating you at every turn
You people should have a written warning for failure to meet telecoms code of ethics with regard to dealing with people honestly
you bunch of hypercritics
These are the actions of people that we should look up to ,they have been found woefully wanting their own words and actions have caught them out
They have been caught acting dishonestly and with premeditation as to the outcome ,why because neither of them have the personal integrity that Bridgette Dalzell stated confidentially that she had in them
Acting dishonestly thus taints the whole process ,if they fail to act with integrity here, what hope is there for the integrity of the whole process?
My cause is lost it’s a just a witch hunt done at either Bridgette’s request or Micheles, either way I’m out the door it just a matter of how long I can delay the process
So back to the complaint and the young lady. what happened ?
She was in trouble, because she was staying at her uncle’s place and had been ringing her boyfriend in another neighboring toll area.
Many times a day this had run up a large bill .
Her uncle was not happy and had given her a sound telling off, so she was doubly upset, one for the telling off as people with this disability are very sensitive and two because she wouldn’t be allowed to call her boyfriend .
I got it all sorted out by adding "talk it up nearest neighbor "
Now have you spotted the lie yet
they stated in writing that two customers had laid complaints one of them
described by the customer as “condescending and rude”.
Well here it is
There is no way this intellectually handicapped girl had the intelligence to make a complaint I’m not denigrating her it just a statement of fact her disability just doesn’t allow her thought process’s to work that way
There is no way she would use a word like “condescending” she is not capable of understanding the concept let alone the meaning.
Someone please show me her COMPLAINT letter
yeah right
This statement alerted me to a number of things
1 someone (Shaun) had been instructed to spend a lot of time going over, every call on every day to find any mistakes I had made and use them to beat me up with
2 if the above was happening it was proof I was being micromanaged
3 someone was determined to have me out the door they where operating from a position of power so they held all the cards
So I leave it for a while thinking I will seek confirmation at a later date
On June 15 09 at 4.15 Shaun challenged me regarding three calls that I had made the previous day where I had missed ownership statements on all.
Further proof that he was spending all day looking for my mistakes
I challenged Shaun re what was happening I ask him how long this nonsense was going to go on.
His answer was I had to be 100 per cent on all calls all the time
I was angry, as no one in the site was achieving that impossible target!!!!
I informed him I considered it work place bullying by micromanagement disguised as performance management
He was a little bit pissed off with me as I was getting aggressive in my tone and I was doing in front of the team, his fault, he should have taken me into an office to talk to me
His defenses where down so I asked about the complaint made by the intellectually handicapped girl
He finally admitted it was an “observation”
So why didn’t he just state that at the outset?
Why the need to put it forward as a complaint?
why lie?
The team heard his omission...
So the agenda they had in regards to me, was finally confirmed all be it in a oblique way
I drove home a little bit gutted by the shallow hopeless people I had thought had more moral fiber than they were showing.
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
my fundamental beliefs.
This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
lets re-affirm what our values are and what leadership really is because we are not seeing much of it here. Are we?
If liberty means anything, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear
George Orwell.
Life has meaning, only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the gods...so let us celebrate the struggle... Swahili Warrior Song
Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you......Jean-Paul Sartre.
Society is not judged by people who are standing in the sunshine but by how it treats people in the shadows.
Vision and culture are personal values put into action...Block.
Leadership and management are about modeling and reinforcing ethical behaviors.
The four cornerstones are vision, reality, courage and ethics.
We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend...Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is testimony that is needed.A human being, to live a meaningful life--- must at critical moments testify publicly as to fundamental beliefs
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
lets re-affirm what our values are and what leadership really is because we are not seeing much of it here. Are we?
If liberty means anything, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear
George Orwell.
Life has meaning, only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the gods...so let us celebrate the struggle... Swahili Warrior Song
Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you......Jean-Paul Sartre.
Society is not judged by people who are standing in the sunshine but by how it treats people in the shadows.
Vision and culture are personal values put into action...Block.
Leadership and management are about modeling and reinforcing ethical behaviors.
The four cornerstones are vision, reality, courage and ethics.
We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend...Robert Louis Stevenson.
It is testimony that is needed.A human being, to live a meaningful life--- must at critical moments testify publicly as to fundamental beliefs
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
meetings meetings meetings notes notes notes
This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
I was then, called in to meetings on a regular basis.
I employed the services of my union rep Peter Cooper-Davies of the EPMU as my support person.
In the following days and months (in total approximately eight months)every little minor misstep I made was held against me, every opinion I expressed was misconstrued and noted, every effort was made to paint me in the worst possible light.
You may be surprised who jumped on the band wagon to dob me in but than again you may not be ) but its not a lie, it is all in the performance improvement plans they gave to me on a regular basis, and "oh dear" Shaun signed them as a true and correct record as he did with the notes of the meeting .after the first few I declined to sign)
As the days passed I became a pariah on site, slowly and surely being ostracized, treated like I had leprosy, at least it felt like that.
It was almost like everybody was acting under instructions; I wasn’t surprised I had seen this tactic used before
The older ones among us would remember Chick Tarawea, the sales coach from many many years ago, suddenly she lost her job, was put back on the queue and left shortly afterwards.
Why?
Well, the operations manager at the time called a meeting of all the team managers, asked for anything they had on Chick’s work performance that would throw her in a bad light, they complied .Chick was up against it.
Most, but not all the team leaders, dobbed her in, she was badly outgunned and out numbered. Consequently, eventually she left, which was what the operations manager required.
How do I know this ,remember this, I have kept a daily dairy for the last 12 years
The same operations manager spread a rumor that I was having an affair with one of my team.
Why?
Because on every break she had, I joined her, so tongues started to wag, encouraged by this manager
What she didn’t know, was this lady that I was helping, was being sexually stalked by a lesbian on the site, who wouldn’t take no for a answer. I was protecting her from the unwelcome advances.
This person had already forced her self physically on another staff member in the women’s toilets and got a smack in the ear for her troubles.
Only two people, that remain to this day on site, know about this as they where involved in the process of sorting it out and having this person's job terminated
How do I know?
This lady came to me first for help and I assisted her in writing the complaint letter to senior management on site, to get it resolved and kept her “safe” during her working hours.
Back to my story.
There was one meeting in which I walked in to be greeted by my site manager, immediate manager and a tape recorder place strategically on the table.
An attempt to intimidate me.
Multiple meetings went on with monotonous regularity for month after month, copious notes were taken, yet each time not one of my explanations were listened to properly, nor acknowledged as to its validity, this despite subsequent emails and company informer bulletins exonerating my actions in regards to some of the my work practices.
It was painfully obvious I was being patronized whilst being quietly walked down a predetermined path with a predetermined outcome.
Nothing I said in my defense was given the courtesy of through consideration to its merits, in fact they were becoming so blaze about it, that their answer to my rebuttal on occasion to their questions, where already in place, in writing, as was obviously the outcome of that meeting.( before I had even answered their question)
My union rep was utterly amazed at their pedantic behavior and attitude as nothing concrete was done to address the issues.
With a sensible manner I informed them that some of the issues they were penalizing me for , none of the site of approximately 180 people were doing correctly, that Terry Wilson another site manager had monitored the entire site and nobody was performing their duties to the same exacting standards I was being held accountable to how fair is that)
I asked only to be judged among my peers I felt that if I was for the chop at least a third of the site should be following me, all this was negated by them quoting the privacy act (convenient)
So on and on and on it went, week in week out ,the stress started to impact on my health and my marriage ,letters for my doctor proved ineffectual (more about that latter) and fell on deaf ears.
I was offered EAP help and this was a god send, as it gave me somewhere to express my frustration. It just went on and on with my health getting progressively worse, as was my marriage.
My counselor and my doctor where worried, what would occur first another heart attack or a mental breakdown and the advice was "Get out of the environment."
Careful analysis of notes taken by my Union rep Vs the documents being presented to me , indicate all three Bridgette Dalzell Michelle Young and Shaun Hoult lied to me..
Iain Galloway was lying by omission by leaving out details in the minutes of the meetings that presented Telecom negatively, verified with a comparison of his notes and minutes against those notes my union rep took.
I was asked what I thought would be a suitable punishment for my misdeeds
My reply “well when a site manager is caught “in flagrante delicto (The Latin term is sometimes used colloquially as a euphemism for a couple being caught in the act of sexual intercourse)on site, on company time with a team leader.
Both being married but not to each other and all and sundry know about it.
AND NOTHING IS DONE
that... a verbal warning should suffice.
Even after being advised of the names involved and the witness who saw, nothing was mentioned in of it in their notes of the meeting.
to quote the code of ethics.
Behaviors
Under take their duties in accordance with telecom values
Conduct them selves in away that demonstrates their honesty is beyond question and will not commit behavior that has the potential to bring telecoms image into disrepute
Iain you are the HR person involved explain why this wasn’t addressed and not included in the minutes (lying by omission)
Thats right.
It was a approximately two hour meeting and the minutes of same only went to a page and half.
Was the rest precluded under the official information act?.
Yeah right.
Plus having observed Shaun the team leader ,accompanied by another team leader , assist a third team leader who had turned up completely off their face, drunk for work to return that person home,and yet again nothing was done.
I felt . Wrongly it turned out, my indiscretions paled in comparison
Yet they remain in work.
I’m the one on the dole.
How fair is that I ask.
Surely both the act and the assistance given and then keeping it hidden from senior management is dishonest and unethical
to quote the code of ethics
Behaviors
Under take their duties in accordance with telecom values.
Conduct them selves in away that demonstrates their honesty is beyond question and will not commit behavior that has the potential to bring telecoms image into disrepute an>
About now you are thinking, bloody hell what is going on here.
How can Paul say these things.
Will he not get into trouble.
Well all the information is in writing as stated before in their own hand, thus covered by their own meeting notes,their own tapes of the meeting .my notes of the meetings plus the notes taken by my union rep
Unfortunately their lack of effort in addressing some of the questions myself and my advocate raised which, if the process was fair should have been answered as well is also noted.
Remember the quote in a earlier blog
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
I was then, called in to meetings on a regular basis.
I employed the services of my union rep Peter Cooper-Davies of the EPMU as my support person.
In the following days and months (in total approximately eight months)every little minor misstep I made was held against me, every opinion I expressed was misconstrued and noted, every effort was made to paint me in the worst possible light.
You may be surprised who jumped on the band wagon to dob me in but than again you may not be ) but its not a lie, it is all in the performance improvement plans they gave to me on a regular basis, and "oh dear" Shaun signed them as a true and correct record as he did with the notes of the meeting .after the first few I declined to sign)
As the days passed I became a pariah on site, slowly and surely being ostracized, treated like I had leprosy, at least it felt like that.
It was almost like everybody was acting under instructions; I wasn’t surprised I had seen this tactic used before
The older ones among us would remember Chick Tarawea, the sales coach from many many years ago, suddenly she lost her job, was put back on the queue and left shortly afterwards.
Why?
Well, the operations manager at the time called a meeting of all the team managers, asked for anything they had on Chick’s work performance that would throw her in a bad light, they complied .Chick was up against it.
Most, but not all the team leaders, dobbed her in, she was badly outgunned and out numbered. Consequently, eventually she left, which was what the operations manager required.
How do I know this ,remember this, I have kept a daily dairy for the last 12 years
The same operations manager spread a rumor that I was having an affair with one of my team.
Why?
Because on every break she had, I joined her, so tongues started to wag, encouraged by this manager
What she didn’t know, was this lady that I was helping, was being sexually stalked by a lesbian on the site, who wouldn’t take no for a answer. I was protecting her from the unwelcome advances.
This person had already forced her self physically on another staff member in the women’s toilets and got a smack in the ear for her troubles.
Only two people, that remain to this day on site, know about this as they where involved in the process of sorting it out and having this person's job terminated
How do I know?
This lady came to me first for help and I assisted her in writing the complaint letter to senior management on site, to get it resolved and kept her “safe” during her working hours.
Back to my story.
There was one meeting in which I walked in to be greeted by my site manager, immediate manager and a tape recorder place strategically on the table.
An attempt to intimidate me.
Multiple meetings went on with monotonous regularity for month after month, copious notes were taken, yet each time not one of my explanations were listened to properly, nor acknowledged as to its validity, this despite subsequent emails and company informer bulletins exonerating my actions in regards to some of the my work practices.
It was painfully obvious I was being patronized whilst being quietly walked down a predetermined path with a predetermined outcome.
Nothing I said in my defense was given the courtesy of through consideration to its merits, in fact they were becoming so blaze about it, that their answer to my rebuttal on occasion to their questions, where already in place, in writing, as was obviously the outcome of that meeting.( before I had even answered their question)
My union rep was utterly amazed at their pedantic behavior and attitude as nothing concrete was done to address the issues.
With a sensible manner I informed them that some of the issues they were penalizing me for , none of the site of approximately 180 people were doing correctly, that Terry Wilson another site manager had monitored the entire site and nobody was performing their duties to the same exacting standards I was being held accountable to how fair is that)
I asked only to be judged among my peers I felt that if I was for the chop at least a third of the site should be following me, all this was negated by them quoting the privacy act (convenient)
So on and on and on it went, week in week out ,the stress started to impact on my health and my marriage ,letters for my doctor proved ineffectual (more about that latter) and fell on deaf ears.
I was offered EAP help and this was a god send, as it gave me somewhere to express my frustration. It just went on and on with my health getting progressively worse, as was my marriage.
My counselor and my doctor where worried, what would occur first another heart attack or a mental breakdown and the advice was "Get out of the environment."
Careful analysis of notes taken by my Union rep Vs the documents being presented to me , indicate all three Bridgette Dalzell Michelle Young and Shaun Hoult lied to me..
Iain Galloway was lying by omission by leaving out details in the minutes of the meetings that presented Telecom negatively, verified with a comparison of his notes and minutes against those notes my union rep took.
I was asked what I thought would be a suitable punishment for my misdeeds
My reply “well when a site manager is caught “in flagrante delicto (The Latin term is sometimes used colloquially as a euphemism for a couple being caught in the act of sexual intercourse)on site, on company time with a team leader.
Both being married but not to each other and all and sundry know about it.
AND NOTHING IS DONE
that... a verbal warning should suffice.
Even after being advised of the names involved and the witness who saw, nothing was mentioned in of it in their notes of the meeting.
to quote the code of ethics.
Behaviors
Under take their duties in accordance with telecom values
Conduct them selves in away that demonstrates their honesty is beyond question and will not commit behavior that has the potential to bring telecoms image into disrepute
Iain you are the HR person involved explain why this wasn’t addressed and not included in the minutes (lying by omission)
Thats right.
It was a approximately two hour meeting and the minutes of same only went to a page and half.
Was the rest precluded under the official information act?.
Yeah right.
Plus having observed Shaun the team leader ,accompanied by another team leader , assist a third team leader who had turned up completely off their face, drunk for work to return that person home,and yet again nothing was done.
I felt . Wrongly it turned out, my indiscretions paled in comparison
Yet they remain in work.
I’m the one on the dole.
How fair is that I ask.
Surely both the act and the assistance given and then keeping it hidden from senior management is dishonest and unethical
to quote the code of ethics
Behaviors
Under take their duties in accordance with telecom values.
Conduct them selves in away that demonstrates their honesty is beyond question and will not commit behavior that has the potential to bring telecoms image into disrepute an>
About now you are thinking, bloody hell what is going on here.
How can Paul say these things.
Will he not get into trouble.
Well all the information is in writing as stated before in their own hand, thus covered by their own meeting notes,their own tapes of the meeting .my notes of the meetings plus the notes taken by my union rep
Unfortunately their lack of effort in addressing some of the questions myself and my advocate raised which, if the process was fair should have been answered as well is also noted.
Remember the quote in a earlier blog
You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say
Martin Luther
Well they are responsible for not acting oh bugger!!!!!!!!!
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Monday, January 4, 2010
the hammer drops
This blog has been in play for some months to gain the full story go to left hand side blog archive go to bottom post and read upwards
Approximately two or three weeks later on a Sunday evening (I worked a rotating shift of four ten hour days Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday) at approximately 7 p.m. I was called into a meeting with my Team Manager, Shaun HouIt to be presented with a retrospective of my performance over the previous four or so months in minutiae.
I was admonished for such pedantic things as being in a work email for eight seconds as I was talking to a customer.
I jokingly quipped "so I can multitask, that’s a asset isn’t it" I got a frosty reply .
I thought these people can’t be serious; this is micro management in the extreme, widely recognized as form of work place bullying. WTF
I informed Shaun in no uncertain terms, and with some colorful language of my concerns, as I was quite frankly, incensed.
I then left the office and the site telling Shaun I was in no state to be talking to customers.
I took the next two days off.
I expressed in an email to Bridgette Dalzell,
that I felt I was being ambushed
and that at most I had 90 days left in the company.
her reply
Bridgette DalzellSubject: RE: Investigation Meeting
Sent Tuesday, 14 April 2009 4:04 p.m.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for advising me that you are well enough to work on your Doctors advice.
I have advised Peter Cooper-Davies today that Telecom will be sending you another invite to an investigation meeting only.
You requested certain documentation from Telecom last week, reattached is the email from Michelle Young with the information that you required.
It is your personal opinion only that this meeting is a prelude to an ambush Paul. I hold Michelle and Shaun's ethics in high regard and I am fully confident that the correct process has been followed so far.
yeah right bridgette
Latter in this sad story I will show you that her confidence was ill founded and her ethics will come under scrutiny too.
So it was perfectly clear now what their intent was.
To come down this heavy, it had to be at Bridgette's wish passed on to Michelle
or Michelle's wish supported by Bridgette,
since Shaun had inadvertently mentioned THAT he was just following instructions.
ALSO Bridgette had expressed in an open forum of team leaders, “that no way is redundancy going to be an option” This I had/have been made aware of.
So was I being set up?
Ask yourself ?
I felt on the drive home that my time with the company was going to be severely limited, so what now ?
I set my mind to ways to trap them in their lies and behaviors, to show what was really going on, and thus extend my time in work
To be treated this way after 39 years was not justified and plain unfair ,these are people that should be helping me but they lacked the guts or the moral fortitude
Remember all that bullshit "we are all one team" have integrity, honesty, '' be spirited' grounded, blah blah and management were the people shoving it down our throats.
Here IS the reality.
What do you think of their actions now?
Well all, as you can see, when push came to shove, they stumbled at the first hurdle. Surprise, Surprise
So eventually I managed to last another eight and half months, had some perverse pleasure misdirecting them, probing them, getting angry with them, getting frustrated with them, frustrating them in return at times it was heart breaking and just plain sad.
What a sick place to work when they treat people like this.
I lost respect for the whole place and most of the people in it
As it became known what was happening ,very very few showed me any concern with regard to what was transpiring.
The ones that did earned my eternal gratitude and respect they showed their true character
The rest to me, are just shallow hollow individuals, not even worth my pity
I wonder what life values,they pass on to their kids
Hope their kids enjoyed their Christmas presents.
Did mummy or daddy tell you they earn their thirty shekels that brought them, unfairly sacking people. Doesn't matter, lets sing a lovely Christmas song, and we will all go to church so you know the real meaning of Christmas
Did you know that right from the outset their demeanor , their attitude ,their failure to answer our/my questions indicated to me, they where just following a process on someone instructions.
And as you will see later, with the complicit help of HR, pushing me down a path to the exit door
All the while I was watching and waiting for them to make mistakes.
Which they did.
Did any of you people from work .that are reading this blog, know that they read your personal emails.
Yeap they do including the ones you send home.
I asked my mate Nigel to pretend to be my lawyer which he was happy to assist with
I get an email from Bridgette asking for confirmation that he "Nigel" is my lawyer
refer below
Now she may have a legal right to read the email, I do not believe in law, she has the right to act on it, that's illegal.
She has definitely no right in law to act on private information, that to all intents and purposes is between my self and my "lawyer", even thought he was my pretend "lawyer"
In her mind by asking for confirmation that, he "Nigel " was my lawyer, she is of the perception, at that point in time that he is an actual lawyer
So going back to telecoms code of ethics do you think she should retain her job.
From: Bridgette Dalzell [mailto:Bridgette.Dalzell@telecom.co.nz] Sent: Monday, 6 April 2009 11:26 a.m.To: Paul McleodCc: nigel dick; Bridgette DalzellSubject: RE: breach of verbal agreement
Thanks for coming back to me so quickly Paul.
Can you please confirm that your lawyer is Nigel Dick and can you please confirm the correct contact details.
Now this is not a good look is it?
Not her best effort I am afraid.
Did you know that in one of their "bootcamps", they where instructed to get rid of the wheat from the chaff, so to speak by any means possible and they would get the full backing of telecom.
I have no issue with that, however it should be done on performance, we should all be rated against our peers.
If it can shown that my performance was lacking "against my peers" than that would be fair, but no I didn't even get that, they used "privacy issues" to prevent it.
I'm not the best on site anymore, but I'm not the worst by a long shot. About 30-50 people should have followed me out the door if they had used fair criteria
In life you don't get justice you get the law, in Telecom I once thought it was a goldmine but I ended up with the shaft
Yeap, we are all one team yeah right .
This is telecom fair and balanced yeah right.
I also did lots of other things which annoyed the hell of some people but they achieved the purpose I set out to achieve.
Sorry to be obtuse, but if you look at the whole picture, you may just perceive the actual intent.
Tell you what if someone guesses it I will confirm it.
You can gather from the tone of this email my "disgust meter" was fill to overflowing.
Go figure.
Would yours be?
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Approximately two or three weeks later on a Sunday evening (I worked a rotating shift of four ten hour days Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday) at approximately 7 p.m. I was called into a meeting with my Team Manager, Shaun HouIt to be presented with a retrospective of my performance over the previous four or so months in minutiae.
I was admonished for such pedantic things as being in a work email for eight seconds as I was talking to a customer.
I jokingly quipped "so I can multitask, that’s a asset isn’t it" I got a frosty reply .
I thought these people can’t be serious; this is micro management in the extreme, widely recognized as form of work place bullying. WTF
I informed Shaun in no uncertain terms, and with some colorful language of my concerns, as I was quite frankly, incensed.
I then left the office and the site telling Shaun I was in no state to be talking to customers.
I took the next two days off.
I expressed in an email to Bridgette Dalzell,
that I felt I was being ambushed
and that at most I had 90 days left in the company.
her reply
Bridgette DalzellSubject: RE: Investigation Meeting
Sent Tuesday, 14 April 2009 4:04 p.m.
Hi Paul,
Thank you for advising me that you are well enough to work on your Doctors advice.
I have advised Peter Cooper-Davies today that Telecom will be sending you another invite to an investigation meeting only.
You requested certain documentation from Telecom last week, reattached is the email from Michelle Young with the information that you required.
It is your personal opinion only that this meeting is a prelude to an ambush Paul. I hold Michelle and Shaun's ethics in high regard and I am fully confident that the correct process has been followed so far.
yeah right bridgette
Latter in this sad story I will show you that her confidence was ill founded and her ethics will come under scrutiny too.
So it was perfectly clear now what their intent was.
To come down this heavy, it had to be at Bridgette's wish passed on to Michelle
or Michelle's wish supported by Bridgette,
since Shaun had inadvertently mentioned THAT he was just following instructions.
ALSO Bridgette had expressed in an open forum of team leaders, “that no way is redundancy going to be an option” This I had/have been made aware of.
So was I being set up?
Ask yourself ?
I felt on the drive home that my time with the company was going to be severely limited, so what now ?
I set my mind to ways to trap them in their lies and behaviors, to show what was really going on, and thus extend my time in work
To be treated this way after 39 years was not justified and plain unfair ,these are people that should be helping me but they lacked the guts or the moral fortitude
Remember all that bullshit "we are all one team" have integrity, honesty, '' be spirited' grounded, blah blah and management were the people shoving it down our throats.
Here IS the reality.
What do you think of their actions now?
Well all, as you can see, when push came to shove, they stumbled at the first hurdle. Surprise, Surprise
So eventually I managed to last another eight and half months, had some perverse pleasure misdirecting them, probing them, getting angry with them, getting frustrated with them, frustrating them in return at times it was heart breaking and just plain sad.
What a sick place to work when they treat people like this.
I lost respect for the whole place and most of the people in it
As it became known what was happening ,very very few showed me any concern with regard to what was transpiring.
The ones that did earned my eternal gratitude and respect they showed their true character
The rest to me, are just shallow hollow individuals, not even worth my pity
I wonder what life values,they pass on to their kids
Hope their kids enjoyed their Christmas presents.
Did mummy or daddy tell you they earn their thirty shekels that brought them, unfairly sacking people. Doesn't matter, lets sing a lovely Christmas song, and we will all go to church so you know the real meaning of Christmas
Did you know that right from the outset their demeanor , their attitude ,their failure to answer our/my questions indicated to me, they where just following a process on someone instructions.
And as you will see later, with the complicit help of HR, pushing me down a path to the exit door
All the while I was watching and waiting for them to make mistakes.
Which they did.
Did any of you people from work .that are reading this blog, know that they read your personal emails.
Yeap they do including the ones you send home.
I asked my mate Nigel to pretend to be my lawyer which he was happy to assist with
I get an email from Bridgette asking for confirmation that he "Nigel" is my lawyer
refer below
Now she may have a legal right to read the email, I do not believe in law, she has the right to act on it, that's illegal.
She has definitely no right in law to act on private information, that to all intents and purposes is between my self and my "lawyer", even thought he was my pretend "lawyer"
In her mind by asking for confirmation that, he "Nigel " was my lawyer, she is of the perception, at that point in time that he is an actual lawyer
So going back to telecoms code of ethics do you think she should retain her job.
From: Bridgette Dalzell [mailto:Bridgette.Dalzell@telecom.co.nz] Sent: Monday, 6 April 2009 11:26 a.m.To: Paul McleodCc: nigel dick; Bridgette DalzellSubject: RE: breach of verbal agreement
Thanks for coming back to me so quickly Paul.
Can you please confirm that your lawyer is Nigel Dick and can you please confirm the correct contact details.
Now this is not a good look is it?
Not her best effort I am afraid.
Did you know that in one of their "bootcamps", they where instructed to get rid of the wheat from the chaff, so to speak by any means possible and they would get the full backing of telecom.
I have no issue with that, however it should be done on performance, we should all be rated against our peers.
If it can shown that my performance was lacking "against my peers" than that would be fair, but no I didn't even get that, they used "privacy issues" to prevent it.
I'm not the best on site anymore, but I'm not the worst by a long shot. About 30-50 people should have followed me out the door if they had used fair criteria
In life you don't get justice you get the law, in Telecom I once thought it was a goldmine but I ended up with the shaft
Yeap, we are all one team yeah right .
This is telecom fair and balanced yeah right.
I also did lots of other things which annoyed the hell of some people but they achieved the purpose I set out to achieve.
Sorry to be obtuse, but if you look at the whole picture, you may just perceive the actual intent.
Tell you what if someone guesses it I will confirm it.
You can gather from the tone of this email my "disgust meter" was fill to overflowing.
Go figure.
Would yours be?
Current telecom participants
Bridgette Dalzell current head of outsourced customer care at telecom New Zealand whom is Michelle Young's direct report at time of incident
Michelle Young call center manager Hamilton call center, whom is Shaun Hoults direct report at time of incidents
Shaun Hoult team manager weekend team Sat-Tues Hamilton
Iain Galloway HR representative spends a lot of time in Hamilton
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)