Stepford Employee Does It Her Way

Line Manager said a very weird thing during our mediation session.

He referred to a report I gave to the officer charged with investigating my complaint.
A report which was for her eyes only.

Now, I suppose I should have queried this at the time, but there was A Lot Going On during that session. Not least the fact that Line Manager was unable to restrain himself from employing his usual communication techniques: brusqueness and sarcasm....

But in the week following the mediation, his casual reference to something he should never have seen niggles and niggles me. Until I send Personnel a politely worded email enquiring how Line Manager could possibly have gained access to this private document.

Personnel takes two days to reply, and then sends me her usual twaddle about "being unable to answer my question because it would breach confidentiality".

??!!?

I read this email on my Blackberry at about 10pm at night, and for some minutes I feel very upset, knowing that once again I have come up against the mighty impenetrable wall which girds Fortress Council.

But fortunately I started my day at 7am, having coffee and a bacon sandwich with Sue Inner Circle! Then spent all lunchtime taking a phone call from a sponsee!! And my evening at a Support Group meeting (listening to Husband, who was press ganged into the hot seat)!!! And I talked with a pale, sweating young man who said it was his first ever meeting; and a woman with three months recovery who was about to have a holiday and was nervous about it.

So the email from Personnel soon fades into relative insignificance.
But that doesn't make it ok.

Personnel has, you see, never shown the slightest regard for my confidentiality which has been breached repeatedly, and yet the breaches never once investigated. Whereas every communique I receive from her contains thinly veiled threats about the direst penalties which will befall me if I should even DARE utter A SINGLE WORD about the spiteful, bullying conduct of two of the organisation's senior managers !!!

Now I could write back to Personnel, pointing out the hypocrisy of her response.
I could. If I want to be driven completely la la.

I decide, instead, to spend tomorrow working from my my own office, finishing off the rest of "Master and Commander" and only responding to the most pressing emails. Behaviour which I believe is referred to as a Go Slow. (Not the kind of decision I would have made a year ago pre-bullying, when I was described as the highest performing officer in my department, but hey - things have changed...)

One of my friends said to me recently "it's a pity you can't just tell your bosses to f*** off".

"I do!" I said. "But in my own sweet way".