Open letter

Dear Catherine,

Time has passed.

Has it made you wiser, given you insight, inspired you to take a good hard long and most importantly honest look at yourself?

Are you able to discern the enormous damage that you allowed to come to pass both to people and to the the departments that you are responsible for?

I wonder if you see it yet, or if you are still blindly adhering to a terrible principle which is as misguided as it is illogical.

I believe you are a nice enough person. Except you work for an evil corporation; how can that sit well with your conscience?

You seem to have some intelligence and yet you prefer to be given instruction than to use your insight to evaluate ideas as they are presented to you.

Are you just doing whatever it takes to hold on to the job that gives you the giant diamond rock, the expensive watch and the Lexus? Is that all this is about?

If that is the case then you have been very facetious in telling us you wanted the best for us etc etc and blah blah blah.

We can’t believe a word you say in any case. Once a person has been proven false, it is very unwise for anyone to place their trust in them again unquestioning.

You said you felt you were ambushed. Of course you were!! You allowed and possibly even facilitated the worst happenings that have ever been seen! Things we couldn’t have imagined!! You damaged people, health, trust and the organisation, not just in the here and now but you have caused such severe damage to come to pass that people will still be casting this up to you for years to come!!

Do you realise this? Do you actually understand the enormity of what you have allowed and contributed to? Do you realise the damage, the disruption, the failure that will be attributed to you for years and years?

You wouldn’t listen. You know nothing, you came at this with no knowledge or experience, and yet you were the one talking, and not ever listening. I watched you at the point of crisis when you wanted to be seen to be listening: 90 minutes of us talking and you wrote a paragraph at the most. Of course you weren’t listening!! Once again it was a PR stunt, like all your meetings and gatherings and here’s to the future toasts!!

You are despised. The only way you can ever change that is to turn back time and not allow what you allowed! Without that, you may think that we are moving on but we will never forget what you did, what you allowed, how you behaved, who’s interests you really had a heart. Not ours, that’s for sure.

I can quote you my own personal experience with you. In difficult times you said to me in the corridor that you will always be there to support me. What a load of rot!! I told you how you could support me, and you ignored it.

Well let me tell you this. I have suffered through the pain and inconvenience of irritable bowel syndrome, the stress of an immune cell disorder, the fear of generalised anxiety disorder, the utter despair of depression and now the swings and roundabouts of bipolar disorder.

I lay them all at your feet.

You had opportunity to intervene in a timely manner and you neglected your responsibility. It’s that simple.

You failed me.

And not just me.

I could name names but what good would it do? You won’t help. You’re useless. You like to sound interesting and supportive but its all words. You will never do anything that contends with your management structure. You will always put your own interests first. You will always sounds nice and do absolutely nothing to help!

So good riddance to you as a manager!

I’m much better off now, job-wise. If I could work that is. Which I can’t. At your feet.

It might be easy for me to move on but the destruction left behind will stand for years as testament to the truth we told you, which you ignored and are living the consequence of, whether you see it or not. You probably don’t see it. You were never very good at opening your eyes. Deliberately blind in fact.

Useless, destructive, self-centred. That’s you.

Don’t ever think that we won’t all remember. We’ll remember. We went through hell because of you. Personally, professionally, mentally, physically.

We will remember.

If our paths ever cross again it will not be in your favour. You are a hurtful, willful person and our sympathy was long ago distinguished.

If I could have one wish concerning you, it would be that you would finally see; truly really wholly see what has happened and what you allowed. That you would see the damage you have done, the careers you have affected, the pain you have caused, the difficulty, the stress, the fear, the uncertainty, the heartache. I would have you see all that you have done to the people you were responsible for and how you have failed to be an effective useful manager.

I don’t wish you harm, only that you would see and feel the harm that you have caused and allowed to come about; that you would finally learn!