The message would be relayed to the nerve centre where those of us who had daily contact with him worked. Phil for one would at this point start giving off an odour like an animal in fear. One morning I arrived in the office early. Phil was there almost in tears in hysteria. And off he shot off down the spiral staircase like a Daddy Long Legs on speed. Phil made tea to his precise specifications and did the usual routine of cowering outside the door trying to hear if McDonald was in there and whether he might be on the phone.
An unqualified success – a tale of workplace bullying. – Fragments from a Half Life
He finally knocked and was summoned into the lair. That little scene was absolutely typical. We were soon to find out exactly why this was…. The staff were divided between those of us brave or mad enough to come forward, and those who ran for cover. We needed to be wary of spies. The majority were in the latter category. An inquiry of sorts with a QC was called and we were asked to submit written statements. I had kept notes of incidents, dates and so forth where I witnessed colleagues being subjected to anything from verbal abuse to physical assault.
I knew he was going to see the statements. I knew it could be career suicide. I wrote my statement and recall clearly standing at the post box hesitating and then thought.
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I have to be able to live with myself and my conscience. Would I expect colleagues to write in support for me if I went through something like this?
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At that I shoved it into the post box. This led to an interview with the QC. When I read the typed version of what I had supposedly told him, it was so watered down as to be almost unrecognisable. The QC had been chosen specifically by our politicians for good reason. Perhaps there was a Masonic connection but what I do know is that he was not impartial. I also knew McDonald knew where bodies were buried. He had enough on each politician with any power to render them terrified that he would take them down with him.
He had managed to get away with a rap on the knuckles after the findings of the so-called QC but this was far from the end of the matter. In addition to this commercial enterprise, he was to be given Freedom of the City. This required a lot of meaningless ceremonial and I could tell Mikhail Sergeyevich found a lot of it highly amusing. I recall distinctly that he looked directly across at me after the aide whispered in his ear, took his dessert fork and stabbed the meringue dessert straight through the middle causing it to collapse.
My favourite moment of all though was during the Freedom Ceremony itself. Mr McDonald struggled to get the lid of the pen off.
An Unqualified Success: The Extraordinary Life of Allan Percy Fleming
Time stood still as he fumbled with it trying with his meat pie fingers to sort it out but it would not budge. With an extremely quizzical expression, Mikhail Sergeyevich took the pen from McDonald and simply pulled the lid off, handing it back to him with a very wry smile.
This would be quite a rare combination indication a man of exceptional ability. In the audience, was someone from the Aberdeen University Engineering Department. The inability of McDonald to get the lid of the pen off, planted the seed of suspicion in his mind.
Next morning I came into work early to get a call from our Press Officer who had become a friend and fellow conspirator. She was in a state of high excitement so I legged it across the road to her office in the other building. She had contacted Margaret in the evening of the ceremony and told her that her husband had checked up on McDonald and discovered that not only was he NOT a member of any engineering Institute, he had no MSc. His entire CV had been a fabrication and he was the highest paid official in our City. He knew he was a fake. He knew he could be found out at any time.
Now we needed to get the message out there. I had the task to get McDonald to sign a letter to show that on that date he was still using those letters after his name. Margaret had tipped off a journalist from the quality press in Scotland and I hot-footed it with the hot letter in a brown envelope. This is how the story got out. Margaret and I joined forces to leak it. After the article appeared in the Herald my Mum was worried that it might not get noticed so she photocopied it and distributed it to all the taxi drivers at the taxi rank in Back Wynd.
Taxi drivers had been given a rough time by the Council so they were ready to get the news out. After that the press went haywire. The local tabloids picked it up. It was all over the papers and in the Town House we were buying every single edition in case there were any new details coming out.
No, he was allowed to take early retirement with a massive payoff. Like I said, he knew where bodies were buried so justice was never really served, but he was gone. The Labour Group who had an overall majority voted through the payment with the exception of two Councillors who just could not countenance this payoff.
They were both bullied by their Comrades and they both had breakdowns. One, a firefighter, ended up seriously ill in our local mental hospital.
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It did not do to have a conscience under that regime. What interested me was the distinction between those of us wired to do the right thing, despite personal risk, and speak out, and those prepared to hide behind the wall until it was all over.
I naively had an unshakeable belief that the truth would out. I still have it. Would I do the same again if I found myself in such an extreme situation? I might do it differently. I might make more of an effort to ensure my own safety but ultimately, I would not be able to live with myself unless I told the truth. How right he was….. I speak truth to power even if my voice shakes.
I write about my rollercoaster life, my reflections and observations - some funny, some not so. If I can plant seeds of an idea, make someone laugh, cry or think differently, it will have been worth it. I have chosen to write in the form of blogs which fragments that make up the fabric of my life. Worn, full of holes but with the odd golden thread still visible.
Who knows one day they may become a book. View all posts by allycwriter. The problem is when HR is enabling and even part of the bullying. You are so right there. Ironically the HR officer who sent the most defensive shitty threatening emails was called H. Like Liked by 1 person. My my, you made the same mistake that I did, contacting top leadership in the hopes or naive believe in my case to change some things.
It shall serve as a sore in their eyes. Wow, we have had VERY similar experiences despite the location being different, the culture is identical. Am boycotting Pret from now on. Activities included several extremely popular sessions of squid dissection called "You've Got Guts" pictured top plus:. Robotics groups from around the region gave demonstrations, and Cool Science conducted experiments and presented science-themed magic shows. Children learned to make and launch stomp rockets, and expended some energy in the bounce house. See photo galleries from these weeks here.
Conquering Low Earth Orbit," a salute to the Space Shuttle program with videos, displays and touchable hardware, plus a foot tall, 1: The Discovery Center will be closed on July 4, then reopens at Also on Friday, at 4: Other July theme weeks are:. Summer of Discovery co-sponsors are: This article is part of Space Watch: