D Talks #69

8-5-21

So, I haven’t been keeping daily notes, but here’s an overview of the harassment I’ve experienced this week.

Cyberstalking

I can’t recall exactly, the last time I was in a vehicle for transportation purposes, I’d have to check my calendar. Except for yesterday. Yesterday, it was pouring rain, so I was actually in a vehicle, only to my destination though. Anyway, so the cyberstalkers have been controlling my phone again and my phone has been displaying the “Do not disturb while driving” notification when it definitely should not.

This was Monday, and if I were to guess, before that notification, I hadn’t been in a vehicle for over a month:

This was yesterday:

Actually, here’s another one, and I’m recalling that, it had been a while since the cyberstalkers displayed this notification:

Workplace Harassment

So, it’s bad enough that the people that I work with are incredibly invasive, but here are a couple of things that I would determine to be annoying, or harassment, even without the invasiveness.

So firstly, like I mentioned before, I plan on applying to become an officer. I went to the career counseling office, just to see what information they would have for me, and they told me that, with my current status, I wouldn’t be able to apply. I explained that my current status is a sham, and it’s only a matter of time before things are back to normal, so I’d like to get the process started. So they told me that I would have speak to the career counselor at my department to get the contact information for the person in charge of handling officer applications; apparently I could speak to three different people. The person I’m familiar with wasn’t around for sometime, when I was going to ask for the information; avoiding me, I guess, and I don’t see how I can’t get this information online or from a local officer recruiter. Anyway, so this person essentially avoided me, and I had other stuff to focus on, and I’m not in a rush, so I figured I’d give it some time, and with time, I’d be more assured of the intentions. Eventually, I see the last name of one of the three people I could speak with, who I was unfamiliar with. I ask this person if they were a career counselor. It had been a while and it took me a moment to recall the phrase “career counselor” and before I could recall, this person finished my sentence. He tells me he is a career counselor, adding that he “apparently” is the career counselor or something. I asked him for the contact information for the person in charge of officer applications. This person, not being serious, says something about taking care of it later, while seemingly mocking. I figured this person wasn’t going to follow up with me, and hasn’t. Then eventually, I had an opportunity to speak with another career counselor; one of the three career counselors I’m familiar with. I ask this career counselor for the information for the person in charge of officer applications. This person pretty much gives me the runaround and tells me he doesn’t have the contact information and that he would have to contact someone else for that contact information. I expressed that I didn’t see how difficult it would be to provide me with simple contact information, and he says he just doesn’t have that information, and the person who does will be available on Monday; it was a Friday. A week later, I ask for an update, and this person tells me the person who has the information hasn’t contacted him yet, which seemed like malarkey. I told this person a week before that I hadn’t searched online for contacts to apply to be an officer, but that I was sure that the information is online, that I was just asking, because the people at the main career counseling office told me to ask these people for the contact information. I’ve already contacted someone who handles officer applications about a year ago, so the only reason I continue to ask is to get a sense of the intentions, and, they could actually save me some time by providing me with the information, that should be readily available, and, what’s more, it’s their job.

(Something interesting that I’ll add is, I started this draft at about 3AM because I took a nap yesterday, so I’m awake. Probably around 4AM, my roommate plays one of these YouTuber Peeping Toms. I couldn’t tell if it was a previous recording, or if it was live, just because it’s so early in the day, I’m not sure who’s up at this time doing live shows, I’m not even sure what time zone these people are in. With time, I realized that they were live and actively verbally harassing me. This show in question, seems to be composed of I’d say at least one adult male, the main speaker, and someone with a teenage girl voice, and I thought this teenage girl voice might have been a boy, and it could still be a girl over the age of 18. Anyway, it seemed like they were playing video games. I say aloud, who’s going to watch these people play video games at this time of day. I then go on to say, the video game they are playing must be rated for all ages. I then go on to ask myself, what kind of video game is this adult male playing, that of which a little girl has the skill level to play.)

Secondly. So yesterday, I start to walk to work, and as I’m about to open the door to go outside, I notice the door is dripping wet with water from the inside because it was pouring rain outside. I open the door to see the weather, and it’s pouring rain. It took me a couple of seconds to decide whether I should make the walk to work or not. I figured that it would be best from me not to walk to work in the pouring rain. I send a message to a couple of people at work, asking to be excused, because I walk to work, and it was pouring outside; they usually make accommodations when the weather is bad. After a delayed response, I was denied being excused. I reply saying that I couldn’t walk to work in this rain, and that I wouldn’t make it to the morning meeting. If it was a drizzle or light rain, I would have walked, but it was pouring rain. They then tell me that they were going to send someone to pick me up, and I reply saying “thanks.” So I show up to work, and I’m in my gym clothes because I now get dressed in the locker room. I check in with one of the supervisors, and he tells me that after I get dressed, that he needs to speak with me; it sounded like I was in trouble or something, but I couldn’t understand how I would be. So I get dressed, and then I take care of a couple of tasks, and then eventually, they tell me that they are going to have a talk with me. They were harassing me during the tasks, but the harassment is nonstop, so I didn’t think much about it, but in hindsight, it seems like they were trying to cause me some stress before speaking with me, which is just outright bullying. Two supervisors speak with me and they have an official document for a counseling. They said it was a counseling for not showing up to work. I explain that I sent messages, it was pouring rain, and this is excessive and an overreaction because I’ve never seen anybody receive a counseling for either showing up late, or not at all. People send messages to the group chat saying they are running late. Just last week, several people didn’t make it to the afternoon meeting. They then explain that I was issued a raincoat, and that I could have walked to work. I then say that the raincoat can’t withstand 20 minutes of pouring rain. I explain that I was going to look for transportation, and be prepared for pouring rain in the future. One of the supervisors say that I could file a complaint. Luckily, the counseling document allows a statement, so I wrote a brief statement saying that the counseling was unnecessary, excessive, and an overreaction. Per the counseling document, they were going to conduct a full inspection, to make sure I have my rain coat, even though it doesn’t make sense to walking in the pouring rain for at least 20 minutes with that rain coat. After some thought, I concluded that this measure was unreasonable and unfair, so I asked one of these supervisors how to go about filing a complaint. I just so happened to already have the contact information of the person I need to contact to file the complaint from the last time I filed a complaint. So I contacted this person and I have an appointment today. Since the full inspection definitely seems excessive and unreasonable, I’m going to wait until after the complaint is filed and resolved.

My middle name is Antonio, and I want my “juman right, now!” I really don’t like that movie…

8-7-21

So to finish this blog, I’ll continue writing about the complaint. So I spoke with the person in charge of handling complaints. I explain to her that it was pouring rain, I decided not to walk to work, and messaged requesting to be excused. There was some miscommunication between my supervisors and I, however, regardless, the counseling was still an overreaction. I explain how it was unreasonable for my supervisors to expect me to walk to work in the pouring rain since I have a raincoat. The raincoat cannot withstand 20 minutes of pouring rain. I explain that I could understand that expectation if I was issued a better raincoat, rain pants, and rubber boots. I explain that it had never rain that much that early in the day before, and that I had a plan A and plan B in case of pouring rain in the future. And I’m kind of pleased how I handled the situation, because I took my time to think things through, to make a sound argument after taking the time to understand the situation. When I was issued the counseling, my main point was that it was an overreaction and not necessary. After some time, my understanding was that it was unfair, based on an unreasonable expectation, so then I was sure that filing a complaint would be best, plus, I didn’t want to have to spend time preparing for an unnecessary inspection, especially after reading what would be required to prepare for that inspection. After even more time, my argument got better and stronger, and I also had time to recall that this is actually the second counseling since I joined this department. That’s when it actually occurred to me, that even if the raincoat could withstand pouring rain, I don’t have rain pants, or rubber boots, which makes the expectation even more unreasonable. Regarding the first counseling, it definitely seemed unnecessary, but it was just too soon to file a complaint. I had the option to write a statement, so I got to voice my side of the story, and it wasn’t like I had to spend any time preparing for an inspection. The second counseling, by itself, had enough ground to file a complaint. Recalling the first counseling, made the arguments to support the complaint even stronger.

The person in charge of handling complaints agreed that it was an unreasonable expectation of me to walk to work in the pouring rain, and that the inspection as a result did seem excessive. She told me she would speak with my supervisors the following day, and then follow up with me later.

Then the next day, there was definitely an immature negative reaction, and although I’d prefer the situation to be handled maturely and professionally, I didn’t let it bother me.