Saying No to the Culture of Death

The workplace can be a very unfriendly place. Even if one is employed on a permanent basis, if the workmates have decided to isolate a fellow worker, then that worker has nothing to look forward to as each working day passes. All it takes for an employee to feel isolated is for a group of co-workers to gang up together and make a conscious decision to isolate that person. This isolation means that a deliberate policy is put in place to totally ignore that person, and to act as if the person is not even present.

I experienced this treatment, (known as being sent into Coventry) when I was on an assignment with the company Tyco Healthcare. My co-workers were female and they were all younger than myself. At least three of them were under the age of 30 when this treatment took place. I took on the assignment in the May and by the end of June I had learned that my father was dangerously ill after suffering another stroke. At first my co-workers were very supportive. I had to rush from Sydney to Melbourne to see my father for what proved to be the last time. My employer was extremely good about the fact that I made some interstate phone calls as I was trying to keep in touch with my family because of the situation. In the meantime I was working hard cleaning up the portion of the ledger that was assigned to me, and helping in the task of reducing the debtor days. We succeeded in reducing the long term debtor days over the period that I continued in my assignment at Tyco Healthcare. It was in this assignment that I first met up with Duncan, another temporary worker. He was brought on board to help clear up the mess in one of the major clients of the company. He is a very nice young man and it was a pleasure to cross his path again in my last assignment. Yet meeting him again served as a reminder of the horrible things that occurred after he left Tyco.

In nearly every workplace there are multiple personality types. One of the most horrible types to deal with would have to be the women who are passive-aggressive by nature. They cannot help themselves when it comes to hitting out at their co-workers, and usually it is for no coherent reason. This was also the case at Tyco Healthcare. There was one woman who happened to be quite aggressive towards her co-workers. I was not the first person in that workplace to complain about her behaviour. She used to take pot shots at the woman who was my supervisor, the reason was almost always something to do with our eating habits. I avoided her catty little remarks as much as possible, and I made sure that I stayed out of her way so that I did not have to put up with her cattiness. However, she managed to get her digs in at every opportunity that presented itself to her. I cannot remember all of the occasions where she had goes at me about one thing or another, and even when I was not guilty of doing something the wrong way she would insinuate that it was my fault. This happened on a regular basis over the use of the printer. I would hear her making comments in which she was blaming me for whatever reason, and I had not even sent anything to the printer! I have no doubt that her jealousy was aroused when my husband chose to send me flowers at work for my birthday. She had a failed relationship and I often find that when other women have failed marital relationships they tend to take out their frustrations upon the women who have stable long term marital relationships. To cut the narrative short, there is one particular incident that led to the beginning of the end of her permanent employment with Tyco Healthcare and I was involved in that incident. I believe that it was this incident that led to what happened after I returned from attending my father's funeral in Melbourne.

As I have stated this woman took every opportunity to have a go at me, and on this particular occasion, I had gotten up from my work station, moved a few feet and then stopped so that I could let my supervisor know that I was heading for the next floor to see the claims clerk. I had no idea that this woman was behind me until I felt her fingers in my back, followed by her accusing voice, as she then roughly pushed me aside. As she went past, I called her a "bitch" underneath my breath. The woman had very sensitive hearing because she heard my comment, even though the others did not hear what I had said. The next thing I know she was making threats against me. I ignored her and then went on my way. However, I also put in a complaint over what had taken place because I was getting fed up with her behaviour, and I went to see the human resource manager about what had taken place. She accused me of deliberately blocking her path. This was not true. That was her imagination at work. On the other hand, a second and even nastier incident then took place, because she in fact stalked me. It was a terrible feeling and again it revived memories of fear that I had experienced at a much younger age. Needless to say I was very spooked over the incident and so I complained about the stalking. The fear that had arisen within me over being stalked was very real, even though I knew that I was not going to be in a physically risky situation.

There were other co-workers who had either seen what had taken place with the stalking or had witnessed the first incident. Amongst these workers there were the ones who had experienced first hand this woman's nastiness. They were completely sympathetic to my predicament. However, my closest co-workers took a different attitude over the events that had taken place. Within this group there is one young woman who stands out because of her greediness. When she joined the team she seemed to have only one thing on her mind - a bonus for making her personal targets. This particular woman seemed to think that she could call the customers on my ledger and take over the work that I had been doing in building up good relationships and getting their co-operation. There were times when I found that the customers had been unco-operative with the supervisor but had responded positively towards myself - perhaps this was yet another reason to excite jealousy towards myself. Anyway, the permanent employees began to gang up together, and they started to behave in a surreptious manner. I was left out of the discussions, and I was left out of the work activities because I was the temporary employee and the temps were not allowed to share in certain social benefits in that company. The bosses had been looking for an opportunity to give the nasty woman the flick. They found a way of being able to make her redundant. My complaint had only added more fuel to the fire, yet what happened next is that after she was made redundant I found that I was being completely isolated by my own team.

As I remember the situation, the woman had been particularly friendly with the one who was supposed to be doing the allocations of the payments. I had a sneaking suspicion that allocations relating to my ledger were being left to last. I was informed that this person did not have a nasty bone in her body, yet I could see for myself that she was easily led. I also knew, from talking with one of the other personnel, that this woman had received warnings about her tardiness and her work in general. She was no doubt upset with me because her ledger had been handed over to others because of rules relating to what people were allowed to do in certain roles. Her friendship with the nasty one meant that she and the nasty one were always talking. After the incident that I have described above the nasty woman began to gather with the women in my own team and they would often talk. She was given notice of her redundancy about the same time that my father passed away and I had to take time off to travel to Melbourne. Instead of finding empathy over the death of my father I found myself being isolated.

Was I imagining this situation? I could almost say yes except for an incident that occurred one morning before I got into the physical workplace. The Irish girl in the group used to always greet me before work when we saw each other at the local garage where I used to stop and have my cappucinno. Then one morning, as I looked up from my seat near the window and saw her approaching, she turned her head away so as to avoid the contact. That really hurt because I had no idea why I was being treated in that way.

From then on the hurt and isolation continued up until the day I was finally able to walk out of the door for one last time. There were other co-workers who were so really nice towards me, and I have a fondness for the young Asian girls who very shyly gave me a Christmas card. My team workers gave me nothing. They made sure that they took a holiday break over Christmas whilst I did not have such a luxury. These women were incredibly selfish when it came to the crunch. Their behaviour was pathetic to say the least. I do know that their behaviour had an impact upon me, and I was left in a rather emotional state. Towards the end I did not care about the work that I was doing and I took liberties that I would not normally take, for my frustration was such that I just did not care. For the first time I actually made sure that I destroyed some of my records. My feelings towards them were so heightened that I just did not care at all.

I am telling this story the way that I remembered the events. I have no reason to be proud of my behaviour. However, I was under a lot of stress because I was being treated like shit. I was at the point of being an emotional wreck at the point when I finally walked out the door for the last time. I cared about my customers. I cared about making sure that the money came in, but that was not enough for the company, and it only seemed to excite the jealousy of these younger women who really have a lot to learn about life.  This was the first workplace where I found myself being purposefully excluded from any form of Christmas activity. I was not invited to the Christmas luncheon, and in fact I was told at the very last moment that I was to stay and answer the phones. On another occasion I was expected to remain at work whilst the others were allowed to go home since they were attending a Christmas function that was being held in Sydney harbour. I had a migraine headache and could not stay until the end of the day because of the pain. As a temp I lose pay every time I have to go home early or have time off. There is a very heavy cost involved.

I have tried to do my best to represent the events in a fair manner for I am prepared to accept that my own behaviour was not always that of miss goody two shoes. I do know that my story is not unique, and I do know that when people are being placed in such an odious situation that the end result can be a lot worse. I wonder how many who have been in my situation have thought about permanently ending the heartache that is endured when one is being isolated by co-workers. That form of isolation can be soul destroying for someone who is very sensitive. I came through the ordeal because I was consulting with a psychologist. Without his help I doubt that I could even write about what happened when I was working at Tyco Healthcare.

At this point I shall reveal the previous stalking situations for they are what had really spooked me during the stalking episode at Tyco Healthcare. The first time I was probably about 13 years old, and I had been delivery pamphlets for my father. A man from a European background stopped to ask for directions. I gave him the directions and then he wanted me to get into his car. I said no and walked away. However, he began to follow me until I ran into the front yard of a friend's house. That incident was very scarey. The incident was repeated one evening on the way home from the football - but it was a slightly different scenario and nowhere near as scarey since I was in with a large crowd of people. Then at the age of 21 I as working at a factory within walking distance from home. Again a man from a European background began to take an unhealthy interest. He was a married man yet that did not stop him from stalking me. That is why I was so spooked when that very nasty woman chose to stalk me at work. I reacted because of those awakened feelings.