Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
In this diary, you need to record all of the events that are happening to you. In each entry, you need to answer the following questions:
1. Who were involved in this event?
2. Where did the event take place?
3. Were there any witnesses?
4. Why did the event take place?
5. What was the event-a discription of the event?
6. How did this event make you feel?
This last question, is very important to your case. Do Not Keep this diary at work. This is because, if the employer gets a hold of it, it becomes the employer's property. You need this diary to form the basis of any complaint that you may want to file later.
Additional Items Necessary
You will want to keep email(s) involved in any incident, Policy updates, meeting notes, etc. These will later become exhibits to any future complaint that you may want to file.
Recoding Audios and/or Videos
Caution: Before you record either one of these, check your local laws before you do, since in some states, you may have to get the other party's permission before you are able to record them either as an audio or video. But, if you have not complied with the local laws, you could be found to be liable for damages under those local laws
If you have complied with the local laws on recording the audio or video of an incident, it will become another exhibit of a future complaint.
Note: it is always better make your entries into your diary when they are fresh in your mind rather than waiting weeks to make the entries when it is possible to miss some important details that could sink you complaint later when filed.
Building your complaint may need a lot of work. You will need to get statements from witnesses, in written form. This may be a difficult task since witnesses typically believe that if they attest to your events, the perpetraitor will come after them. But do not be discouraged by this.
Each state has their equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act. You can use these laws to get internal documents that is related to your case. Caution: Personnel recods are always considered confidential and most likely will not be released to you. For example: If you are seeking records on disiplinary actions against a perpetraitor, most likely your request will be denied due to confidential nature of these records.
By internal documents that are typically requested would be like emails between a perpetraitor and their supervisor that would be related to your event(s) of your case.
Another item, that could be asked for under these laws would be virtual meetings, since they would be considered public records. These would not fall under recording of audios and videos, since these meeting would include the perpetraitor and would be considered public records and that the perpetraitor was a willing participant in the virtual meeting. But if you request it, make sure that it is something that the local public information act covers.
Make sure that your emails, witness statements , and other documents are organized to follow the chronlogical order of the events that are in your diary. This is important, since you will refer to these as "Exhibt A", "Exhibit B", etc as you write out your complaint.
This is a very important step. You will want to organize the events of your case so that the complaint tells a story of your case. At each point, you will need to refer to your exhibits as evidence of your story. Keep in mind that your complaint can only cover the last 365 days. However, if your events are longer than that, you can put the older events into a section of your complaint called "Background Information" .
These background events will also build the story. Based on our expertice, most of the cases that we have seen, have gone on for years prior to target asking for help. Usually, the agency that you are complaining to, will want to know if these events have been going on for some time. Normally, once they start, it takes them a long time to get them to stop. So these earlier events are also very important.
Build the outline so that you do not miss any of your six question on each event. If necessary, have someone look it over to make sure that you have not forgot anything that is in your diary, in the outline. This is important since when you develop the complaiint, it is harder to put missing pieces into it later.
Make sure that your outline refers to each exhibit in the chornogical order of the outline as a check or review of your outline.
Before you start this, we have somthing to let you know that every target that we have helped in this process, has stated that this process causes them to relive all of the events that have been recorded in their diary or their outlines. This reliving happens more strongly to targets that have gotten PTSD from these events. Some have had nightmares, sweats, nausea etc as part of this reliving experiences. But this process is vital to making a well told story/complaint about the perpetraitor.
AS you are building out this draft, it is possible that you may go through several drafts until you have gotten it consise enough that it tells a complete story that is backed by evidence.
REMEMBER: No one can tell the same story like yourself, because they cannot answer the sixth question of "How did the event make you feel?" since they were not there when the event happened to you.
This is an important step. The person that receives your complaint, may not have tme to read the full complaint. Therefore, an Executive Summary is important to get your compaint in the door, so to speak. Usually at these agencies, there is a counter person that wil glance at the complaint and will determine if the agency will take your complaint or not. Therefore, your Executive Summary is an important piece of the puzzle. Also, your Executive Summary should not, as a rule of thumb, should not be over 2 pages. Remember it is a short summary of your story. The details of your story is in your complaint.
TRUE STORY
I worked with a supervisor that never replied to any of my "Good Idea" or "Safety Awareness" emails. The only emails he would reply to were the ones that expressed his denial of a request that was not being approved. If I had my co-worker email the bully boss, he would reply to his emails.
IS THIS BULLYING
Yes, not replying to most of your emails, especially not replying to dozens of email over the course of several months and/or years, IS A TYPE OF BULLYING. The message is that what you have to say IS NOT IMPORTANT and you are NOT VALUED.
HOW I DOCUMENTED
I have countless email saved with NO REPLY. I have saved them and printed them months later showing the PRINT DATE and the fact that more than a reasonable amount of time had passed without a reply. I also forwarded those emails to a personal outside email created just for this purpose. Never send it to an email you have used prior for other personal email or professional correspondence, because it may be open for others to view ALL email personal, professional, or otherwise. Start with a clean new email and send them there.
Bullying is a systematic campaign of interpersonal destruction that jeopardizes your health, your career, the job you once loved.
Bullying is a non-physical, non-homicidal form of violence. Because it is abusive it causes both emotional and stress-related physical harm.
Freedom from Bullies Week is a chance to break through the shame and silence surrounding bullying. It is a week to be daring and bold.
The power of workplace bullying is its ability to stay hidden in plain view. Make every workplace safe and take a stand against workplace bullying!