Terrorism The American Corporate Way

In one instance Carl and Darth staged a meeting at the laboratory door. Carl
turned to me and said he was checking his keys to see if they fit the door because he
was coming in on Saturday to work. I had worked on Saturdays when I first joined
Gamma Supplies, but I stopped that practice when I knew I had no future there. Somehow I just didn't believe Carl was the type to work on Saturdays or any other day if he thought he didn't have to. Besides lacking any real talent, Carl seemed to be rather lazy. I thought they were just trying to intimidate me to get more work out of me with this little scenario. Of course, that would have just been another unconfirmed belief of mine except that I overheard Carl talking to a secretary a short time later, and he was bragging to her about how he had never worked a Saturday in his life! When Carl turned around and saw me listening to
him, he turned beet red.

In early October, the plan to get rid of me started in earnest. First, my problems with Buzz were always present and had reached a head. I went into the laboratory to find Buzz and was told by Jeff that he was in talking with Darth. Fuzzy's talk lasted for over an hour, and when he emerged I came into the laboratory to talk to him but he ignored me. Instead he walked to the other side of the laboratory to Jeff.

Jeff inquired in a loud voice. “Well, what did he say?”

Buzz responded. “He said he knew it was a bad situation, but there was nothing
he could do right now because he didn't have anyone to replace him. We just have
to live with the situation”.

Given the situation it was not hard to figure out what Buzz had been discussing
and his willingness to air his conversation in front of me did not surprise me
because what good did it do to set someone up to be fired if you didn't create the
anxiety to go with it. Anxiety was always being generated by the annoying phone
calls that were becoming more and more frequent. The harassing phone calls had
become a joke in the laboratory and everyone was aware I was being harassed. Now
it was as if they were saying, “we are going to fire you and here is how we are
going to do it.”

I was also getting increased conflict from Carl and Jay. Carl would give me
a sheet of paper with some things to be done, and then I would discuss the items
with Carl. During the discussion, he would say item 4 wasn't important and that I
shouldn't worry about it. So I would do everything but item 4, and then Jay would
come in my office and yell at me for not doing item 4. He would tell me how Carl was disappointed in me because I wasn't doing what he asked me to do. Carl then
would go tell Jay who would then lecture me. It seemed like every effort was
being made to drive me out of the company.

I had gone along with enough things, but I was not going to stand for being set
up to be fired. The next day I walked into Ralph Sampson's office. Dave Lipton was
sitting there when I said, “Well, I'm being set-up to be fired.” Both of them had
blank stares like I had said something wrong when Dave Lipton finally said “Come
on Russ, no one is setting you up.” Immediately they turned the conversation to
some trivial topic. Then I departed. I had made it know that I would not stand by
silently while Gamma Supplies people set me up to fire me. After the conversation with Dave and Ralph, the effort to get rid of me became more directed at forcing me to resign through harassment, implied suggestions and intimidation.

In early November, I informed my wife that we would have to sell the house and
I would have to find another job. She did not act very surprised and was more
concerned about finishing her first semester of college. In fact, Anita's whole non-
reaction to all that was going on really bothered me.