In November 2016 I began a job working at Icon Broadcast in Hudson, NH. It was ok at first...
Until I realized I was lied to. I was promised upward mobility when in fact it was quite the opposite. A small company consisting of 8-10 twenty-somethings, some of which were clearly un-hireable otherwise. Slave labor. A very small company that employed and preyed on those who were looking for work in the area to run them ragged at 50 hours a week and reap the rewards themselves. It was only the owner/overseer, and the supervisor. The super was amazing at his job. he knew what he was doing. If they could clone him 5 times and not hire anybody else they would have. The super was a 15yr old in a 50yr old body. The company was so small having only two "higher-ups", that they could do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. They treated us like cattle who were worthless and expendable. I was assaulted there by the super. (I dislike that term but technically, that is what it is. I was fed up after 3 months of crap from this man who conived his way to bed every night that I left one friday and followed with the greatest email i have ever written to the owner and never went back. Enjoy.
Hi Ian,
I'm emailing to tell you I won't be coming back to Icon.
Among the many reasons, one in particular is that, over the last few weeks it has become increasingly impossible to work with Jeff. His passive-aggressiveness gets the best of him, he creates problems that don't exist, which he then instigates creating more issues. His sense of rumor-spreading and gossiping is unparalleled and he is subject to frequent power trips and playing favoritism when it comes to the work or work-related matters.
But one incident in particular is why I'm spending the time to write. Tuesday afternoon as I worked on the trough, a rope was wrapped around my neck and yanked on. I knew someone was walking by and my immediate thought was that I might've gotten caught in something someone was carrying and I might be in serious trouble as it was pulled quite hard, and enough to think I was caught. We do deal in lots of wire. The rope (which is when I discovered it was rope and not wire) was released, and instead of finding someone walking by, I found my Supervisor with a small piece of rope in his hands, who thought it'd be funny. He never apologized or joked, nor did he even acknowledge the situation or that it had happened. He briefly spoke about the pages we were on I believe, I was in shock that nothing was said, and he walked away.
I learned later I was not the only one he did this too. I was not sure how to handle the situation which is why it was never mentioned and I don't intend to pursue the matter further other than to inform you that it happened. After a short while at Icon, it was common for Jeff and others, me included to crack jokes and enjoy ourselves. But the last few weeks I've learned that Jeff likes to include himself in other people's business and gossip about employee's personal lives in the form of buddy-to-buddy talks, then uses that information against us when we are under performing in his eyes. Learning this, I have distanced myself and choose not to enable this behavior which I believe is one of the reasons he dislikes me now. Without naming names, I also associate with a few other employees which he treats with lesser enthusiasm, and therefor has given me similar treatment. The joking has stopped and an extreme sense of passive-aggressiveness towards me has set in more as each day passes. So when this incident happened, it was very much an exercise of power than a joke.
I consider myself a very tolerant and easy going person. I find I've gotten along with everyone I've worked with at Icon and I've tried doing my best when given a task and correcting any mistakes I've made with respect to you and Jeff. Even Jeff's antics at times are understandable, but difficult, unnecessary and time wasting. But one thing I will not tolerate which I also take personally is being bullied and treated like anything less than a human. Work is the last place anyone should be experiencing that. In no way should a supervisor put his hands on an employee that way or even think about it, nor should they think the employee would stand for it for even a second. It doesn't bother me so much what he's done, but more so that he thought it was ok and that I would tolerate it. I'm not a sensitive person, but this incident was the last proverbial straw that broke the camels back among many accumulated issues.
All that being said. I planned on quietly finishing my 50 hours this week and sending this email over the weekend. But recent developments concerning my employment at Icon in regards to my performance (more Jeff rumors/hearsay) have shown me that I believe he's doing all he can to scare me, because after Tuesday's incident, I've had not a sliver of patience for him and he's become extremely passive-aggressive the last two work days towards me, not giving me much direction or wanting to answer my questions which has been frustrating. Jeff threatens action about reprimanding someone and speaks to everyone else instead of the one person who should know. If there was an issue with my work, he could have approached me about it. He chooses not to. This is one example of many regarding this ritual of his. I think it's in both of our best interests that I do not come back or work a 2 weeks notice situation for obvious reasons.
I'm sorry it has come to this and I enjoyed working for you and the Icon crew.
Thanks for your time,
- Pat Lynch