January 23, 1995
3801 Connecticut Ave., NW
#136
Washington, DC 20008-4530
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington Field Office
1900 Half Street, SW
Washington, DC 20324-1600
Dear Sir:
The following materials are forwarded for your information:
Letter dated January 13, 1995 to my current treating psychiatrist Dr. Georgopoulos, concerning my mental state and psychiatric treatment history at GW. On January 12, 1995 I asked my psychiatrist, Dr. Georgopoulos, whether he thought I was currently employable. He stated that he thought I might be able to perform certain tasks. I then asked whether Dr. Georgopoulos would telephone my former employer to advise the employer that I was now employable and inquire whether the employer might reinstate my employment. Dr. Georgopoulos then asked me to whom he should speak. I responded: Dennis Race.” Dr. Georgopoulos said he would review with his supervisor at the GW psychiatry department the matter of contacting Dennis Race at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld to inquire about reinstating my employment.
On January 19, 1995 I delivered to Dr. Georgopoulos a copy of the enclosed letter (dated January 13, 1995) that details my current mental state. At my consultation on January 20, 1995 Dr. Georgopoulos advised me that he had reviewed with his supervisor the possibility of contacting my former employer and that both Dr. Georgopoulos and his supervisor determined, in part based on the enclosed letter dated January 13, 1995, that my current paranoid mental state made it inappropriate to contact my former employer at this time. Dr. Georgopoulos explained that although my job performance was outstanding at Akin Gump, my perceptions remained dominated by paranoid thinking and that it was my paranoid thinking that was at the root of my interpersonal difficulties at Akin Gump. Dr. Georgopoulos stated that statements by coworkers at Akin Gump that they were afraid of me were a rational reaction by coworkers to my paranoid and suspicious manner. Apparently, it is the position of Dr. Georgopoulos and his supervisor that I was not a victim of harassment at Akin Gump or that Akin Gump was a hostile work environment; rather my belief that I was a victim of harassment is evidence of my paranoid suspiciousness, which paranoid suspiciousness made it difficult for others to work with me.
Also enclosed for your information is a copy of all Performance Evaluations prepared during my employment at Akin Gump together with a tape recording of a telephone conversation that I had with a coworker, Mrs. Patricia McNeil, on July 1, 1993. Presumably, Dr. Georgopoulos would concur that these materials fully document the natural history of a severe paranoid mental disorder that has the tendency of arousing fear in others, and that causes me to believe, wrongly, that I was a victim of harassment at Akin Gump.
In view of the determination by the Government of the District of Columbia that as of October 29, 1991 I suffered from severe paranoid disturbance and that, according to my former direct supervisor at akin Gump, Christine Robertson, I may be armed and homicidal, this matter is quite serious.
Sincerely,
Gary Freedman
Fears that a target of workplace mobbing might become violent are a feature of that form of subtle job harassment.
ReplyDeleteSee item no. 16 below:
ReplyDelete1. By standard criteria of job performance, the target is at least average, probably above average.
2. Rumours and gossip circulate about the target’s misdeeds: “Did you hear what she did last week?”
3. The target is not invited to meetings or voted onto committees, is excluded or excludes self.
4. Collective focus on a critical incident that “shows what kind of man he really is.”
5. Shared conviction that the target needs some kind of formal punishment, “to be taught a lesson.”
6. Unusual timing of the decision to punish, e. g., apart from the annual performance review.
7. Emotion-laden, defamatory rhetoric about the target in oral and written communications.
8. Formal expressions of collective negative sentiment toward the target, e. g. a vote of censure, signatures on a petition, meeting to discuss what to do about the target.
9. High value on secrecy, confidentiality, and collegial solidarity among the mobbers.
10. Loss of diversity of argument, so that it becomes dangerous to “speak up for”or defend the target.
11. The adding up of the target’s real or imagined venial sins to make a mortal sin that cries for action.
12. The target is seen as personally abhorrent, with no redeeming qualities; stigmatizing, exclusionary labels are applied.
13. Disregard of established procedures, as mobbers take matters into their own hands.
14. Resistance to independent, outside review of sanctions imposed on the target.
15. Outraged response to any appeals for outside help the target may make.
16. Mobbers’ fear of violence from target, target’s fear of violence from mobbers, or both.