Here comes the Mole
Who is the Mole? Does he work for Fake News? Is he a Fake News shareholder? How does he know so much? And what stories is he about to tell? He claims that Fake News have found ways around almost every employment law. Or have they? Watch this space.
Duress
Duress is illegal. It is attributable to factors that include fraudulent misrepresentation (lies). The Mole says it is no laughing matter. Fake News management lied to Tommy Bear and subjected him to duress on such occasions as these:-
1. his supervisor told him he was invited to attend a project review meeting with next level manager to discuss the status of his projects. This was illegal - an act of fraudulent misrepresentation. The purpose was to give him notice of termination. HR was in attendance. The lie disarmed him so he was unable to prepare appropriately and consider what questions to ask.
2. the next manager, Bluey told Tommy at the termination meeting that Tommy was to be terminated on severance, implying that he was no longer required. This was fraudulent misrepresentation and as such, illegal because:-
a. Fake News had previously tried to enlist the EEOC to mediate his termination for filing a whistleblower complaint so true motives were already transparent to the EEOC
b. the same manager, Bluey had told the team two months previously that work would be transferred to Mercer
Consulting but they did not need to be concerned for their jobs, a fraudulent misrepresentation
c. Tommy had been removed from the upcoming Cannes symposium without consultation showing that his removal was being planned prior to setting a cynical performance plan to make it look as though he had a future when he returned from disability leave
d. Tommy’s development plan was neither implemented nor reviewed and he received no feedback in two years. It was a faux plan, an act of contempt to appease the EEOC. An act of fraudulent misrepresentation, there is no evidence of intent to retain or develop him
e. an over ambitious performance plan for the year was set for Tommy ten days before the termination meeting, an act of illegal fraudulent misrepresentation and bullying, scaring him into preferring termination to continuing in employment
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3. using a dropped international call as grounds for an over egged written warning without hearing or expiry date knowing that the employee had intermittent phone access and days before he was to be terminated is illegal- a contrived act of fraudulent misrepresentation
4. disciplining the employee without hearing and fabricating that he had put the phone down on the supervisor with no opportunity for appeal or ADA accommodation was not merely an act of fraudulent misrepresentation but if libel
5. retaining the fabricated warning on file without expiry date so that it can be used to give libellous, damaging references to prospective employers is an act of fraud
6. using the guise of severance to:-
- conceal that the employee with disabilities was awaiting a meeting with HR to review accommodations, an entitlement under ADA legislation and
- to potentially withhold payments of disability pay, bonus, salary increases and other benefits valued at over one million dollars
are acts of fraud
The Mole can reveal that Fake News shareholders are now asking for an investigation to respond to allegations of duress founded upon lies, fraud, libel, breach of EO, ADA and violation of the UN Bill of Human Rights. They are asking why the Fake NewsValues do not include Trust and Mutual Respect. Fake News' response is awaited. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. Watch this space.
Fake News reject
The Mole tells of one Fake News client who paid $1500 a day for a consultant to cover their HR manager vacancy for 12 weeks. It went well enough for the client to agree a two week extension.
That same Fake News consultant then applied for a level transfer into a vacancy in Fake News HR. He wasn’t interviewed. Reason given? Having been a consultant for four years, he had been out of HR for too long. How did the client react when the Mole told them? They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. Watch this space.
Uh-oh Moment
Another story from The Mole. A Fake News research analyst was frustrated with a CIO who could not be pleased. In a break from the meeting, she texted a colleague about her challenges with the CIO. She wrote, “his breath stinks like a toilet and he must have been an ugly baby because just look at him now.”
As she re-entered the meeting, she saw that she had not texted her colleague The actual addressee? The very CIO who was sitting in front of her right now checking the messages on his phone. What happened next? They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. Watch this space.
Equal opportunity
The Mole tells of Fake News' failure to demonstrate fair selection practices. In house recruitment specialists claim that there is a process for applications and selection against solid criteria. By contrast, senior management advise their staff to come to them instead to be put forward for a job. The bosses say they will put a word in for them. Employees dispute that this informal system is in their interests. They say they can’t get on because they are blocked by those very managers who offer to help them. The individuals are too useful where they are and at the job level they are. Trust is destroyed. Claims have been made to the EEOC. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. Watch this space.
Exit interviews? Don’t hold your breath
The Mole has learned that Fake News advocates exit interviews in its research to which clients subscribe. Apparently, a caveat to the research is that people with disabilities don’t get invited.
Tommy Bear, an employee with disabilities, apparently didn’t warrant an exit interview invitation. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. He has questions about the cause of his termination, the status of his NDA, the reasons why his disability pay was curtailed, how he could procure a reference given that a fabricated written warning was on his file, how an appeal was to be set up to clear his name and why he was not paid bonus.
One platitude for money paying Fake News research clients. A totally different practice for a Fake News employee? Not if alarmed Fake News shareholders have their way. Watch this space.
No accommodation here
The Mole has been in touch with Tommy Bear, an employee with disabilities. It seems Fake News have been cited for ADA violations arising from mishandling disabilities. Managers and HR failed to check accommodation needs when recruiting and selecting, planning career development, performance planning and approving resumption from disability leave. Fake News clients are shocked that they pay Fake News for advice that the company doesn’t observe internally. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. A case of physician heal thyself? Watch this space.
Fire the whistleblower for being a whistleblower
Tommy Bear filed complaint against Fake News for discrimination and retaliation with EEOC. The Mole has learned that Fake News' response to EEOC was to place a precondition that they would only attend mediation if the outcome was for the employee - who was protected under the law - to be fired there and then for filing complaint. The EEOC were dismayed that the company would expect them to collude in firing the whistleblower on their premises without even getting a fair hearing of his complaint.
The Mole says here’s what Fake News don’t tell you at Fake News Symposium
1. It is illegal to fire a whistleblower for being a whistleblower.
2. Making termination a precondition for EEOC mediation is naive and could result in accusations of retaliation. The mere proposal can be used to escalate an employee relations issue to one of investor relations and public relations. As evidence, you are reading this.
3. It can also open the door to a claim for duress. Duress is in this context founded upon:-
- fraudulent misrepresentation if Tommy Bear is led to believe he will attend mediation but actually is confronted with no other option but termination. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium.
- breach of public policy. In this case, a threat to terminate a whistleblower for the act of whistleblowing, even if not enacted. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium.
Watch out also for claims of discrimination, breach of ADA and EO. Any breach of law, irrespective of statute of limitations, can lead to a claim of duress.
- bullying and harassment.
A consequence of duress is invalidation of the NDA - the release and waiver. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium.
Saved by a fig leaf?
Fake News attempts to keep the lid on internal bad practices so that clients think Fake News is a quality company. In theory, they are gurus who advise clients to find best practice management solutions. But the Mole says that internally they are inefficient, sometimes operating on the wrong side of the law. Tommy Bear’s final weeks of a ten year career expose the disaster that Fake News dares to call “management.” Fake News shareholders are shocked.
Setting performance plans that are irrelevant, taking disciplinary action that is uninvestigated and fallacious, having an employee on disability leave prepare for project reviews that don’t take place, terminating the individual who is on disability leave and in the middle of a course of hospital treatment only to find the medical benefits were processed but the leave was not, awaiting ADA accommodation but HR never gets back, awaiting an exit interview but HR never gets back and left high and dry without disability pay, medical benefits, bonus process to a basic accurate reference. Fake News uses the fig leaf of release and waiver NDAs (non disclosure agreements) to hide a mix of inefficiency, incompetence, inattention and fraud. How can clients trust Fake News? Why would anyone work for them? Fake News shareholders want answers. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. Watch this space.
He who laughs last
Prior to giving Tommy Bear notice of termination, the Mole is concerned that Fake News management played a series of cynical practical jokes on him:-
- twice he called HR, leaving voice mails to arrange formal accommodations under the ADA so he could resume from disability leave. HR did not take the calls seriously. They did not get back. How funny.
- Eva the supervisor phoned him and set an ambitious performance plan while he was on disability leave. She gave no notice and sent no documentation. The plan was a hoax. He would be terminated without cause just days later. A prank.
- Two faced Eva, known for her tantrums in which she put the phone down on people, sent Tommy Bear a written warning falsely accusing him of putting the phone down on her. Knowing that he had phone and internet issues, she sent it out of his work hours so it would confront him next day while still on disability leave. A hoax, it was compounded by her knowledge that he was likely to be at a UK public library five hours before US offices opened and so he could talk to nobody. What a laugh at the expense of the employee with disabilities
- days later, a deceitful Eva told Tommy that he was to attend a meeting with her boss Bluey to review project plans. He spent hours preparing while on disability leave. This follow up hoax disarmed Tommy. Bluey and HR were able to shock him by telling him that the true purpose of the meeting was to fire him. Hilarious. Even HR was in on the joke
- days later, Eva called a team meeting. Tommy told her he wanted disability leave. Her response was to cut him off like a child, change the subject and for the second time, fail to arrange FMLA leave nor did she set up his disability pay even though he asked twice. Underlying this malicious prank, Tommy had been paying for disability benefits for over ten years and continued to pay for them up to his last day. A cynical Fake News management must have laughed out loud.
- Tommy was then left to wait for HR to set up an exit interview just as Fake News recommends to clients but again the joke was on him. To this day, he has had no invitation to an exit interview. Too funny for words.
However, the Mole says the last laugh will be on Fake News management. Shareholders are angry and want explanations and accountability for these bad taste practical jokes at the expense of an ADA protected employee.
Accusations of breach of public policy (THE LAW that is) and acts of fraudulent misrepresentation (LIES that is) are being cited against Fake News as grounds to invalidate the Company’s precious non-disclosure agreements used as gag orders to prevent leaks of bad practice. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. What will Fake News do? Watch this space.