Caliper Consulting Ltd

Caliper Consulting was an engineering firm in Ellerslie, Auckland. They were an Australian company that bought local firms in New Zealand with very poor work environments and culture. They had been downsizing personnel without actually paying redundancy by actually bullying staff into resigning and that was very convenient. Staff would be called into meetings for “performance evaluation” where they would be criticised, minimised, undermined and unrecognised. The number of staff went from 120 to about 60 in less than 8 months. Every week someone would resign. Once bullied, the person would start looking for another job, naturally.

The environment was extremely toxic and their Regional Director Bruce Wayne was a complete idiot (very unlike the superhero character with this name). However, there was this engineer who decided to fight them back. Her name was Maria Contreras. She was from one of those “South American Countries” as they are called in New Zealand. She had done a fantastic job with a particularly difficult client. Her manager, Richard Raglan, was also a bit of a moron and an aussie butt kisser. Not a very good civil engineer, who felt a bit threatened by Maria’s competency and work ethics, plus the fact she could actually complete her projects on time and under budget.

So perhaps pressured by Bruce and the corporate people, he decided to take it on Maria and started making bullying comments about her work, even calling her on a One-on-one meeting where he actually bashed her work, even though she had received complements from the client (a Chinese developer). Richard was on Tinder. He was probably trying to get Maria’s attention, even though Maria was married. This whole thing had started much earlier, with subtle comments that Maria attributed to Richard’s grief after losing his mom and she just ignored. Some comments were borderline sexual harassment.

Maria did what any normal person in any other country but New Zealand or Australia would do: talk to your HR department and raise your concerns. The HR department consisted of Ranita Dayan and Lisha Holiday, and a few other useless people. They supposedly started an investigation but in reality they started a process of what is common in New Zealand: covering up the company and their liability on this matter. They hired an “investigator” EMAc, Employers and Manipulators Association crooks. They are actually an agency that supports the employers, not the employees. The investigations are sneaky and intended to cover all actual traces of bullying by setting up questions for all the parties that will eventually frame the bullied person into admitting some sort of responsibility or guilt on the events, so that at the conclusion of the investigation and “on the basis of probabilities” no bullying ever took place.

Imagine, for a second, if you are someone from Europe or the USA or Latin America or any other professionally civilized part of the world and you end up facing this Kangaroo court, so far away from home, going to New Zealand thinking it is a progressive place who welcomes immigrants and is so fair and tolerant, not having family or close knit of friends and trusting that an investigation where you have solid evidence of bullying and sexual harassment will be fair, then finding out that they are all conspiring against you, blaming you for it, even though you were doing a good job and the Tall Poppy Syndrome from these crazies starts attacking you out of jealousy and xenophobia. The investigator himself was German and quite racist too. It was evident from the way he structured his questions and the way Maria was treated the moment she stepped into this office where her statement was recorded. Later on this guy actually dissected everything to find a way to turn it against her. The symptoms of stress immediately started showing for Maria, a headache that felt like a concussion and it wouldn’t go away. Nightmares started happening, you don’t feel like waking up to go to work, you may start drinking more just to cope with the amount of disgust and despair. These investigations are intentionally structured to make everyone in the process feel quite uncomfortable, specially the bullied person. Others involved started lying to protect the bully, Richard (in this case their boss) and it is really sad and pathetic to read lies from what are supposed to be professionals like Suman, a Chinese failed chemical engineer turned civil drafter, who when asked about these incidents (some of them started by her) calmly lied like an uneducated gossiper thug. It diminishes otherwise professionals to levels that are too hard to lower yourself to for someone from a professional environment overseas. The way they typically respond is precisely by lowering themselves to those levels, or “fighting back” as Maria was advised to do. This may involve bullying the bully when nobody is watching, saying something harsh, intimidating him psychologically and passive aggressively (can’t do it directly or else he will accuse you of bullying and get you investigated and fired). In general, New Zealanders and Australians, like the old British pirates and buccaneers, would respond to threats, and will threaten each other back and forth like a normal thing. It generally does work, unlike with terrorist threats who you are not supposed to negotiate with. Threatening in the USA is taken seriously and not normally done. In Latin America and Europe (the UK is not Europe after racist Brexit), people are generally less hostile. With New Zealanders, do find a way to threaten them like that crazy Albanian gangster in the movie “Taken” saying “Good Luck” in creepy voice. Even better, be Liam Neesom when he tells the criminal who took his daughter “I have a particular set of skills, I will find you, and I will (place threat here)”. Even better yet, get a lawyer, show up with him as your “support person” to a meeting with HR, the bully and whoever else. Ask for $25k in compensation. Don’t resign until you have settled. Take time of to talk to a GP and get a medical certificate before you do this.

The final outcome of this investigation was challenged by Maria with very valid arguments, but she was advised to settle and leave the toxic job, after consulting with a an “advocate” by the name of Max, who has his own radio show about this very subject. Max, of course, does not do this for free. He charges about $3,000 or so, depending on the case, and won’t move a finger without at least $500 retainer. Max understood the laws well, and in theory provided good support to Maria, though he called her one evening with a seductive tone of voice, knowing, as they do, that Maria must be feeling vulnerable and he can play superhero. Maria asked him to remove himself from her case, contacted Erick Simon, an American engineer then in charge of the office (who had first told Maria about kiwis Tall Poppy Syndrome and how crazy they were).

Maria told Erick that their lawyer Ashley was delaying negotiations so he could charge more. Lawyers see these incidents as profit, so they would not want this system to end and risk losing a serious source of cash. These negotiations are like an ancient Persian market, where they start bargaining what each party ones. It is truly a fascinating process. The final outcome of this process, when involving the company’s HR, is never against the bully or forcing him to quit, it is always against the bullied person who is forced to resign.

Erick instructed the lawyer to settle with Max about Maria’s FINAL PAY acceptance. The settlement included $23,000 in cash, paid within 7 days into her account. The amount includes all holiday owe, so make sure you take all your sick leave before you start your negotiation for a final settlement, that is what kiwis do. Maria was forced to resign, and no further action can be taken against the company after this (though you could still hire someone to beat up the bully, and this is done in New Zealand sometimes). The agreement will also include things such as “no disparaging comments” which only the employee abides to. Employers generally badmouth and even provide a bad reference about the person who went through the traumatic bullying experience, they also interfere with your ability to get another job, so as to teach you a lesson never to rebel against the white supremacist kiwi male species. The agreement will also include a CONFIDENTIALITY clause, where the agreement is to be kept in secret…and this is where we come in to expose. This is a particular part of this system that makes is so sinister and twisted. Exposing truth is light. Lies are darkness. Bullying in NZ is darkness.