Sonja's Dublin

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Bullying goes on

Now the bullying continues. Today I am writing it all down in English because it appears that I need to keep a record of what is happening to me.
I received a phone call this morning from Kevin. He informed me that the newspaper logo I sourced for him was not good enough. Well, or rather, it didn't fit his specifications but "well, we can use it but it is not very good, it's not 600dpi." So what did he ring me for then? Only to complain to me, to make me look bad and to show me that he knows everything better. Well, if he had answered to my e-mail before he left for his holidays, then he could have told me what he wanted. But he didn't even inform ANYBODY in the company that he was going on a holiday. So I had to ask Tom for the specifications. And Tom was happy with the logo we had sent from Austria. So what the fuck????????????????
Back to the conversation on the phone. Kevin then proceeded to tell me that he needed a print out and word count of the articles which we want to put into the magazine. I pointed out to him that that system had been changed and that it had been agreed with Philip that editors were now just saving articles in the new folders and there were to be no print-outs or mock-ups. Kevin refused to hear that and insisted he wanted a print out. I said to him, that I thought the new system enabled him to download and see everything that the editors saved into the folders and therefore he could print it out and count the words on his machine. He didn't really reply to that but said again that it would be better if I printed it out. I then pointed out that Philip had told us otherwise and I took orders from the production manager. Kevin said that the role of production manager had gone out of the window. So I asked "Well, who is making these decisions then?" Kevin replied "I am because I am working on it." To which I replied that he was not the one who told ME how to do MY job. I said I regarded the managing editor as the one who is making such decisions and therefore I was going to talk to Philip about it. Kevin had put on a very authoritative tone, claiming that he is making these decisions.
Well, before I had time to go downstairs to ask Philip, Kevin was already there in the office. He had obviously run in immediately after putting the phone down. Pilar observed the phone conversation down there, there were Marie, Esther and Meike upstairs witnessing my end of the conversation. I had to wait for over 45 minutes before Kevin came out of the office again. Obviously having a go at me (and possibly at others because there had been clashes previous to his conversation with me the same morning). Eventually I was able to talk to Philip about this. I voiced my opinion that Kevin was still continuing to bully me, that his phone call was meant to show me he was the boss and that he was trying to intimidate me. I asked Philip, who was giving me orders in the company and Philip agreed it was NOT Kevin. I stated that I was unhappy with the fact that the bullying has not stopped and that the company has obviously not done anything to alleviate the situation. Philip answered that the only avenue open to me is the formal complaint. I said that I was going to get advice on that. However, he pointed out that the procedure could take a long time. I.e. since I am leaving at the end of August, it mightn't be seen through.
Philip tried to explain the whole "flare up" (quote > attempt at making it sound less than it was!) with Kevin's rather bad choice of words and weak communicating skills. Philip said to me that he had had "countless meetings" (quote) with Kevin about his bad communications. I asked in reply why this behaviour was then tolerated and why it was still going on. No answer given to that!
The end of the matter today is that Philip has - yet again - apologized for something that wasn't his fault and has also explained to editors that, yes, we SHOULD print out the articles for Design. I pointed out that there has been a lot of give on the side of the editors and it looks as if Kevin always gets what he wants. Philip didn't really dispute that but explained that before he started in the company "the balance was in favour of the editors and this will now been balanced out a bit". I DO NOT understand why Kevin is given the chance to consolidate his power in such a way. Surely he has already begun to infringe on management's rights and claims...

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