mizzjoey
Materials
- Apr 22, 2007
- 94
Hi everyone.
I work for an MNC based in the US. The regional office where I work for (other side of the world) was opened two years ago. We have a regional manager stationed here who was supposed to set-up the office and find a local employee who can act as technical manager to replace him. We are meant to act as engineering support to our US partners and pickup their work when they call it a day.
I work as an FE analyst and I have a good relationship with my immediate supervisor stationed overseas. He is flexible and has consistently given me good performance appraisals, as well as tells me the areas on which I can improve.
However, the regional manager stationed here (we'll refer to him as E) is the one I have to deal with day in day out, and he constantly singles out people he does not like (usually female employees) for a period of time until someone else does something he considers an affront to his superior status and moves on to the next unfortunate associate. Right now I'm the unlucky flavor of the week.
He usually finds fault for very trivial things. The employees under fire are often female, and Muslim (we're a mix of many ethnicities but mainly Muslim). He says things like "I don't know. Talk to your God, Allah.", "Why don't you go home and be a good Muslim" etc. He has also referred to female employees with insulting names that can only be applied to the female gender (once within my earshot). He monitors the use of toilet papers and kitchen paper towels because he accuses Muslim female employees of using too many paper towels (he suspects it's to wipe our hands and face dry after performing ablution before our prayers, which we don't).
He has his favorites, who can do anything they want including spending most of the working hours surfing the internet whereas the rest of us would catch hell just for being caught receiving nonwork-related email. I repeat, receiving, not even sending out these emails.
Last Monday I ran into trouble while getting to work. My scooter ran out of fuel and I had to push it to the nearest petrol kiosk. My office is on the 7th floor, there was a problem with the lift and I decided to take the stairs. Naturally by the time I got to the office door I was out of breath. Immediately as I walked through the door (at 9am, not late at all) my boss barked at me regarding a petty HR non-issue - which only came about because he did not read the numerous emails I sent him.
I indicated to him that I was out of breath and wanted a drink. I went to the pantry and filled my mug, and he followed, badgering me to go to his room so he could reprimand me. I told him it was not a good time and I did not want to talk to him yet (maybe I could use a better line but I REALLY needed that drink). After which I went to my cube, sat down to catch my breath and took a drink.
Apparently he took this as an insult and has afterwards tried to find faults with me. He has asked the lead engineer in my group to schedule a meeting this Wednesday to discuss my 'business etiquette'. He tells the lead engineer to email my immediate supervisor in the US, copied to our HR dept in the US, to complain of a leave I took earlier in March. He is highlighting the various 'insubordination' interpretations in our handbook that he can use against me for documentation.
This was done while I was away last week undergoing minor surgery. I guess I came back to the office today to find out that I'm currently being put under a microscope. I have gone through a similar episode before in 2006 and it was very unpleasant. This regional manager monitored my lunchtime, my 15-minute tea breaks, shuts me up during meetings (still does it), and issued one written warning after another for irrational reasons. He told me I was a bad apple and he needs to keep me from making the other apples go bad. We did not have a handbook at the time, so basically whatever he said was the law. I thought the situation would improve when a handbook was finally introduced.
I believe on average I am a good worker. I go home at least half an hour late everyday, often taking my lunch in front of my PC to monitor my analyses. I take classes to improve my understanding of FEA, all on my own budget and in my own time. My regional manager encourages divisions in the office, he has moles to tell against the rest of us, so I do not engage in office gossip. I still get along well with others, probably have one/two chat sessions a week over coffee for about 10 minutes. The rest of my working time I spend working on FEA, training fellow associates or answering their questions, or doing exercises for my FE classes.
This has been a long post; I guess I needed to rant. The thing is, I want to decline from attending the meeting on Wednesday that pointy-haired regional manager has scheduled. My lead engineer would be ineffective as a witness because he has to agree with whatever my regional manager says. I'd like to request for a mediator of similar or higher position to be present before I agree to any meeting, but I wonder if that's not too presumptious? I don't want to go through the period of bullying I endured in 2006 again. I think I should put up a stand and firmly tell EHK he's being a bully, but maybe that's career suicide. When we voice our concerns to our overseas counterparts, they tend to take my manager's version as the Bible. In the end he is still one of them, and we are just a bunch of faceless engineers they hired to cut costs.
What would you do? Would you go ahead to that slaughterhouse meeting knowing that you would have to sign numerous letters describing your 'business etiquette' which your boss will use to document your 'misbehaviors' and will lead to your dismissal? He has done this to three female associates before. One was terminated and the other two quit. Or would it be okay to reply with "I respectfully decline to attend this meeting and would like to request another meeting with the presence of a mediator..."
Well, wish me luck.
jo
I work for an MNC based in the US. The regional office where I work for (other side of the world) was opened two years ago. We have a regional manager stationed here who was supposed to set-up the office and find a local employee who can act as technical manager to replace him. We are meant to act as engineering support to our US partners and pickup their work when they call it a day.
I work as an FE analyst and I have a good relationship with my immediate supervisor stationed overseas. He is flexible and has consistently given me good performance appraisals, as well as tells me the areas on which I can improve.
However, the regional manager stationed here (we'll refer to him as E) is the one I have to deal with day in day out, and he constantly singles out people he does not like (usually female employees) for a period of time until someone else does something he considers an affront to his superior status and moves on to the next unfortunate associate. Right now I'm the unlucky flavor of the week.
He usually finds fault for very trivial things. The employees under fire are often female, and Muslim (we're a mix of many ethnicities but mainly Muslim). He says things like "I don't know. Talk to your God, Allah.", "Why don't you go home and be a good Muslim" etc. He has also referred to female employees with insulting names that can only be applied to the female gender (once within my earshot). He monitors the use of toilet papers and kitchen paper towels because he accuses Muslim female employees of using too many paper towels (he suspects it's to wipe our hands and face dry after performing ablution before our prayers, which we don't).
He has his favorites, who can do anything they want including spending most of the working hours surfing the internet whereas the rest of us would catch hell just for being caught receiving nonwork-related email. I repeat, receiving, not even sending out these emails.
Last Monday I ran into trouble while getting to work. My scooter ran out of fuel and I had to push it to the nearest petrol kiosk. My office is on the 7th floor, there was a problem with the lift and I decided to take the stairs. Naturally by the time I got to the office door I was out of breath. Immediately as I walked through the door (at 9am, not late at all) my boss barked at me regarding a petty HR non-issue - which only came about because he did not read the numerous emails I sent him.
I indicated to him that I was out of breath and wanted a drink. I went to the pantry and filled my mug, and he followed, badgering me to go to his room so he could reprimand me. I told him it was not a good time and I did not want to talk to him yet (maybe I could use a better line but I REALLY needed that drink). After which I went to my cube, sat down to catch my breath and took a drink.
Apparently he took this as an insult and has afterwards tried to find faults with me. He has asked the lead engineer in my group to schedule a meeting this Wednesday to discuss my 'business etiquette'. He tells the lead engineer to email my immediate supervisor in the US, copied to our HR dept in the US, to complain of a leave I took earlier in March. He is highlighting the various 'insubordination' interpretations in our handbook that he can use against me for documentation.
This was done while I was away last week undergoing minor surgery. I guess I came back to the office today to find out that I'm currently being put under a microscope. I have gone through a similar episode before in 2006 and it was very unpleasant. This regional manager monitored my lunchtime, my 15-minute tea breaks, shuts me up during meetings (still does it), and issued one written warning after another for irrational reasons. He told me I was a bad apple and he needs to keep me from making the other apples go bad. We did not have a handbook at the time, so basically whatever he said was the law. I thought the situation would improve when a handbook was finally introduced.
I believe on average I am a good worker. I go home at least half an hour late everyday, often taking my lunch in front of my PC to monitor my analyses. I take classes to improve my understanding of FEA, all on my own budget and in my own time. My regional manager encourages divisions in the office, he has moles to tell against the rest of us, so I do not engage in office gossip. I still get along well with others, probably have one/two chat sessions a week over coffee for about 10 minutes. The rest of my working time I spend working on FEA, training fellow associates or answering their questions, or doing exercises for my FE classes.
This has been a long post; I guess I needed to rant. The thing is, I want to decline from attending the meeting on Wednesday that pointy-haired regional manager has scheduled. My lead engineer would be ineffective as a witness because he has to agree with whatever my regional manager says. I'd like to request for a mediator of similar or higher position to be present before I agree to any meeting, but I wonder if that's not too presumptious? I don't want to go through the period of bullying I endured in 2006 again. I think I should put up a stand and firmly tell EHK he's being a bully, but maybe that's career suicide. When we voice our concerns to our overseas counterparts, they tend to take my manager's version as the Bible. In the end he is still one of them, and we are just a bunch of faceless engineers they hired to cut costs.
What would you do? Would you go ahead to that slaughterhouse meeting knowing that you would have to sign numerous letters describing your 'business etiquette' which your boss will use to document your 'misbehaviors' and will lead to your dismissal? He has done this to three female associates before. One was terminated and the other two quit. Or would it be okay to reply with "I respectfully decline to attend this meeting and would like to request another meeting with the presence of a mediator..."
Well, wish me luck.
jo
