Scenes One and Two: Sticks and Stones?
Actors:
May, Margaret.
Setting:
Naturally Baking Limited – May and Margaret’s office.
Props:
Desks, chairs, desk clutter, computers and workstations in the background.
[ Both are seated at their screens. ]
Margaret
Hey May, you’ve been here a while, eh.
May
Yeah, I started at the beginning. My mum knows Ariana’s dad. She asked him if there was any work going when they first started out. They needed someone to do their typing, wages and accounts, and I’d done a course at the polytechnic, so they let me a go. It’s a good place to work because people are so friendly. You’ve been here a while now, too. How are you finding it?
Margaret
Yeah, it’s pretty good mostly. I want to get into marketing and sales so it’s good. What do you think of the people here?
May
Mostly they are nice. There’s a few hotheads around, but I just keep my head down. The boys in the warehouse are cool. I hang out with them a lot. They’re into some good music and they let me know what’s up.
Margaret b
What do you think of the bosses?
May
Dave and Ariana are cool, but Pieter can be a bit hard at times.
Margaret
Yeah, I think he’s really giving me a hard time. Every little thing I do is wrong – he’s always criticising me! I don’t like the way he calls me ‘little miss perfect’ either – how patronising!
May
Yeah, that’s a bit rude. I wouldn’t put up with it.
Margaret
I know I should tell him to stop, but what if he gets worse?
He never lets me finish a sentence without cutting me out. Sometimes I wonder if I’m in the same room when he talks right over me! He seems friendly to others but he ignores me. When he comes in he says hello to everyone except me – it’s so obvious!
May
Yeah, actually, I’ve noticed that. He’s all smiles and hellos to me and Dave, and then walks right past you.
Margaret
He has meetings about my work but doesn’t invite me. He blames me if things go wrong and never says if I got it right.
May
That’s hard, eh. We all need encouragement.
Margaret
I asked if I could have a longer lunch time to get my mum’s prescription and he said that I was employed to work the hours I was paid for and to leave personal stuff for out of hours. But you come and go as you please and nobody says anything.
May
No way – that’s not fair!
Margaret
He rearranges my furniture and desk papers – I feel like I have no privacy, but he doesn’t do that to anyone else. And if I have a new idea he always puts it down in front of the others. I feel like I can’t say anything around him. But then I find he steals my ideas and calls them his own!
He heaps work on me but I can’t make any decisions without him and the deadlines he gives me just keep shifting and are so unrealistic that it’s impossible for me to meet them.I feel like he really dislikes me and wants me to leave. I think I should look for another job.
May
Don’t do that Margaret. You’re really good at what you do. I reckon Pieter is threatened by you because you do a good job, and that’s why he shuts you up. He can be nasty at times and he needs to be put in his place.
Margaret
But I’m getting so stressed about this that I’m waking up at two in the morning and not sleeping, ‘cos I’m worried he’ll sack me before I find another job. And I won’t get a good reference from him anyway.
May
Y’know, in my last job I was bullied by a colleague in a similar way. The HR manager didn’t support me when I complained about it – he said I was being emotional. I didn’t belong to a union and I couldn’t afford a lawyer so I just left. I’ve always regretted that because it was a good job and why should I have left when I didn’t do anything wrong?
Later, I heard that she had been bullying lots of people and they all got together and asked for a mediator to come in and resolve it. She was sent on an anger management course and eventually she left. I don’t know that running away from bullies is the right move Margaret. Maybe you should do something about it.
Margaret
Like what?
May
Like talk to Dave?
Margaret
Dave is Pieter’s father!
May
I know, but he’s a reasonable man and I think he would be fair.
[ Later that day. ]
May
Hey Margaret, I printed off some stuff on personal grievances from the Employment Relations website after our talk about Pieter hassling you.
Margaret
What’s a personal grievance?
May
It says personal grievances can be about ‘unjustifiable dismissal, unjustifiable action which disadvantages the employee, discrimination, sexual harassment, racial harassment or duress over membership of a union or other employee organisation’.
I’m not sure that Pieter is discriminating against you because he can be quite nasty to other people too.
It’s clearer when it’s about racial or sexual harassment because the actions are usually clearer.
Margaret
What do you mean?
May
Well, if Pieter was whistling at you, putting his arm around your chair, telling lurid jokes around you and calling you sexy, you could safely say he was sexually harassing you.
If you were Māori and he kept telling jokes about Māori, not letting you use the petty cash and saying Māori were untrustworthy, you could say that was racial harassment.
Margaret
Gee, that sort of stuff doesn’t still happen does it?
May
In some areas, yeah. But bullying is not so obvious. If you’re stressed and losing sleep because of an employment problem, you have to tell your employer so they can try to fix the problem.
Maybe you could say the bullying is disadvantaging you because your career is not progressing? Also, you have unfair expectations on you, and you are being isolated at work. I don’t know – maybe you need some legal advice.
Margaret
It’s very complicated, isn’t it? I just want the bullying to stop.
May
Well, why don’t you do something about it? Have a look in your employment agreement. It says how to solve employment relationship problems. It’s quite clear.
If we want a happy workplace, the employer and employee must sort out their problems.
Apparently you have to tell your boss about your grievance, and that you want something done about it, within 90 days of what happened to make you complain. You need to get onto this!
[ Reading papers. ]
Margaret
You’re right. It says I can talk to someone to clarify the problem first, but I need to respect privacy and protect confidentiality.
I think I should get more information. I could call the Employment Relations Info-line 0800 number or get some pamphlets from the Employment Relations Service or the community law centre.
May
Yeah, you need to discuss the problem as soon as possible. You can talk about it or write it down. Pieter is your direct manager. Do you feel comfortable raising it with him?
Margaret
No, I don’t think he will listen to me and he may get worse.
May
Are you in the union?
Margaret
Yes, why?
May
Well, they can come and support you. Or you can get a lawyer, or an employment relations consultant. Anyway you don’t need to go in on your own, it’s always good to take a support person with you as a witness and to keep you calm.
There are some really good websites about bullying too – you should Google it. There is a website called bullyonline that has good information.
Margaret
Gee, thanks May. It’s so good to have someone listen. I need to think about what to do. I don’t want to make a big thing of it by going to the union or having witnesses. But maybe I will have a talk with Dave.
