According to SafeWork Australia, one in three women who lodge a claim for mental disorder and one in five men state it involves harassment or bullying. 41% of all serious work-related mental health condition are caused by harassment, bullying or exposure to violence. The US doesn’t fare any better with 19% of adult Americans claiming they are bullied at work (Workplace Bullying Institute). Work-related harassment and bullying are the most significant causes of work-related mental health issues worldwide. In my experience everybody at some time in their lives has been subjected to bullying. Everyone has their own story to tell about being bullied: This is mine.
Opening Scene
A court case being held in a small office. The presiding judge is listening to the defence council interrogate the witness regarding his note taking. Peering down her nose at the inspector in the witness box she tries to convey the gravitas of a small town magistrate but she is caught off guard by what happens next.
Suddenly the council for the defense excuses himself politely and turned to the inspector with words to the effect: “You are a fuckin disgrace, a perjurer. You deserve two years in prison and should be kicked off any investigation team.” To which the inspector replies: “You can go and get fucked!”
The office space is in the regional building belonging to a state regulator. The case in mention is a mock trial for the benefit of training purposes. The judge is a section manager, the defense councilor an external trainer and the witness is an inspector working for the regulator as is the mock prosecutor and second witness in waiting. It is my misfortune to be the witness in the box, being grilled by the trainer. Although the allegations are reckless and a little melodramatic, I am, in front of colleagues and superiors, labelled a disgrace and a perjurer.
I should go back a little to earlier that day to when the incident resulting in my disgrace occurred. Like the court case, the crime under investigation was a mock-up. I, like all the other participants in the training course, attended the crime scene after receiving the make-believe phone call from the emergency helpline. There were bloody bandages on the drive way. The youngest son was under suspicion but the weight of evidence was pointing to a party outside the residence. I collected evidence from the training documents provided, conducted imaginary interviews, made illusory observations and took notes. The court case which followed a few hours later was based on my observations and notes.
I was summoned into the small office by the Team Leader. By this stage a number of participants had already churned through the mock trial stage and reports were circulating of the tactics of the trainer. Of his cross-examination and being interrogated on their evidence. Of being badgered about their note taking along with other administrative errors.
Contemporaneous note taking is a difficult task especially when confronted with the conflicting demands of a fatality or serious injury. With limited resources at your disposal you record as much as possible while at all times remaining accessible to relatives, colleagues and all other stakeholders at the scene.
In certain cases administrative errors can lead to technical oversight which may in turn jeopardize a successful prosecution. Most human errors are avoided by experienced professionals but people are human and human errors occur. That is why we have a peer reviewed court system with vetted and experienced judges who have, in conjunction with centuries of jurisprudence, instigated strict rules of acceptable conduct. All errors are brought to the attention of the presiding judge so a proper determination can be made as to their impact on the defendant’s rights and the outcome of the case.
This was not the case in my mock trial. I say my mock trial because the only person on trial was me. I wasn’t a witness; I was the defendant. 
The only thing left was for the trainer to find me guilty of at least one administrative misdemeanor so I could be forced into an admission of guilt. Anything less would throw into question the benefits of the training course and his fees and expenses on the public purse.
So my great administrative error was writing the words: and identified myself as an inspector in a different tone of blue ink at the bottom of the page. By doing this the trainer deduced that I had at some stage gone back to my notes and adjusted them to hide the fact that I had failed to officially notified people at the crime scene of my identity. He contended that the phrase ‘and identified myself as an inspector’ was not contemporaneous with the other notes in my notebook on that day. So according to his insistence I did not identify myself to the imaginary attendees at the imaginary crime scene and therefore all imaginary evidence collected by me and any imaginary actions taken by me were illegal. If you can imagine that!
So why, given the evidence (different tone of blue ink at the bottom of the page) do I believe I am not a perjurer. Did I identify myself to the people at the scene of the crime or not?
Well firstly, let me ask you this. How do you identify yourself to someone who does not exist at a crime scene that does not exist to persons that do not exist at an address that does not exist? You see the essence of what happened all comes down to what was recorded in my notes. Did I identify myself, I say I did. I did because that was my daily practice for nearly 20 years. I identified myself because it explained the uniform I was wearing and the reason I was turning up at your doorstep. There was hardly a day in my life when I didn’t have to identify myself; it was second nature and even spilled over into my personal life at times I was so used to doing it. But based on how I recorded this in my training notes the trainer maintained I did not.
This raises two points that need to be clarified.
What are contemporaneous notes?
Contemporaneous means things that coexist in time. In law contemporaneous means taking place at the same time. Unlike simultaneous which happen at the exact same moment, contemporaneous is the same time period – this could be within the reign of one king or within a reasonable time frame like say, a 24 hour period. The important thing to realize is it is not a synonym of simultaneous.
So contemporaneous notes are a body of written records that are taken within the same time period.
How come the ink was different?
I used a different pen when I wrote the phrase. Duh? And by the way, I did insert the phrase later because I forgot to in the first instance. I didn’t however return many hours, days or weeks later to do so. No I adjusted my notes five to ten minutes later when I realized the omission. You see, I couldn’t change my notes days or even hours later because the fake incident occurred within the period of one very short training day. So in fact everything recorded on that day was contemporaneous. As the trainer well knew because the note books were submitted to him at the end of the day for review. That’s when he noted the different colored ink.
During the mock trial, he pressed me repeatedly to admit I was wrong but I held my ground. He wanted an admission of guilt but I insisted my notes were contemporaneous. I felt certain based on years of experience I was right. Judging by his reaction to my response it was like a red rag to a bull.
He was used to having his way in the classroom, uncomfortable with any challenge, balking at unsolicited questions. He didn’t cover many topics but of those he did, all were filtered through his own personal experiences, many of which entailed him pulling some rooky into line. He was scornful of previous participants on the course, my fellow colleagues included, and dismissive of the organization as a whole except those elements that had, in their sublime wisdom, decided to engage him as a trainer.
So you’ve been targeted by a bully
There was a tacit expectation that I would apologize; I didn’t share it. Instead I lodged a grievance. This meant an investigation was called for. A real investigation with real people. The Section Manager recalled me swearing at the trainer but nothing of his initial outburst; ditto for the trainer – of course.
The prosecutor (another inspector) strangely couldn’t remember anything of the day. He was a young inspector, keen to get ahead in his career. Luckily for me the witness in waiting (the 2nd inspector) recalled everything; the trainer’s outburst, my response. He was ex-army. He saw service overseas before demob and finishing up in the regulator. You got the impression he was jaded with authority. Without his testimony I do not believe I would have fared at all well in the subsequent investigation. For that I am eternally grateful.
I wasn’t going to let them sweep me under the carpet; hide the investigation under a bushel. I went onto a war footing. I complained to HR but that was just a token gesture. I contacted the union and they put me in contact with a legal firm. I contacted the Government Ombudsman, the Office of Integrity, various employer representative bodies, the media and of course the national OHS regulator. I started taking notes on everything; who, what, when, where, why. I recorded every relevant detail including how I felt. I opened up a war file and collected every scrap of evidence I thought was relevant; emails, performance reports, medical appointments and recommendations, newspaper clippings, photographs, scribbled notes on conversations – everything arranged in chronological order. I read up on the legislation, tracked down the companies OHS policies and did a comparative study of their obligations.
Conclusion
Following the investigation management conceded the trainer spoke to me in an inappropriate manner however the training method was of the ‘shock and awe’ variety. I must admit I wasn’t familiar with this training style. Wikipedia describes Shock and Awe as being based on the military tactic of using overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s and destroy their will to fight. On the matter of contemporaneous note taking management again conceded there were different views on note taking and adding information contemporaneously.
Disappointing. But to be honest it’s what I expected. Sadly, most victims of bullying end up leaving their job. This is usually preceded by a short stint on some Return To Work plan or package which if taken in the wrong frame of mind can be demeaning and demoralizing as many suspect it is intended. In the right frame of mind this stint will buy you some time to plan your exit strategy.
When I tell people what happened I’ve always been advised to contact the workplace safety regulator. I’m told bullying and aggressive behaviour is a breach of health & Safety legislation and that I have rights that the regulator will defend and enforce. The things is, when this happened, I was working for the health and safety regulator. The agency that engaged the trainer to provide the training program was the state government health & safety regulator tasked with enforcing the government’s own regulations on bullying.
If there is one thing I would ask you to remember from my story, it is this: A bully targets you for a reason. They believe they will get away with it. Please don’t let them get away with it. Point the finger and tell the world you’ve been targeted by a bully. Scream it from the mountain tops.
Addendum
Ironically my incident occurred in the middle of Mental Health Week on the day when the National OHS Regulator, SafeWork Australia, encourages the country to ask a work colleague – are you okay? – to make sure no one is left out in the cold.
Simple. And ineffective.
Oh, and there’s one other thing. It turns out the trainer wasn’t even registered. He wasn’t authorized to deliver a training program as the national training laws require. If you’re not registered – you’re not competent to deliver training on any subject matter; Shock and Awe, contemporaneous or otherwise. If only I’d known.
The End
PJ Mackin 