Below the text of the complaint I sent to Derek Yach on November 18,2018
I only edited the names as X or Y
November 18, 2018
Dear Derek,
I am writing to let you know that last Wednesday afternoon (November 13) in London, after the meeting with Aaron about the NCD News project had taken place, I was ambushed, harassed, and taken to task by X, in the presence of Y.
Due to jet lag and shock I did not leave immediately as I should have when summoned by X in an inappropriate and unacceptable tone. I felt ambushed as I was never informed that there would be a meeting about my performance after our meeting with Aaron about a project I have been instrumental in developing but which is now under the supervision of X and Y.
X had a long list of derisive criticism about me. He berated me:
for not being a team player,
for having the audacity to share ideas with you,
for not liking the logo
alternatively for being too fast and too slow,
for not always agreeing with/simply going with Ogilvy’s suggestions,
for wanting to have a fierce conversation with Octavio,
for not always deferring to and systematically agreeing with L
for asking to see exactly what Ogilvy says they will do or not do in their contract
for wanting to provide oversight on Ogilvy’s performance (ie caring about how much time/money is spent on their services given their performance) because it should be of no concern of mine
That the online community can be done in a year for all they care
That advocacy has nothing to do with my job
That I had no right to consult with the original Globalink architects or ask them to look at the site
That the site doesn’t need a search function
That it didn’t matter that he and the team had never once logged into the site to test its functionalities
That I have too many ideas
That I do too many other things (Aaron’s projects?)
For not getting an ok first for every single thing I do directly with him (X) or possibly with communications.
Last but not least he even mentioned that I should not have complained that about how he has previously treated me in previous phone calls and emails. This constitutes retaliation and a further level of harassment.
He was clearly furious, asking a few times why did I have conversations at all D or T?
He then threatened to both fire me and replace me with someone who could “better do the job.” He warned me that he was placing me on a probationary period. He took visible pleasure in this diatribe and in his threatening bullying, as well as in the fact that I was too shocked to respond. I had previously asked T to send me the existing procedure for eventually filing a grievance against X after his first bullying concerning my direct emails to you. He insisted that I send him every email I have sent to you which I refused. I was told to work it out with X. One does not send the one who is bullied into a lion's den with a bully to figure out how to get the bully to stop harassing him. There is no way I can accept to continue having anything to do with X or Y. I can only repeat to you what I told them about the extremely poor performance of Ogilvy and the lack of understanding by the Com's people of the deficiencies of a site they were still pushing to introduce at the stakeholder meeting when it's completely empty and useless.
As you can imagine given what I’ve written above, I was still so perturbed by this harassment that Judith Watt, whom I saw the next day at the e-cig conference, asked after me since I was so visibly distressed.
I joined the Foundation because I felt you were treated extremely unfairly by most of the tobacco control community and I thought my decades long experience and expertise could be useful. I am saddened to see that perhaps the main obstacle to the Foundation’s success perhaps lies inside the Foundation itself if we as a team are unable to discuss strategy without such unprofessional, unwarranted, disrespectful, bullying.
Please accept this email as a formal complaint for harassment and retaliation against me by X.
I consider this email and the list I made above, an accurate accounting of how he treated me during this meeting. As X complained, I have documented by email other times that he behaved in such a manner with me. I would be happy to provide these emails. Y sat through the entire meeting without suggesting to X his behavior was unprofessional and inappropriate. It appeared he had been informed of X’s intentions. He came to my defense only once when it was evident that emails would directly contradict X. He even agreed twice to X’s comments. I take this as support for X’s unprofessional, bullying rant.
I still believe (despite X’s and Y’ poor opinion of me) that I have plenty to offer the Foundation. I still believe in its work and objectives. Moreover, I have enjoyed working with Aaron. As such, I hope to continue working with you but, given their continuing treatment of me, I can no longer work with either X or Y, or the Coms team.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Philippe Boucher