Unfair Treatment at the Workplace

What can you do when you are the victim of unfair treatment at the workplace?  Even in a more general sense, where do you turn to when the local league director is treating your team unfairly?

And where can you turn when complaints to those above him/her at the National office fall upon deaf ears?

Here is a rant.

But this is a rant that has to be aired about our unfair team treatment.

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Fed Up and Disgusted

Our entire team is really fed up and disgusted by the unfair treatment at the workplace we are receiving in the league.

I want to make this very simple and clear: while there are only a handful of ill-willed opposing team captains in the entire league, this mostly concerns our team’s treatment by one local league director who I will leave unnamed.

Myself and my team “Kaju Tsunami” have been a successful and loyal team in said director’s local league continuously since January 2012. This is our 23^rd session in the local league.

The said league director continues to run an unethical business. He continues to play favorites, subjectively picking and choosing when to apply league rulings to favor (or disfavor) certain teams.

Recently it has become only MUCH worse. WE continue to be on the tail end of his wrath.

This abusive league director not only selectively continues to make ludicrous unfair ruling decisions that compromise our team’s success. He continues to violate the Official Team Manual – which is the Bible of the League - and his own Local Bylaws “playing favorites” by siding with his “minions” to ensure that we can never succeed.

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Although I am fed up and disgusted, in hindsight some good did come of it.

Why Do I Stay in This League?

In light of this worsening abuse to my team, I often ask myself this same question.

My friends and colleagues tell me all the time, “Why do you even PLAY in that League?” “There are other BETTER leagues, you don’t have to take this ABUSIVE BS nonsense!”

I will tell you, the only reason I STAY in the league is

a) I like the league format

b) I like my teammates and the camaraderie we have

c) I like that we as a Team can win a trip to compete in Las Vegas for the National Championship

d) I enjoy playing at league home field NYC, where we have been the Home Team for 8 years

Honestly, I personally know I can WIN consistently in this league (I am a SL 7), while in other more advanced leagues I would be quite an ordinary player. That makes this league fun.

I like to be a “Big Fish in a Small pond.” I admit it.

However, there is only so much a man can take. Recently I have been questioning myself whether I should leave the league, or move the team to a different area under a different director.

Does a League Director have the Right to Selectively Violate League Rules?

Does a Local League Operator (LO) have the right to override the Official Team Manual by making ludicrous rulings that is both unfair and not in spirit of the league?

Do you need proof for this? Read on, we have all the proof you will ever need.

My letter on the record to (name) at the National Office on 12/12/18 clearly demonstrates in great detail how this unethical league director has played favorites and has manipulated our skill levels to where it continues to weaken our team.

Last season our replacement shooter( #14747) was our new player in the Spring 2019 session. He was raised from a SL 3 to a SL 7 in only 5 lifetime APA matches. This is unprecedented in the entire history of the league. The league director did not even give us the proper courtesy of answering our questions why he was raised. They provided no valid reason whatsoever.

He is an amateur player. His statistics did not validate these 4 SL raises, nor did his performance in other leagues. In fact, the said league director never even saw him play.

What is even worse is that local league director has clearly demonstrated that he condones bad sportsmanship, which is NOT in the spirit of the league.

However, the latest and most recent incident that happened on Monday 6/17 demonstrates why we are all so fed up. This is only the latest and the WORST of several recent unfair and unethical rulings by the local league director that is attempting to “break our team’s spirit.”

Kaju Tsunami (Home) vs. Rack ‘n Rollers (Visiting) Match on Monday 6/17

I am the team captain of “Kaju Tsunami.” However, for this week on June 17 I was away out of the country on vacation.

Acting in my place as team captain, was a loyal and highly capable teammate. He is a very responsible and fair person with team leadership experience despite being inexperienced captaining a team in this local league.

We were playing “Rack ‘n Rollers”, and their team captain is known to be somewhat of a difficult person to deal with, and a “horn blower.” In fact I would call him an unscrupulous huckster who has been in the league for years, who does favors for the league director.

The match started on time in an uneventful way.

The first match between two SL 4 players was extended shortly beyond one hour since both players were playing poorly.

While this can be considered a long match, this is nothing unusual. Our player won the match in a tight “hill-hill” battle by a score of 3-2.

Next up was our second SL 4 vs. the opposing team’s SL 4 in a RACE TO 3 GAMES.

This time my SL 4 quickly dominated by taking charge. However, since he is sometimes inconsistent, after he converted on the hard ones, he also equally missed converting on the easy ones.

He is a new player and is inconsistent. In addition, he may have been somewhat nervous.

Since he was nervous after making great conversions, when the pressure was on and the game was on the line he missed a few easy ones.

However, his opponent who was also a SL 4, missed even easier conversions.

In the end, our player won by a score of 3-1, in a short 31 minutes.

There were three more matches scheduled to be played.

The time now was 8:37 pm.

All Hell Breaks Loose from an Unfair Treatment at the Workplace

Now for the 3^rd match it was our turn to declare a player, so my acting captain declared himself to play.

We call this “putting yourself up.”

The opposing captain (“Mr. Horn Blower”) now has the responsibility to counter our action by declaring the player on his team who will play my acting captain.

Instead all hell breaks loose!

“Mr. Horn-blower” now tells my acting captain, “That’s it, we QUIT and forfeit the last 3 matches. Enjoy the points!”

What??!!  He was giving up?

Mr. Horn-blower then went on to accuse our team of “sandbagging” which is when a team plays below their true skill level intentionally in order to keep their skill levels down. Since this league is on a handicap, the lower level players are more valuable, as they need less games to win to defeat a higher level player.

He also made the outrageous accusation that we were intentionally delaying the match, and then after forfeiting the last 3 matches refused to sign the score sheet. This is practically unheard of.

However, both unfounded accusations made by “Mr. Horn-blower” were blatant lies.

Furthermore, his teammates were yelling and screaming at us after the match.

Not only did this create a crazy dramatic scene, this is clearly a shameless demonstration of bad sportsmanship. Something the league imposes strict penalties for.

In fact, it is all cheating, lying, and acting.

Although my acting captain wanted to punch “Mr. Horn-blower’s” lights out, he showed impressive restraint and walked away. For doing so would only make matters worse.

As a result, we won by a score of 10-1 for the night.

Or so we thought.

Cheating Leads to Unfair Treatment in the Workplace

As abjectly sleazy as Mr. Hornblower’s team behavior was, this all pales in comparison to the response by the league operator.

This is where the cheater gets rewarded and runs away in the sand, and we become the victims of unfair work treatment.

Although I was away in Canada on vacation, my acting captain immediately informed me of the debacle and wrote a highly detailed report complaint of what happened.

I read his report complaint, and it clearly detailed and proved how we were playing fairly while the other team ending up quitting by displaying bad sportsmanship.

In a fair world, the league director would have penalized or at least reprimanded “Mr. Hornblower’s” team

Not a chance.

Here comes the unfair treatment at the workplace.

Instead of penalizing Mr. Hornblower, we were the ones who were painted by the league director to be the perpetrators and the wrong-doers.  We are labeled the “bad guys” even without the league director ever witnessing one single play of the match.

Now my acting captain feels like he has been ridiculed and defamed.

He acted nobly and fairly in every way, while “Mr. Hornblower” created an intentional “circus scene” when he realized his team would likely lose the final 3 matches.

Yet the league director has “sided” with the true perpetrators, Mr, Hornblower’s team.

And THEY are the ones to be rewarded?!

Can the league director be  “the judge who was paid off”?

Unfair Treatment at the Workplace is a Reality

This true story applies to unfair team treatment in a league, but this sort of internal politicking happens everyday in the workplace.

Let me ask you then these questions:

What would you do if you enjoyed the overall work experience, but realized later your league director (boss) is being “paid off”?

What happens when you see the Board of Directors are not paying attention and looking the other way?

In other words, what would you do if you were the victim of this type of unfair treatment at the workplace?

Would you "walk" or would you hang in there?

Please feel free to leave your comments below.