Lyndoch marks National Anti-Bullying Day with…bullying?

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Today is National Anti-Bullying Day and Lyndoch Living has marked the occasion with a petition to shore up support for its CEO…who has been accused of bullying, intimidation and manipulation.

Having read last night’s Terrier piece which revealed the explosive bullying claims against the CEO, Lyndoch staff arrived at work this morning to find a petition being circulated from the CEO’s inner circle.

The petition didn’t encourage staff to demand action on the claims, but, instead, pledge allegiance to the CEO and ask the Lyndoch board to publicly acknowledge the staff’s fear love and isolation support.

Well of course! Pass the pen!

The poor staff – many of whom have already spilled their guts in the anonymous staff survey – didn’t know what to do.

Should they sign it – and declare a false allegiance – or shouldn’t they, and face being the next pinball to be metaphorically bounced off the walls until their head hurts?

If this is not bullying, then I have lost my judgment. I doubt this is even legal, but it is most definitely desperate.

Very desperate. 

Speaking of legal, if anyone within Lyndoch was gathering material for a compensation claim against bullying and harassment, I suspect they would have photocopied this petition and added it straight to their file.

Because the Lyndoch staff have already spoken up against bullying as best they can.

More than 140 staff filled out an anonymous staff survey that was ordered via Lyndoch’s very expensive lawyers, K&L Gates, and compiled by a Melbourne consultancy called ‘Working Together’. (Ka-ching! $$ Ka-ching!)

The damning survey results were sent to the Lyndoch CEO in January and given to the Lyndoch board in February: they have read them, and done nothing.

As I wrote last night, 15 people in that survey said that:

“the CEO’s culture of intimidation, manipulation and bullying greatly impacted their safety, health and wellbeing. They said they witnessed her bullying others and making decisions in regard to her own self-interests and not the organisation as a whole.”

 

That is mind-blowing, but there is more.

Here is another snippet:

“Two thirds of (the 147) respondents said that in their opinion, Lyndoch’s values are not upheld within the organisation.

…there were issues in regard to the CEO specifically not upholding Lyndoch’s values, with a couple of respondents stating they have been directed by the CEO to ignore behaviour that is inconsistent to the values and for employees to just ‘deal with it’.”

 

So the CEO allegedly doesn’t uphold the values of Lyndoch and says the staff should ‘deal with it’.

Okaaay….

And here is another:

“Just under a quarter of respondents said that Corporate staff were not welcoming, that some Corporate staff would not help unless it benefited them and there was an ‘us and them’ mentality that impacted on all of Lyndoch’s values…This was seen to be behaviours from the CEO that filtered down.”

 

So the corporate staff have to “kiss up and kick down”. (thankyou, JD, for that line)

And one more:

“Comments were made in regard to people who were beneficial to the organisation being ‘pushed out’ due to the mismanagement of bullying behaviour they had either witnessed or endured. A few employees stated that there was a culture where individuals who reported bullying were ostracised and created a target on their back with upper management”.

 

All cheery stuff. Pass me the petition!

You get the picture and maybe one day the inner sanctum of Lyndoch Living might release the whole document so you can get the whole picture, but I doubt it.

They have more important things to do, like draw up petitions and hire a consultant to soak-rinse-wash-bleach-and-spin all of the bad news into good news, leaving the Lyndoch power base sparkly clean and stain free.

(A favoured consultant from out of town was seen leaving the Lyndoch building again today. I wonder why they were there?)

When there is a steady flow of the same allegations, things inevitably start to stick and it all, eventually, comes unstuck.

Now that powerful people are taking note, including MPs Roma Britnell and Dan Tehan, many people feel that day is fast approaching and, for the sake of our wonderful Lyndoch, I hope they’re right.

Happy National Anti-Bullying Day.

#nomorebullying #standup #speakout #staystrong

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