Jack and Lori found a parking spot on N. Blount Street adjacent to Peace College, north of the state government complex in Raleigh. It was a favorite place for them to park for agency meetings held in the Archdale Building. Dressed in some of their best clothes and walking at a brisk pace they headed to the meeting, admiring the attractive college buildings and landscaping on their right.
Jim Corter and Chris Zusso with the agency's Office of Organizational Excellence had been sympathetic listeners during Jack's months-long effort to find someone in Raleigh who could address the agency red flags and the retaliation against Jack and Lori in Fayetteville.
The Office of Organizational Excellence conducted regular forums with the agency bosses located in both the Raleigh offices and the seven field offices scattered around the state. Normally, these Manager Forums were only open to the numerous bosses and supervisors in the organization. However, this meeting titled "Workplace Conversations," was opened up to include agency staffers. It certainly appeared that the many red flags in Fayetteville and Raleigh involving Jack, Lori, and the two mid-level agency bosses, was the driving force for this unusual meeting.
Jack and Lori entered the large meeting room on the ground floor of the Archdale Building and took their seats in the front row. As the meeting began, Jack looked carefully at the many people sitting in the rows of chairs behind them. Director Undercash and Steve Mazda were not present! In fact, Jack did not see anyone from his own agency group, the division of air quality, in the audience. Jack was surprised and very disappointed.
It was a painful reminder of the presentation he and Lori had made at the EPA conference in Raleigh, in April of 2005, which included a discussion of DuPont, PFOA, and the importance of agency collaboration and information-sharing for complex manufacturing facilities. They had been surprised that co-workers from the North Carolina agency's division of air quality were not present at their EPA presentation, only people from other states. Normally, agency emails were sent out encouraging people to attend presentations made by North Carolina co-workers at the annual EPA conference in Raleigh. Instead, there was silence, as if Jack and Lori no longer worked for the agency. As before, Jack wondered if Director Undercash was essentially locking down any information-sharing and discussion about the events in Fayetteville.
Jack and Lori had been hopeful that the forum would shed some light on what was happening in the Fayetteville Office. Rhonda Richards of Human Resources had prepared the summary that was emailed to forum participants:
March 30 - Managers' Forum - "Workplace Conversations"
Time: 8:30 am - Noon
Location: Ground Floor Hearing Room
The purpose of the Forum is to bring supervisors and employees together to define workplace relationships within an organizational context. The outcome of the Forum is to challenge individual perceptions and have each person walk away with a renewed, confirmed or changed perspective on workplace relationships and the circumstances around those relationships.
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