BOOK FOUR: TIME-OUT

….Back at work, Barbara had finally succeeded in getting me on a disciplinary, issuing me with a three-month verbal warning. I was six months pregnant by then, and her unfounded grounds for disciplinary action were that she felt and believed, and attempted to prove, that I hadn’t been working well, if at all, with alcohol units within my work with clients, implying that perhaps I didn’t know how, and needed some further development and training. Barbara stooped as unscrupulously low as to misuse the fact that one of my clients had died to mount her case against me, and give her story some sort of credibility.

I was so disappointed and enraged with her and her level of vindictiveness. She knew full well that I knew how to do my work in this area, and that the accusation of my not being able to was indeed pure fabrication, for it had never been an area of concern during the probation period and the final successful completion of it. All it was really about was the fact that she and I worked differently.

Yes, that particular client had died, and in actual fact we never came to know the exact reason why. Yes, he knew he was diabetic, and through our work together also came to know how detrimental continuing to drink could be to this health, yet still he chose to continue, and I was there for him regardless, as should always be the case. You can’t force people into making certain decisions if they don’t want or feel able to do it. In the sessions we had been working with all that and more, so I was incredibly incensed at Barbara’s accusations!

To top it all off, the real professional misconduct regarding that particular situation came as a result of the fact that when he had died, Barbara hadn’t even thought to support me as my so-called manager and clinical supervisor. Instead, here she was choosing to use his passing to mount a case against me; to use his death to further her own crazy needs and ends. This, in turn, made me crazy, especially because I had done some really promising work with the client in question, from which he had clearly benefited, so much so that hearing of his passing had truly impacted me. The client himself would be turning in his grave at what Barbara was suggesting!

At that time, I truly began to see the truth in Mandy’s words, especially what she had said about how dirty Barbara’s fighting could be; how low she would, could and did go, and the delight she took in having people fear her. That’s how she had told Mandy she preferred to rule, to get respect and her dues…

Peace & Love,

Light..