Saying No to the Culture of Death

There are many of my own stories that I could tell about what goes on in the workplace. However, I want to concentrate upon one aspect of workplace harrassment and issues that I believe needs to be given attention - the managerial endorsement of the spreading of lies about fellow workers. I have already told a part of Julie's story and I must respect her privacy but not revealing all of the details surrounding her final weeks at this international company. Instead I want to concentrate upon the actions of one of the players who had a role in what happened to Julie as well as to myself.

This is one of the few men who rates as far as harrassment in the workplace is concerned. His role with Julie's demise is that he was the one who spread lies about her and these lies were repeated in a way that saw her in hot water - although the allegation was withdrawn because of lack of evidence (and a witness who could prove that what had been written down was a lie). The nature of the allegation involved a claim that Julie was drinking before she came to work and this sleazy male went as far as calling her an alcoholic to other members of the workplace.

He also features in my own story because he helped Goldie to concoct the story that there had been an argument and that I had been arguing with her when we were being noisy. This story was nothing more than a bare-faced lie, and it was sufficient for me to make the decision to throw in the towel. I did not have to leave, and I was not told to leave by my supervisors, howver, I alone made that decision, based upon my own gut feeling about the situation that had arisen and about the other personalities involved. There was no point cotinuining in that workplace if there was going to be an escalation of trouble. My gut told me that Goldie was out to make mischief because she was desperate to ensure that she had work in the coming months. I was a rival to Goldie because my particular role was being funded in a different way from her own, and therefore I was a direct threat to Goldie's future prospects with the company. Personally, I think that they are stupid for not seeing through this woman, and not being able to see that she really did not have a clue about what she was doing.

On the day of the noise, I was expecting some facsimiles from a man in Queensland. I received one page only of the fax, and yet another fax went missing. Mr Sleazy Paparazzi was delivering the faxes and when I asked where were the other pages, he behaved very rudely towards me. He did not dare do the same thing on the Tuesday when my supervisor was present. His failure to deliver the faxes was enough to cause me some delays in finalising the account I had been trying so hard to reconcile. I had to reconcile one of his accounts, and he had given wrong information to his supervisor about something to do with that account. I was getting nowhere because noone seemed to understand that his information had been wrong in the first place - more blame against me!! He had interfered to the point that I had refused to contact the customer for myself because he had been asking for copies of the claims. The sleazebag informed his supervisor that the reconciliation was only at 70% when it had been completed. He had done this deliberately in order to get me into trouble.

Without a doubt, it was this sleazy Paparazzi who had been the one who had given the false story about an argument that had not taken place. It is his style to bear false witness against others, and this brings me to the point that I want to make about this particular aspect of workplace relations. Backstabbers are normally liars who are out to cause harm to their fellow workers.

Goldie rates a special mention as a backstabber and a cheat, and yes her cheating backstabbing behaviour puts her in the same category as Jennifer, Robin and Mr Sleazy Paparazzi.

The kind of people that I have described so far are people who have earned their place as a part of the culture of death. I see death as being about more than the taking of a life. In some of the instances that I have outlined, these culprits have killed the reputation of another person. The besmirching of another person's reputation has the effect of killing a part of that person in the eyes of others, and so they have all been guilty of destroying something that is precious to another human being. People need to think about the harm that they cause others as a result of their behaviour. I have outlined situations where others have lost their jobs because of the spread of lies. Sometimes I have been the one to lose a position as a result of the lie of another person, or the lie has cost me work with an agency (I will detail this story at some other time).  I know how soul destroying these lies can be and how reputations can be destroyed as the result of the lies of others. It is the destruction of that reputation that puts these workplace liars on a par with those who are in the abortion industry, or who take the lives of others via euthanasia.