Bullying and harassment laws are needed in the workplace. We need protected classes to be expanded to include workplace free of BULLYING AND HARASSMENT and RIGHT TO WORK in BULLYING AND HARASSMENT-FREE-ENVIRONMENT and MENTAL and PHYSICAL Health disorders as a result of BULLYING & HARASSMENT
November 16, 2019
Dear Jakob,
After much thought, I have a better answer to the question you asked me and that is, “if I believed I was discriminated against”, and I had answered yes. And here is why:
Initially, my first 6-9 months of employment, I do not believe there was discrimination – just mean girls who liked to bully and harass people because they could get away with it. After my “break down” in November of 2017, things settled down and seemed to be much better at Capitol Clinic, my “home” clinic because I was a float; with the exception of Urgent Care with a few select women, and that was occasionally when I covered on the weekends. A few months later, I decided to make some changes and wanted to move to Waunakee and go back to school for my RN degree, so I decided to transfer to the East Clinic as my home clinic in the float position.
That transfer took place in April 2018 and the first incident occurred in May 2018. I would not consider that first incident discriminatory but rather a Charge RN who oftentimes reacted instead of getting all the facts first and then would overreact. Charge RN had emailed “concerns” to my manager, an the RN in charge of over-seeing the training for RN’s and MA’s. So, I learned about these “concerns” when RN brought them to my attention and had to go over several items. I had asked to see the email and noticed on there that there was mention of me leaving early too. There is an email that outlines all of these “concerns”. A couple of days after I emailed both my manager, RN, and trainer, and BCC Diector, my manager’s boss, the three of us met last minute by chance.
It was after this meeting that things changed. I did become emotional towards the end of the meeting and shared how I feared that what just ended at Capitol Clinic was going to start all over again here at East and I became anxious and worried. All those emotions came flooding back and RN said that East wasn’t anything like Capitol. In my email after the meeting, I had stated to the manager how East Clinic was like Capitol Clinic in two respects: Lack of teamwork and negative attitudes. It was after this, that I feel the discrimination started.
I recall asking my manager if she felt confident about me when I had applied to the Manager’s training program, which I got an interview based on my written answers to their questions but did not get in. When I asked for feedback, I got no response from the Chief officer of HR who conducted the interview, and he was the one that they consulted with about me after he had retired, instead of the new Chief Officer of HR. This was in July, after that episode with RN in May. At the end of 2018, there were trainings that we had to go attend and it was extended to the audience (employees) that if anyone was interested in training that class in the future, just email them. Again, I had asked my manager if she felt confident in me to give me the authorization to participate, and I got no answer. I had this feeling inside ever since that happened in May that my manager felt like I was not stable and didn’t see my strengths because all she could see was an emotional person over something that was “trivial” in her mind. In the meeting she tried to show understanding by saying that I am worried if I hear that they have concerns about me and assured me that it just meant that I didn’t get the training and needed more training. And said that I was not in trouble. Her comments in the meeting as well as months later clearly told me that she didn’t understand what I was saying at all, even though Nettie seemed to, because she realized she was wrong in her email to me that stated I need to read charts more thoroughly and mychart messages. Nettie misunderstood and thought my order was because of a phone call I received and not a mychart message. My guess is that someone noticed it and complained about me and didn’t thoroughly understand the situation before complaining about me.
Because this very first issue was never really understood by her, I always felt like it was not resolved and she had this impression of me that I was emotional, unstable, always focused on other people when I “thought” I was in trouble, and she later made it clear that she was also upset when she found out I bcc’d Director, her boss, too. Then my anxiety really grew starting in July when I attempted to talk to her and express my concerns about me feeling like her confidence, belief, opinion of me had changed. The first time we met, she avoided the question. The second time we met, she annoyingly asked, “What do you want?”. Then I repeated my question about me wanting to know if what I am sensing from her is accurate or not. That is when she brought up how I emailed and called the director and sending many emails and how I just come to her inappropriately to meet. That I just expect her to meet at that moment.
Many things have just added up over time. It became so much that I have been unable to articulate in a way that I could see the underlying problem. As I pondered your question, I realized what my underlying concerns were and why I feel this is discrimination:
1) How she felt about my mental health, emotional state and stability because those were my deep down fears that came out in the form of me asking her if she felt confident in me and my abilities (like a child getting affirmation or validation from their teacher) when talking to her about manager training and the training for teaching class to peers and coworkers.
2) Getting anxious by sending emails to explain myself so she would understand or email her so I can get all of my thoughts down so I didn’t sound like I was all over the place because of my emotions and having “so much” (pretty much everything since May that has happened) to work through because it has never been accurately understood, resolved, or she had her mind made up of what the true situation was, for instance, me complaining of others when someone has complained about me and me not being able to accept it, and her impression of me, which she told me every time we met. When in reality, it was that my side was never heard, and if it was, never understood or believed because of their preconceived ideas about me stemming from that first incident in May 2018, as well as what other people shared with her, the social worker, who talked with me in November of 2017 or my Primary Care physician regarding my mental health. I have circumstantial evidence that would suggest this.
3) Asking to talk to certain people when I would see them because the anxiety was so great to be understood and heard and for my work ethics and performance and skills to be recognized and to be seen for who I really am – not what is perceived, or heard from others, understand why I have been so worried and anxious and that I have been living a nightmare at work and never going to wake up from it.
4) There were many references to calling the EAP to talk to someone.
5) I was told to never email the Chief Officer, was previously the Director who was Promoted, again in April 2019.
6) My manager told me at our last meeting in December 2018 that she showed my emails to Kristen and asked if she has ever seen anything like this before, to which Kristen apparently said no.
7) In our last meeting in December, the meeting I had asked for with her to discuss my concerns at De Forest Clinic and what I had shared that I witnessed of others that were inappropriate, unprofessional, and a situation involving one of the Charge RN’s practicing out of her scope of practice. At the end of the meeting, she said she was going to have to talk to HR and I said why, what have I done? Terry said she just wanted to know how to handle all of this. And then a month later I was written up twice in one week. Terry also asked me to think about why do I need to worry about everyone else, why do I need to email everyone such long emails, and why am I having such a hard time at work with others, and we would meet again in January to discuss it. That never happened because she was out on medical leave. I was dumbfounded by this and didn’t understand why she would need to contact HR on how to handle what and why she asked me to think about those three things when that was so far from the real problem.
8) I had asked to meet with the chief officer when she stopped out at De Forest. I was sharing with her the problems in more detail (same situations that I had emailed her about) and at the end of the conversation, she made a comment about how I am already improving with communication. That was based on my email I sent to them in January and probably from my manager after we would meet. I said I don’t have a problem with communication when I am not anxious or worried about how I say something.
9) I explained how I cannot talk to my manager. I told her I feel anxious and nervous and watch every word I say, which probably appeared as though I was all over the place. Chief officer did say that I should be able to communicate with my manager and that when she returns, my manager and I should meet with HR to get whatever is going on resolved. That never happened. When I was talking to Chief officer in January 2019 about my write up and after I sent my email to her and the CEO, she rudely made the comment about how I was “all over the place”. Again, in April of 2019 she made the same comment and laughed as she said it how I was “all over the place”. I responded with me telling her that I was just trying to answer her questions, and then she seems annoyed and angry.
After that first meeting in May with my manager, our meetings were never the same in how she looked at me, responded to me, and never wanted to hear anything I had to say. That was evident in the fact that she never brought up my concerns that I wanted to discuss or asked me about my observations. I was just dumbfounded how she would start off the meeting by not acknowledging my concerns at all, just turning it on me and how I have the problem.
These comments tell me that they were trying to make me out or felt I sounded crazy and was unstable and incoherent.
I hope this is helpful.
Sincerely,
Tonya Bumpke