Ingrid: I cannot believe it has been a month since I took sick leave from Triple A. I am feeling so much better now but the thought of going back to work and working with Carmel terrifies me. Why, just the other day I had to go in and submit my doctor’s certificate to HR and as I got closer to work I started shaking and crying uncontrollably and had to get off the train and go home.

I ended up mailing in the doctor’s certificate. When I went to see the doctor she was really concerned for my well-being. The headaches, not sleeping and panic attacks seem to be getting worse, not better!

I really don’t understand what went wrong. Work use to be a great place, full of interesting people and projects that engaged and challenged me. But that all changed when Carmel arrived and started bossing everyone around, but more so me.

In the beginning I really liked Carmel and I thought she liked me. I thought, here we go, she will fit in really well here and spice up the place a bit. How wrong was I! She was employed at the same level as me in the same role but seemed to think she knew it all and that I knew nothing. After about three months she really started to boss me around, almost using me as her own private slave. It started with ‘Can you get me that information?’, using the excuse that she was new to Triple A and progressed to ‘Where is that information I wanted!

Why are you so useless?’

Everything I did was wrong, even the clothes that I wore to work she didn’t like. It all came to a head when a report I was working on was sabotaged, making me look foolish and humiliating me in front of my manager and the client. What she did was take the report on the pretense of editing it and made changes that were not accurate. Why am I such a fool for trusting her!!

After that I really felt like I was being set up all the time and strange things started happening. Nothing I could put my finger on but things like messages not being passed on to me, things going missing from my desk and then reappearing a day later. It wouldn’t have been so bad if my colleagues had supported me but unfortunately most of them seem to have been talking to Carmel and think I am useless. They never felt this way before Carmel was here. I really feel as if I have been bullied.

Question

1 Do you have the full picture?
2 What else would help you to have greater understanding of the case?