Had three appointments today with various professionals. One adversarial, two helpful.
The adversarial one was related to the trial back in November where I was called as a witness. You may recall that I thought I might have been harassed by the county lawyers. Today I was finally able (along with another coworker) to present my claim to them and see how they react. They, um, didn’t like it much. In fact they used the Nuremberg defense: “We were only doing our job.” I know, I know, it’s probably an unfair comparison, but I still believe that they put their desires to defend themselves and their schemes above their responsibility to their fellow employees and the rights of said employees (like, for example, me).
Basically: I didn’t want to talk to the lawyers for the defense, and they intimidated me into it relentlessly and by getting more managers involved.
Which leads to the scene in the meeting today where the head lawyer pages through a copy of my email exchange with her lieutenant and dismisses it as, “Frankly, I thought that you were a little less than clear in your communication.”
I’m pretty sure my eyes bugged out. “I was,” I said, enunciating each word separately, “less than clear?”
She may have snorted derisively. She did glance at me as if she thought my question was so far off the topic, it didn’t even merit a response.
I said, “I used the phrase ‘I decline to meet with you.’ How unclear can that be?”
She pretended I was speaking Japanese or something and continued not responding.
Incredulously, I continued. “I used that phrase five times!”
At which point she changed the subject.
When it became clear that we were not going to agree, the HR fluffer in attendance asked me what I had hoped to achieve.
I replied, “I wanted to challenge management on this issue and bring it to their attention.”
He smirked, and understated, “Well, I think you did that.”
We’ll see what happens. Probably nothing; county management seems constitutionally incapable of self-reflection and self-correction. They’re, y’know, always right and everything they do is on the side of the angels.