[This letter is highly redacted and edited in order to keep corporate maniacs from suing me. It is the honest truth, exactly as I experienced it. It’s a wonder I’m not in a mental institution somewhere. Seriously.]
Monday, August 12, 2019
Dear [Redacted],
Although you are aware of most of the egregious events that have occurred with [Redacted], I feel that I must tell you of my personal experience with them and why it is so stressful both mentally and emotionally for me.
I trained 🟩🟩🟩🟩 in 🟦🟦🟦. Although her training time was abbreviated she seemed quite intelligent and totally capable of accomplishing what was expected of her.
Shortly after she started, she began to talk to me, unsolicited, about problems with her boyfriend, ◼️◼️◼️◼️. I patiently listened as she went on and on about how emotionally volatile he was, how generally emotionally unstable he was, how easily angered he was, and how afraid she was of saying or doing anything that might “set him off”. She claimed that he would lay on the floor at home in a fetal position and not be able to get up.
She claimed that she could not ever be in a clean room [here] with a male alone because ◼️◼️◼️◼️ would become terribly upset. She refused to enter the [quality testing] lab. If a male entered her work room for any reason (quality, maintenance, etc) she would leave the room.
Also, she stated that he insisted that she go to breaks at the same time as him. It didn’t matter to me what time we went to breaks so I appeased her and let her go whenever she liked. Half the time, she would return from breaks obviously crying. She would tell me that something she said had caused him to yell at her or caused an argument between them.
At this point I considered her a victim of Battered Woman Syndrome and I was more than happy to accommodate whatever she needed in order not to endanger her.
One night, one of machines had been down for maintenance and [supervisor] told me that I was to start the extruder at 3:00AM so that we could pull the product at 3:30. I told 🟩🟩🟩🟩 that she needed to go to break promptly at 2:00 (her regular time) so that I could go at 2:30 and return in time to start the machine.
She stated that ◼️◼️◼️◼️ was starting a machine and she wasn’t sure what time he would be available to go to break. According to her, he was not returning her texts regarding break so she assumed that he was already upset with her for some reason.*
2:15AM arrived and I told her that I needed to go to break (because she had essentially missed her usual one). She seemed extremely uncomfortable and afraid and said, “Well, what if you go and he becomes available while you’re gone? He’ll be upset.” At this point I set out to solve the problem.
I walked down to whichever machine he was starting. The quality tech was in the room with him. I asked tech to ask ◼️◼️◼️◼️what time he was planning to go to break. He stated that he wasn’t sure. Certain that 🟩🟩🟩🟩would be a victim of his wrath, I told tech to tell ◼️◼️◼️◼️that I was going to break and that if he had a problem with that to come and talk to me.
On passing by 🟩🟩🟩🟩 room, I told her I was going to break (2:25AM).
When I returned from break, 🟩🟩🟩🟩 came over to my room and asked me if I had walked down to ◼️◼️◼️◼️ room and asked him what time he was going to break. I replied that I had. At that time, her face contorted in fear and she took a step back. She stated, “Well now you’ve come between us, Carol! You’ve caused problems for us!” I said, very gently, “🟩🟩🟩🟩, you can’t live this way” as tears came to her eyes and she turned to go to break.
The next morning, I called the National Domestic Violence Hotline to ask them specifically: If this young man was endangering this young woman, if he was seriously emotionally and physically volatile, and if he found out that she had divulged the momentous amount of abuse that was happening between them to me, did they think that I was in danger in the event that he discovered that she had talked to me?
Emphatically, they agreed that should he find out about her having exposed details about their unstable relationship, considering that we both work in the same building and shift, he could be a personal danger to me.
I purchased a dash-cam for my car as it sits in the employee parking lot overnight so that should anyone strike it, hit it, or otherwise vandalize it, there would be video coverage of the incident. Otherwise, I told 🟩🟩🟩🟩 not to talk to me anymore about their relationship under any circumstances.
In a few weeks, their episode in the parking lot manifested**. The witness 
came to me directly to ask me what to do. Believing that 🟩🟩🟩🟩 was in imminent danger, I advised to talk to [day shift supervisor] immediately and I accompanied to do so. After telling what had seen, [day shif supervisor] arranged to meet in the parking lot to see where it had actually taken place and what saw.
HR came to me the next morning to take a statement. I waited for thirty minutes in the break room and as you know, never took one from me. To this point, I have never been asked to tell them anything about this most stressful situation and how it might be affecting me personally.
On April 10, 2012, my best friend in Memphis, Debbie (Laura) Rowberry, was shot and killed by her husband, Thomas Rowberry, in the parking lot at her workplace. As the police made the scene, her husband fatally shot himself. Needless to say, it was the most extreme time of grief, unbelief and horror not only for me, but for their sons, family, co-workers, and friends. Therefore, I know that these events can and do happen to the utter shock and consternation of everyone involved.
Although I have worked hard to overcome this traumatic event, it is still sometimes very difficult for me and always will be. And the stated events have greatly affected me. This is the statement that Human Resources has not taken and I wanted you to know the truth.
I intend to continue to perform my work to the best of my ability and I appreciate that you, as my manager, can and will consider what I have experienced.
Sincerely,
[Redacted] (Me)
*We were prohibited from having a cell phone in the work room much less texting our significant other (who would also have possessed a cell phone), correct? Yeah.
**Please see “The Parking Lot Incident”
Tears and Catharsis 