Introducing the corporate psychopath responsible for SAFETY - 2020

On Monday 9 March 2020 at 9:30am, a meeting was organised between my legal representative and those perpetrators in HR. 

No minutes were taken, yet again, even though they were supposed to as per policies. Policies were not referred to or applied, yet again. But this time, I have a witness to what happened in that immorally and unethically "orchestrated" meeting: employment lawyer #2. It was myself, the legal representative, that manipulative HR associate director, and now I introduce the corporate psychopath, appointed by a fellow dark triad personality to be the national manager of employment relations and SAFETY of a national university. This dangerous person was appointed to keep the university community safe, on a national level? 

What I learned about this individual by mere chit chat with my legal representative prior to the meeting- elevator small talk : she had only been at the university for seven months as of date of this meeting and she decided to obtain a "SAFETY" qualification to add to her "credentials". WTF?

Lucky I'm a qualified information manager, an alumnus, actually, from the university this person was "poached" from, for being skilled at wreaking havoc, creating toxic and unsafe workplace environments, targeting staff in the most offensive, aggressive, unethical, immoral, diabolical and tortuous way possible, with a little help from "friends". So I was to become the next "victim" of this devil incarnate, because the university employed the most incompetent associate director in my directorate, who could not manage my manager, nor resolve this issue locally, which was part of her job? 

Here are my documented notes of this illegally "off the record, no minutes taken" meeting:

• I have reason to believe that HR with a legal staff member are attempting to sabotage any reasonable attempt I make to resolve my initial complaint of workplace bullying. I find what happened at this meeting distressing and “creepy” (in lack of a better description);

• The meeting started well enough. However, they were "adamant" I attend an IMA. How did a complaint of workplace bullying I had no choice but to finally report, become an "attack" directly against me?

• [The HR associate director] asked why I was so "adamant" not to go to an IMA. I told her I was never given any information about why I had to attend. Although I didn’t add anything more to my reply at this meeting, further to this, given the distressing threats of disciplinary action if I didn’t attend, I actually did attend on 14th November 2019 at about 10am. 

What actually happened and the false explanation given by this practitioner leaves me very suspicious regarding the authenticity, transparency and integrity of these examiners listed to conduct these assessments. How can someone assess me within an hour (and I still didn't know what was involved or why it was necessary or relevant) and give a confident and authoritative conclusion if I am fit to do the inherent duties of my role? My GP has known me and my entire family since I was seven years old (35 years of my life and medical history are in his records and he is a man of honesty and integrity). I have an excellent psychologist I started seeing when I expressed the suppressed emotions surrounding the trauma of my dad’s suicide seven years later in 2017. I’ve also spoken about these work-related matters in our sessions. How can an unknown practitioner provide an accurate report in an hour when I have two health professionals that have known me for years and who I trust? And how can it be “independent” when [the university] are paying? I’m not confident it is independent and my attendance in November proved it. I am suspicious. Also, I was never told by HR that I could take a support person (luckily an OT did tell me). I had tried to get out of it by getting legal advice at another law firm, but [the creepy HR associate director who received the VC's award for this so-called "service excellence" of harming staff] wouldn’t budge. Only after seeking legal advice did she send me a list of questions the practitioner was to provide answers to in the report. Why the lack of transparency in providing information? 

• The first question was shocking. Was I "fit to return to work and fulfil all of the duties and responsibilities of [my] substantive role, including in circumstances where [I] would be required to report to and take direction and feedback from [the narcissist manager, the person I made a complaint of bullying, discrimination and harassment, providing multiple examples of incidents], and, effectively lead 5 direct reports [the direct reports I tried to protect by saying no to being bullied into treating them in the same illegal and unethical behaviour]?” Again, I asked myself, how did my complaint of bullying by [the manager] turn into this, with a report asking if I can take instructions under this very person? My GP can respond, from his professional opinion.... His answers would not be what HR would want... The reason is still unknown to me why [the incompetent associate director of my directorate, who proved unfit and grossly negligent to fulfil all of the duties and responsibilities of her substantive role], needed evidence that I could do my job to begin with. I’ve been doing my job, that the bully reaped benefits from my achievements, for 18 years. I’ve been a model employee and increased the profile of that library because of my work ethic.

What has [the manager] been saying from the moment [the library associate director] joined the university, that is nothing less than malicious gossip, judgement, labels and discrimination? I feel humiliated, demeaned, and my intelligence and professional skills insulted repeatedly and I need it to stop.

• Then something very suspicious happened. [The national manager of employment relations and SAFETY] suddenly said "this is unorthodox but [to my legal rep] can I see you outside for a minute?" I believe this was preplanned. Very calculated. [My legal representative] was a young lawyer and this too, I believe, was exploited. She did step out with [the corporate psychopath I'll call "the safety manager" from hereon] when it was probably a better decision not to. I was left alone with [the creepy HR associate director], giving her an opportunity to ask two questions (there are reasons I have for feeling this was a "strategic" motive). She asked: "How’s your brother?" and "How's your mother?" I replied "fine but concerned" with both questions. That was really creepy and weird. Then she started making notes. I didn’t ask why she was asking. In hindsight, I should have asked. Regardless, in reviewing the incidents holistically, the pieces of the puzzle had begun to fall into place. I believe she was extracting information to identify if my family were going to be a "problem" they would also need to deal with, given the privacy violation being exposed in another room by the safety manager.

• They had been accusing me of threatening self-harm which is not true. I lost my father to suicide and this accusation is traumatic and distressing. They have exploited every vulnerability to crush me. Why are they doing this? The email correspondence in my records is evidence that no one was taking my complaint seriously. Library management and then HR were sending me in circles. I was frustrated and sent private text messages to the staff campus minister on 23rd August 2019 when I finally broke down into tears due to the lack of guidance and support. In context, it was to do with this very issue with HR. At the same time, a family member was unwell, and, as next of kin, I had a duty of care and a legal right to take personal leave, which includes carers leave (confidential matters they had no business interrogating, violating privacy in such immoral and illegal ways to use against me, discrimination, WHS and privacy laws being breached too). I was emotionally worn out and frightened about how this bullying complaint would be handled and resolved by HR. I was stretched like an elastic band. I really needed to be well and to support my family through this temporary adversity regarding a private health matter. I finally snapped like that elastic band.  

• However, [the safety manager], who had been at the university for only seven months at the time in March 2020, did two things in the next room with [my legal representative]. She informed her that an independent investigation into the bullying complaint (something I requested) would be detrimental to me because most people don’t think much of me (a scare tactic I find disturbing, a malicious lie - see https://mystory-myvoice.blogspot.com/2025/01/quality-staff-and-university-leaders.html - one example among many, hence why she didn't want an "independent investigation" and continued to isolate and ostracise me - the NATIONAL SAFETY SENIOR EXECUTIVE OF AN ENTIRE UNIVERSITY). I have been at the university for nearly two decades and I’m highly respected and valued, from the Deans of Arts and Education and Theology and Philosophy, to the admin staff, professional staff, cleaners, students, researchers, on my home campus and on all campuses for library staff who know and have worked with me. How would she know and who would she have met in seven months, or in the two months when this case was referred to her? That makes me suspicious how “independent” these investigations are as well. (NOTE: and it was proven - to come in later posts). 

• The second shock tactic was a text message I had sent to the staff campus minister. Being deliberately isolated from my work like the worst criminal, I had one person who was to be my advocate, my right, as per bullying, discrimination and harassment policies. I felt humiliated and betrayed, but I know what likely happened when the campus minister met with the cunning and manipulative HR associate director. However, in turn, I felt like I betrayed my own family. The [SAFETY manager] presented, to my legal representative, a small portion of a private text message I sent on 27th August 2019 to the campus minister. I have now included the entire record in my evidence (since everything else in an entire family’s private life is illegally violated and abused by a university committed to the dignity of the human person in its Mission, among other things - that compilation is document #39).

After the meeting, when the [legal representative] told me what was written, I was very distressed and in tears because I would never have said anything like that. I told her I was freaked out and I apparently wrote it. When I went home and tracked down all the messages between myself and the campus minister, I found the message within the context of what was happening at the time. I couldn’t remember writing it and it was written in another state of frustration. Long forgotten. It was a private matter and unrelated to work. Most of the text message communication related to what I was put through at work.

I wish I didn’t have to justify what was happening. It’s harassment and illegal to invade my private personal matters. And my family’s! I was dealing with harassment and victimisation from my workplace that I had to keep private from telling my family. They have been through enough. We have all been through ENOUGH! Why did HR have access to my private communication with the staff campus minister, without my knowledge or permission? Why was this presented and used against me six months later and irrelevant to my complaint? That kind of behaviour of harassment and discrimination was part of my bullying complaint! This text message was taken out of context and used against me to accuse me of being a safety risk, to who exactly? All this is an attempt at character assassination and for days after the meeting, I was paralysed from shock and felt so violated. I not only felt emotionally unsafe to work under that manager in the workplace, I felt further distrust and unsafe because of the NATIONAL MANAGER OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS AND SAFETY. And I emphasise, the only cause of this trauma and fear for my safety, comes from my employer.

 • Privacy is very important to my family. The same afternoon this meeting took place, a family member, an alumnus of this very university community, had called the university and spoke to someone about how to go about making a formal complaint. My family also tolerated harassment over the years from my manager and have repeatedly let it go. It was a violation of boundaries and privacy in their own home and they had a right to make a formal complaint if they chose to. Now it’s become traumatic for all of us and very serious. They are not employees (one is, however, an alumnus) and not covered by the Enterprise Agreement. They are members in the community affiliated to the university because a family member works there. Now I understood why [that creepy HR associate director] wanted to be informed if my family members were well. They spoke to the same HR employee the next day and her entire personality changed. It was too overdramatised in her friendliness in the follow up call. The conversation was cordial and friendly, but the complaint form referred to was the same one I had been directed to complete. It would be handled by the same staff. This HR staff member’s reply to their question on how they handle such complaints was very poor.

• I never wanted to play strategic war games to save my reputation and career and protect an entire family from the slander and malicious rumours from the bully, my manager. When I called the Associate Director, Client Services, in my Directorate, on 3rd January 2020 at 4pm, I caught her off-guard and I became certain they were playing calculated games with me. The hostility and defensive tone in her voice (I think she panicked because one comment she made was “I need to have my “advisor” (ie. the HR associate director) with me in case I say the “wrong” thing” - she is two salary scales above me!) finally motivated me to call an employment lawyer, so I too, had an "advisor". She also said something else that was disturbing. “We have been informed that you have family issues that are affecting your ability to do your work.” I was in shock. Unfortunately my family could hear her through the phone as I was in their living room. Who is “we” and who is doing the informing? It sounds like the pattern of phrases I used to hear repeatedly from my manager. Since when is taking carer’s leave, for once, my legal employee entitlement like everyone, affecting my work (or personal leave at times, when required, without a manager’s prying and harassment? OR COMPASSIONATE LEAVE WITHOUT MY FAMILY BEING HARASSED BY A WORKPLACE MANAGER OF MINE IN OUR FAMILY HOME ONLY 12 HOURS AFTER MY DAD'S DEATH BY SUICIDE??!!). 

A manager’s bullying, gossip, judgement, labels, harassment and severe violation of privacy affected my work. A poorly implemented restructure with no role clarity and support affected my work. Poor processes to resolve this fairly and for the safety of all staff have affected my work and other staff. I have diagnosed physical health issues because of bullying since the restructure and my manager discriminates staff members at vulnerable times when experiencing family tragedies or emergencies, or have their own health concerns. I was being bullied to do the same to members in my team. I will not behave in an unethical way and engage in the same behaviour. I go back to the question of why the first point listed for the IMA report is about my ability to “take direction and feedback from [the manager]?” I made a complaint of bullying against this very person.

The fact that one clause in the EA, manipulated by committing multiple offences, had the only weight in this entire matter, is a serious cause of concern. That the policies didn’t matter (as confirmed by something employment lawyer #2 said, not to mention a few months later a SafeWork NSW inspector said to me “well all they’ll do is show me their policies and I don’t want to ruffle feathers”), my volume of evidence didn’t seem to matter to anyone, the serious privacy invasion to cause such harm was not taken seriously or seemed to matter, even when I provided all the messages, the entire context, is a very serious concern. IT IS MASSIVE SYSTEMIC FAILURE AND NEGLIGENCE. Does the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) not matter to legal professionals and public servants like those working for regulators? 

We need to make invasions of privacy, with intent to cause harm, and policy application matter. And it’s starting to matter. 

AND IT BETTER CONTINUE TO MATTER. URGENTLY.  

This post is based on document 36. It displays adverse action for requesting generally protected workplace rights, PRIVACY VIOLATIONS, discrimination, deception, malicious and vexatious conduct that condones engaging in WHS breaches and creating psychosocial hazards, not managing the risks as the PCBU is reasonably expected to do so, BY LAW. 

I will say this, like a broken record, because that’s the truth as per my volume of evidence. The university repeatedly refused to cooperate and follow standard policies and procedures, proving contraventions in multiple laws, refusing to comply with regulations and creating a huge mountain out of something that was serious but simple to resolve. Why would a university with a Mission like no other university, do this?

Essential Reading

Elisha v. Vision Australia in the High Court. https://www.kwm.com/au/en/insights/latest-thinking/a-breach-of-an-employment-contract-can-result-in-a-damages-award-for-psychiatric-injury.html

The new privacy amendment bill. https://cso.nsw.gov.au/resources/legal-alerts-presentations-papers/statutory-tort-invasions-of-privacy.html