I have already tried to tell here about my own personal experience of bullying and harassment that led on January 2019, to my resignation after 6 months of employment with the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World. I wrote "tried to tell" because almost two years later, I still feel the hurt and pain of what took place, the shame and regret of not having fought more what I still consider a complete injustice and forced, wrongful, termination/resignation. Beyond the process that I felt was biased against the person complaining of the management (as it's so often the case), I could not believe how Derek Yach did not support me in any way, as if what he later labeled a 'staff issue' was beneath him to deal with, except to proclaim once, they would consider my complaint very seriously. Indeed. I was the only one to write in details about my experience but I never saw any written document from the management about my complaint, the answer given by the people I had confronted or the reason why they were dismissing my testimony and forcing me to keep working under the same manager or resign. Mr Jeffers, the-at the time- newly hired 'talent manager' only offered phone conversations I regret I did not record while of course my biggest 'mistake' was not to record the bullying session I had to endure on November 14 2018 in London, led by X who obviously took great pleasure in it. I was still shaken when I shared my story the day after during the 6th e-cigarette summit, with long time tobacco control advocate Judith Watt: she told me she was not surprised to hear about such behavior by X. Too late to be of help. The Foundation has adopted in 2020 a Whistle Blower Policy (PDF), but in 2018 there was no such procedure in place: when I had started to complain about Mr X behavior (before the November meeting), the then COO, Tom Harding had told me to deal with it directly with Mr X. When I formally sent an email to Derek Yach to complain, I was later contacted by Mr. Jeffers who after one phone conversation came up with the alternative I described: accept to stay under Mr. X's thumb, who according to Mr Jeffers had only exercised his rights as a manager or resign. Enacting a whistle blower policy could give the (wrong) impression that the Foundation cares when employees are concerned about being harassed or bullied and it strives to protect them. In my own experience they absolutely did not. Just the opposite. I was forced to resign and Mr X was rewarded by a salary raise in 2019 to $217,541 (I discovered this only one and a half year later, in May 2020 while looking into the 2019 990 form, see page 44 and comparing it with the data of the 2018 990 form page 46): bullying pays. At the same time, I found out that the VP Communications, Z, who was supervising the advertising agency Ogilvy whose work I had criticized, had left the Foundation in January 2019, while being compensated for a whole year at a salary of $269,269 (page 44). I was paid $8,000 per month ( a pay rate of $106,000 for a year). As I had 'resigned', after pointing out the poor performance of said Ogilvy agency (at a cost I had been denied to know), I received nothing extra, zero severance pay and of course, as I had resigned, I was not entitled to any unemployment benefit. Refusing to eat shit and like it came at a very high personal and familial cost and keeps growing as I have been unable to find another job. Meanwhile, the Foundation can brag about its new whistle blower policy. Despite having me resign, the Foundation did significantly reduce its contracting with Ogilvy and the suggestions made last by Mr X about how to proceed with the project, suggestions I wrote to Mr. Yach were absurd and could never be implemented, just disappeared. Mr X still got the raise, as did Mr Yach. Am I a former disgruntled employee? You bet.
Why such a persistent grudge?
Because there was bullying that was denied, dismissed by the management and the perpetrator was protected while the plaintiff was evicted (retaliation).
Because the employee who was evicted was right in his evaluation of the contractor's performance while his manager was wrong in his misunderstanding of the state of the project and what could be done with it. The employee's pointing of the manager's errors and the contractors poor performance were taken into consideration by the upper management as the project was stopped. The manager's errors were of no consequence for him (except for a raise) but the employee lost his job.
A story to keep in mind while reading how the Foundation cares for its employees, including via a new whistle blower policy:
"Whistleblower Policy (the "Policy") provides a means for Covered Persons to raise good faith concerns about behavior by, within or associated with the Foundation that is, or appears to be, illegal, fraudulent, dishonest, unethical, or in violation of any of the Foundation’s adopted policies (a "Concern"), and protects against retaliation any Covered Person who reports a Concern in good faith...
No Retaliation: No Covered Person who in good faith reports a Concern or who cooperates with an investigation of such a report (whether by the Foundation, its agents, or auditors, or by any law enforcement officials, government, or regulatory agency) shall suffer intimidation, harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or, in the case of an employee, adverse employment consequences, because of such report. Any person who retaliates against someone who has reported a Concern in good faith will be subject to appropriate discipline and corrective action, up to and including termination of employment or volunteer status, or removal from office or the Board."
I wish I could move on and find some closure about the whole experience but after discovering in May 2020 (via the data provided by the 2019 990PF) how the bully is rewarded and the bullied ejected, and the FSFW pretends not to retaliate against whistle blowers and seems very far away to try to make any type of amends, the pain and outrage persist.