The daily pressure kept adding up. Kian couldn’t even catch up by thinking of an effective mechanism to destress. His body complained with allergic reactions. The lethargy was devastating. He seemed to forget the feeling of being happy. One of the worst times for a human being was when that person didn’t find the existence of hope and optimism. In short, there wasn’t any driving factor to move him forward.

It was the day he decided to take some actions with his heavy head. There was no space to hear advices from others or think of alternatives. He did consider if he was about to go down the path of irrationality. But he couldn’t make the correct judgement with biases. Oftentimes people liked to pick the wild route because their brains took the shortcut and inflicted the thought that craziness might work.

He started typing. First of all, he sent out a 2-liner resignation letter. After that, he came to the core.

Dear Board Members,

My name is Kian. I began my middle manager position at this organization 3 years ago. After 15 years of my work experiences from Asia and America, I’m writing to leave my words about the actual operation on the ground that was filled with non-stop mismanagement of the management team, which has taken a toll on reflecting the values of this particular place and the mental health development of staff.

Inauthentic consultations happened all the time. It was understood as just a process instead of really getting the mostly-suggested ideas of us. It was common to see that the bosses actually had their thoughts. What they implemented eventually was the opposite to what a large number of people proposed. One of the examples was about promoting certain incompetent staff to important gatekeeping roles. While two-third of colleagues obviously disagreed with the move, those people were still up for the positions in the end. We did understand that bosses could have their own plans. But the way of handling these incidents disappointed staff. Such a situation also encouraged the gossiping culture because people used their own way to interpret the workplace. The distrust toward the management team was even an open secret when there wasn’t adequate transparency and explanations of the rationales behind.

Pervasive unfairness circled around the office, which helped create an unhealthy work environment. When some people who didn’t meet the standard but they could still get on certain positions, this explicit abnormal choice of the management team would lead to the repulsion of others. There were, indeed, some colleagues working like horses every day but they were not spotted by the management team. The performance of staff wasn’t objectively measured by how much good work they have delivered. It was more about the feeling toward a particular person. If a colleague was smart enough to not anger too many people, she/he would get the chance of going up the rank.

It was all about a beautiful picture at face value. Most of the decisions were made due to the fact that the management team had to turn in a good account of the office to the headquarter. For example, some staff were put on some positions because there was a need to fulfill the gender equality proportion. Other than that, firing ineligible people was disallowed if the turnover rate was too high. There was also not proper and balanced positioning of each office in the region. The incoherent strategy made some of the staff antagonistic to each other. At the end of the day, what the office looked like on the paper was the most important instead of the true development of every human being at the organization. If certain people couldn’t tolerate it anymore, they’d be labeled as having problems to “manage emotions”.

If the above situation continued, the reality would keep going against the practices that were emphasized, which were bottom-up-centric, people-centered, equality and a mentally healthy workplace. In the long run, the name of the institution could be completely ruined if any staff finally reported the scenario to the outside, e.g. the media.

Please note that I’ve just submitted my resignation letter. I think that there’s a need to expose these issues that were subject to corrections with its malfunctioning nature.

Thank you very much and all my best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Kian

After collecting the related emails through a friend at the administration department, he hit the sent button. It was the last task he wanted to do, then he packed his stuff on the desk and left. This wasn’t a place he would come back again. When Kian walked out of the office, he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have the time to think twice on what he has done. But he knew that the restoration of an order would kick start soon.

Next Chapter: Chapter 8 Expulsion