FULL FRONTAL

BY CHANDRI PERIS

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The first of these was my audacity to question and challenge the ease with which this same manager discussed “throwing acid on her face” when she wanted to stop an affair between a colleague and the CRM manager at work.

My own fall started without any outward signs at all. After having been consistently bullied by a female manager at work, I had unknowingly suffered two very minor heart attacks. I was also having huge mobility issues due to being denied knee replacement surgery by the NHS, despite having been on the waiting list for over eight years. I pursued the NHS complaints procedure and was successful in getting seen by a specialist who called for immediate surgery—only to be told by the surgical staff that they were not able to go ahead due to my heart condition. When the dots began to connect, my life began to fall apart. When I presented this evidence to the bully at work, requesting long-term leave for my operation and recovery, she and the HR team decided that having someone who was going to have one operation followed by another was not profitable to maintain. Adding salt to this festering wound were a few notable comments I had made at public meetings at work, which had marked me as a veritable target.