Meet Pinky
Pinky was a research analyst with Fake News. She was a friend of Eva’s. They went on vacation together.
Co-author wanted
Pinky agreed to help write a research report that Eva abandoned…. until it was time to take the credit. Tommy Bear had hoped that Pinky would cover him while he was on disability leave. She helped as co-author but for him to hand it over to her as lead author, he needed Eva to work with Pinky in the co-author role, just as she had done on every report for five years but she abandoned the project. She let Tommy do most of the work - until the very end when she took on the final edits and claimed credit for Tommy’s work. The final product was published without any credit to him after months of work. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium. What happened? Watch this space.
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Second guesser
Tommy Bear was asked to stand in as a conference presenter. He had never been to one of these client conferences before. He received no orientation, no instructions. On arrival, he went to dinner with clients and was surprised to be told to make an impromptu speech about someone else’s presentation which he had barely perused. It wasn’t part of the deal.
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Pinky told hm next day that she was disappointed in his dinner speech. Tommy said nothing but was annoyed. What her role was he didn’t know but clearly she knew speeches had to be made - why had neither she nor his supervisor Eva told him in advance so he could prepare? Every Fake News presenter but him had known in advance. All but him were making their own presentations. Was he being set up to fail? When treated differently and placed at a disadvantage, it is natural for someone with disabilities to feel discriminated against. Even worse for Tommy was to be second guessed by Pinky who had failed to share that information. Things went downhill from there.
Downhill Racing
Later in the week of the conference, Tommy remained unhappy about the impending presentation. The style was arguably inferior to the other presentations. The research was scant and outdated. It needed a lot of work. The presentation slot was brought forward with three hours notice. Preparation would be tight.
He was at lunch with Pinky when a colleague told him he would be on next - straight after lunch. Three hours notice was now down to twenty minutes.
Pinky told him to leave his barely touched lunch and go prepare. On arrival at the conference room, he could barely see what he was doing. Hungry and thirsty, he grappled with the slide projection but the outside light created glare so he couldn’t read the slides or make out the audience. Without preparation time, he couldn’t make notes or memorize the slides. He could not even see to pour water from a pitcher. Pinky had gone. No one from Fake News was there to support him. In crisis mode, he abandoned the slide show and presented using flip charts that he made up as he went along.
A downhill session but he attempted a rescue. Too late for the session feedback ratings which were provided to Eva and Bluey. He never got to see the feedback. That was his last presentation before going on disability leave the following week. Bluey was to investigate. Years later, his investigation findings are still awaited. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium.
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Too picky for Pinky
After Eva and Pinky returned from vacation, Eva resumed weekly status meetings with Tommy Bear. She asked him out of the blue, why he didn’t date Pinky. He wasn’t surprised to find she had added matchmaking to her job description. She didn’t seem to do much else, as demonstrated by the lack of impact of her going on vacation. Also, he was used to her prying into his personal affairs. “I know you don’t like me asking you about your personal affairs but if I don’t take an interest who will?” His view was that if she knew he didn’t like it, why did she do it?
He told her diplomatically that location was an issue as Pinky lived two time zones away. Eva was irritated to find that her proposal received no enthusiasm. “You’re too picky when it comes to women,” she retorted. This is an example of sexual harassment and bullying. They don’t tell you that at Fake News Symposium.
Shareholders are asking how this inappropriate behavior by the supervisor of a legally protected employee could happen - an employee who already felt so bullied that he had filed two claims with the EEOC and had requested a change of this very supervisor. Fake News' response is awaited. Watch this space.