Response To My Boss Creating A Hostile Working Environment For Me

To Michael W,

Marland

Hello Michael Wandera,

Please let my write-up act as my complaint regarding Marlande Wesselhoft, my boss for making the working environment hostile for me. I intended to contact you over this issue last week but other commitments made this impossible for me. By saying that my boss is creating a hostile environment for me at the workplace, I do not imply some instances during which he has done minor annoying things. I simply mean that he continuously belittle and insult me to a level of making me feel like I perform my duties within camp for prisoners. According to the Federal Rights Acts’ law of 1964, I believe that such insults and belittlement are illegal and they can be categorized as aspects of hostile environments.

I admit that I have worked at Topps for the last two years during which I have enjoyed a good relationship at the workplace with bosses as well as colleagues. However, things changed late last year. This issue started when Michael Saunders, the new employee joined the IT department. My feeling was that the boss depicted favoritism when he appointed Saunders out of all the suggested candidates to serve as assistants at the IT desk. I felt this because other candidates’ qualifications were overlooked by Marlande despite having experience of up to ten years. Marlande chose Saunders though he had not worked for any organization apart from serving as an intern. Since this appointment affects me the most as I work with Saunders directly, I raised concerns over this appointment to him.

After speaking my mind out regarding my view of the chosen candidate, Marlande developed a negative attitude and perception of me. He and Saunders work together in frustrating my efforts regardless of what I do. Nevertheless, I have been patient to allow him time to change in the hope that maybe the management issues overwhelm him sometimes making him to have a bad mood. However, I realize that I have been wrong. This situation has not improved and things have only worsened. At the moment, the treatment that I get from him can be described as worst. Never have I ever endured the kind of experience that I am going through while working in other companies.

This has caused me endless stress as well as a negative attitude. This has affected my performance at the place of work. Thus, there are times when I cannot meet my set objectives and my personal life has been affected as well because I spend evenings thinking about what I have been put through the entire day. The thought of the workplace makes my morning dreadful.

Marlande shows that he favors Michael Saunders clearly and this is affecting performance in the IT department. It is not just me who has complained about this but other users as well. Unfortunately, our complaints are never listened to. For example, immediately Saunders joined the department, one member of the department and I had to go to Duryea. We divided our duties clearly to enable us to focus on tickets as Saunders works on inventory equipment. Surprisingly, Saunders did not perform his duties. Instead, he spent time listening to music and therefore I had to do the entire task myself. On reporting to Marlande about this incident, he reacted as though nothing wrong had been done by Saunders. To him, I was concentrating on pretty issues. Although this may not seem to be related with the complaint that I am launching against Mr. Wesselhoft’s actions, it has a direct association. He did not punish Saunders after this incident and he therefore keeps saying and doing what he please.

According to the ethics and conduct code, every employee is responsible and obliged to report internally and promptly the code’s violation to the appropriate personnel at Topps. I continuously reported the violations of this code to Mr. Wesselhoft. However, I apparently realized that my constant complaints to Wesselhoft regarding Michael were becoming an issue since Mr. Wesselhoft responded by behaving in a way that seemed like a retaliatory action towards me.

When one reports unethical conduct that violates the ethical code at Topps, this does not allow for retaliation against a report of any misconduct provided that it is made in good faith. After reporting any suspected violation of the ethical code at Topps, the employee should not be demoted, reprimanded, fired or harmed just for such reporting.

Additionally, Saunders is not only rude, but also arrogant and always absent at the place of work. Usually, he always sends emails to report his inability to report to work. Marlande is usually quiet about the absenteeism trend of Saunders yet this is against the conduct code that guides the employees of the organization. About the same emails, meetings are usually held within the department where delegations and roles are distributed clearly. However, I usually do what Saunders declines to do because he is naturally lazy since he always shifts blames on his lack of knowledge of what he was expected to do in advance. Marlande always gets the emails that convey such conversations but he has remained silent about the issue. I find this irritating since it seems like I am never right at the place of work. On the other hand, Saunders is always right in what he does or says.

I always get retaliatory actions from Marlande. This is an offense and it can be punished by the law. He brings up a review of my employee before the other members of the staff with an aim of shaming and belittling me. He has always held the concept that I lie and therefore I am never correct or accurate while handling the information of the company. He argues that this has affected the department by making it slow in terms of production and work completion. These are not only false and malicious allegations, but they are also irrational. When my commitment is compared to Saunders’ commitment, it is apparent that an employee who is always absent will slow the performance of a department. My struggle to figure out the best way of solving this has been fruitless. My boss who should help is petty and we disagree in our evaluations.

I am always driven crazy by the way he shouts at me in front of the other employees. I have asked him to adapt a different style of talking to me by calling me to the office so that we can hold private sessions to solve existing differences. However, it seems like he makes fun of me and that he always want to despise me in front of the others. Other employees have to some extent lowered the respect that they have for me due to this. There are employees who look down on me by uttering nasty comments occasionally any time I pass via the corridors of the company. Literally, this has turned my life into a hell.

This is not the only way through which my boss has made the working environment hostile for me. There are other instances as well. First, he banned me from using the Senior Desk Top Support Engineer’s title in the official mails that I send. To me, this is degrading because I have to respond to clients who ask who is the engineer to contact in order to have their concerns addressed. Secondly, the boss said that the policy of the company does not allow me to use my personal tool while executing my duties at work. He aims at having me do the work using company’s equipment yet this is not available. This ends up frustrating me after which I am blamed for being inefficient. Thirdly, I was warned because of the accusations that Marlande has brought up against me. This follows an argument that we had with Saunders after feeling that he violated the conduct code again. This was after he interfered with the space where I work from while I was away and he messed the place completely.

According to Mr. Wesselhoft, employees at the IT department should work as a team in order to realize more success and to motivate each other. However, his words are contrary to the way he deals with me since I have to write him an email requesting to seek assistance from Dan Walsh from the Net Work Services Department while solving a problem. Other team members in the department are allowed to consult and interact freely and with anybody. To make the situation more complex for me, he ignores some of my mails while responding to the mails of other employees more efficiently. To me, this is discrimination in its worst form. In another occasion while fixing the problem of a computer that its user had ruined, I was ordered by Mr. Wassellhoft to establish the machine’s durability yet he knew this already. I wasted a lot of time trying to get information about this machine yet its warranty was valid and the cost of the battery was below 20 dollars. To me, this was harassment.

It appears like Marlande is always looking for a case that will upset me. He wants me to do an irrational thing and then quit working for this company. Obviously, his plan is to end my job. To achieve this, he is always expressing doubts about my integrity and honesty. Marlande also treats me like a beginner in this field which is different from the way he treats Mike Saunders. He treats Saunders like an expert. He trusts the opinion that he gives regarding computer issues while ignoring mine. I am almost becoming impatient and I am thinking of quitting my job because the working environment is becoming too hostile for me.

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