7 Trial Lawyer • Summer 2022 A sweet reward Brandon loved his job and enjoyed being needed so much he had never taken time off for vacation since he had joined the company. To reward him, for his 10th year anniversary, Acme gave Bandon a substantial pay raise and a twoweek vacation package to Hawaii. The company braced itself for a tough two weeks in Brandon’s absence but was hopeful he would come back refreshed and energized to continue his efforts in bridging the communication gaps between the various departments. Almost immediately after Brandon departed for Hawaii, HR was inundated with petty complaints from employees about each other. Each department refused to work with or communicate with other departments without HR’s involvement. In one short week, the company came to a standstill and no one in management knew how to solve the problem other than to pray for Brandon’s quick and safe return. A week before Brandon was scheduled to return, Jennie from the service department attended her cousin’s wedding. At the wedding, she was shocked to be seated at a table next to Kevin, her archenemy from the shipping department. Kevin was the groom’s cousin and had no idea that Jennie was related to the bride. Jennie and Kevin hated each other and often butted heads at work when they interacted. By the end of the night, Jennie confronted Kevin about his spreading rumors about her at work. Kevin confronted Jennie in return about disparaging him and his department. After some colorful and heated back-andforth, neither one was ready to admit to any wrongdoing and continued to blame the other. The following Monday, Kevin and Jennie continued their argument at work, but this time Jennie was armed with emails Kevin had written to Brandon which he had forwarded to her. Once Kevin looked at the emails, he was shocked by the content and denied writing them. To prove it, he showed Jennie the actual emails he had sent to Brandon. That is when they came to the shocking realization that Brandon had been altering each of their emails and making them appear derogatory and unkind. For example, Jennie had sent Brandon an email to share with Kevin: “When will they ship this out?” Kevin had responded, “We can’t ship more products to this customer unless accounting confirms receipt of funds for their last shipment. The program will not allow us to input the new shipment without a manual bypass, which is against company policy, and I won’t do that because it would be STUPID.” However, the email Brandon forwarded to Jennie from Kevin simply read, “I won’t do that, she is STUPID.” As they continued to compare more emails and rumors, they came to an undeniable conclusion. Brandon was playing each side against the other. Jennie and Kevin felt a deep sense of betrayal because each considered Brandon a trusted friend with whom they had shared personal and confidential information. Soon, each department began to compare notes with other departments, and it became painfully clear that Brandon for many years had single-handedly and covertly created a toxic work environment for everyone. Communication failure It was equally shocking to management to find out it was their golden boy, Brandon, who had been covertly spreading gossip and false rumors about everyone and, in the process, making others contributors to office gossip by repeating what they had heard from him. These systematic and calculated negative communications among various departments had adversely affected everyone’s relationship with each other, resulting in years of malicious tit-for-tat behaviors. By ingratiating himself to everyone, Brandon had gained the trust See Toxic Employees 8
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