Another Work Letter

24th August ….

Team Leader

Dear (name withheld)

I wish to advise that as a team leader of (withheld) department … you are encroaching and being disrespectful of my personal space. I am not alone in experiencing this as I have also heard another speak of your actions encroaching on their personal space during positioning as we all gathered ready for a team meeting.

Since the beginning of my employment at this store when I am rostered on the same working hour shifts as yourself, on more than I care to count you have continually placed your hands upon my person and shoulders when it is not necessary to do so when relaying verbal information to me. 

My decision to make this formally known was because of the outcome of events on the morning of Friday 22nd August.

I was woken from my sleep at 0620am by (name withheld) staff member to enquire if I was available for an extra shift this morning. To which I replied yes, and was thankful for the extra hours.  It was requested that I be there as soon as I could, after I explained that I could not arrive there in the time frame that was originally given to me as I stated it’s a fifty minute drive from my house and I also have to get ready.

I had been awake not much more than ninety minutes, when during the full team grouping, as one of the last to arrive at the grouping you came and sidled up beside me and stuck your right arm around me and pulled me into this hug as one does with good close friends. I also noticed you had placed your left arm on another (withheld department) team member at the same time. I did not enjoy you touching me in this way and immediately pulled away from this embrace. To which I removed myself from your grasp in an unappreciated action.

You may not be aware that I find this disrespectful as one who has not long woken up and to be not long out of bed, to be prodded and mauled by one who is not an immediate family member.

I remind you that I am a work colleague in a working environment with allocated job requirements to be fulfilled during my working rostered hours. I accept any direction you advise to complete the tasks to be fulfilled on shift, but I do not feel there is a need to be so touchy feely whenever relaying information.

This may seem like I am being over the top with my personal working space environment. 

My experience in many incidences in my life has proven that this unnecessary touchy feely action by work colleagues has a negative impact on my life in many forms. So much so, that my adamant experience of such numerous occasions in other working environments, that I have included specific examples from my past in a book that I am writing and am near to completion, as I attempt to finish the last chapter (despite the many distractions presenting of late). 

The closest to which I can relate a type of analogical scientific research equilibrium without overstepping the ethical boundaries of my current employer guidelines (text removed) is the comparison of what I physically experience in relation to how certain situations can affect some people as explained in the Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) foundation theories of psychologically personality types basics.

Participants are categorized into 4 major areas of personality traits with 12 smaller categories branches of other areas in their nature after answering a series of questions. I do not fully recall the main terminology of the categories (as it has been twenty years since partaking in one of these psychology human resources analysis tests).

I was boxed into one of the categories that being around many people, I would get tired more quickly than others labelled in the other categories and need to pull away for some alone time to recoup my  energy levels. This meant nothing to me twenty years ago. Today I can see the relevance of it all.

Apart from the interesting feature where on partaking in a forum for curiosity sake I fell into one of the categories where I am within the 5% of females who think like a man. The more important aspect and that is relevant to my complaint of the touchy-feelyness at work is that I fit into the category which when involved with other people in groups, I am worn down and have to move away to place of solitude to recoup my energy in preparation for the next group activity or union so to speak. My experience has shown me (and I have found it to be relevant) that if I am going to last through a working week in certain environments, I need to minimize the physical touching exposure with work colleagues to ensure I am physically well to attend my places of employment. I am guessing this is a bit like the introverts who need their quiet time as a matter of survival.

One morning I heard you say to another whilst in the online department area within the first few weeks at work, “That you were buzzing with so much energy yesterday afternoon that you had to run around like crazy at home doing the housework just to get rid of the excess energy you had so you could tone yourself down.” I am guessing from your remarks that this would appear to reflect that you would fit into one of the BMTI categories of extrovert, who in the words of the course demonstrator’s description ‘comes more alive and feeds off people when in group situations’. 

As a Christian, my God given direction analogy of the MBTI philosophy can be broached from different pathways. The journey that I have been placed on by my Lord Jesus Christ brings light into the dark practices of this world and it falls into different categories all together. This information I share in my book, should the world stop distracting me and allow me to finish it and bring it to full publication. One of the moments of my life I share in the writings, involve events at a specific workplace in the lead up to me attending at a band tribute concert at the end of my work shift.
 
I left my last position, a good paying job with good working hours, because of the same effect of working with staff members, who have this great need to be placing their hands upon my person, resulting in me flaking by the end of the day due to the continual draining of my energy levels through their continuous touching. By the end of the week, my three days off was used to recover, just so I had enough strength to start the new working week all over again. This meant my personal life and personal household chores suffered due to the fatigue I was experiencing.

It became a matter of survival for me to leave. I do not wish to leave this position based on the same reasoning of cause and effect, and the continual revelations of patterns of the same game play. I enjoy my job itinerary in this position, the same as I did in the laboratory. This cause-and-effect sheds new light on the medical term ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ which I also share details of in my last critical chapter of my book writings.  

I again in the past few months have spent the full three days of my time off whilst not rostered on, in bed so fatigued from in my experience and observation (past and present) is from you placing your hands upon my person at work. 

As the majority of (withheld-departmental) staff members are casually employed, if we don’t work, we don’t get paid. We don’t have access to sick leave. If staff or customers have an adverse effect on our person we suffer double outcomes: - a sick body and no income.

I request that you respect my personal space and reframe from placing your hands upon my person. I accept there will be incidences during exchanges of (withheld-work equipment) and questioning of items on the (withheld - said computer interface) where it becomes a necessity to gain closer viewing positions of the screen and or during the handling and transfer of (withheld-items), where smaller personal space distance becomes  unavoidable.

Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

Lee-Ann Crowley