My Letter to Newspapers

In my fight for defending my rights against an arrogant company, I decided to write an email to some newspapers.

I have no chance to knock my enemy down but I want to open a window on the real face of a company that, thanks to propaganda, the disinterest of people and the power of money, has been able to navigate undisturbed through its miserable misbehaves. Almost undisturbed as we will see in a future article.

To open this window my website is not enough. I need the help of a big newspaper to reach a big audience, therefore I decided to contact the editors of newspapers and magazines.

Why?

Because I dream a transparent society, where a company like Intel Corporation has only one choice, be correct, respectful and complain to the laws. Otherwise, everyone is informed and it won’t find anyone available to buy its crappy products nor to work for them. As simple as that.

Utopic, isn’t it?

What I wrote

I presented my case from 2016 until today. I summarized everything in a few lines, referring to my site for the complete story. I described in a short form the bullying of Intel and the methods of the company, the false accusations and the warnings, the provocations and the privacy violations.

To whom?

This is a list of the US newspapers and magazine I contacted so far (I’ll update the list as soon as I’ll send new emails)

• Wall Street Journal
• New York Times
• Los Angeles Journal
• The Washington Post
• Daily News
• New York Post
• The Oregonian
• EDN Network
• The Mercury News

The answers

It is a constant of all this dirty story: I didn’t get any answer. The faith of a single person is probably not interesting. And they are probably right.

But, I’ll keep writing, informing the single journalist who reads my email is already a small satisfaction for me.

I haven’t contacted any German newspaper so far. I plan to do it as soon as I have at least a minimal translation of my website.

Finally my email

And this the email I sent to newspapers:

Dear Editor,

My name is AZ, I want to make you aware of my story. It’s probably just another mobbing story in a world where employees are more and more mistreated.

My story begins in the first half of 2016 when Intel Corporation decides to reduce the staff by 11% worldwide. In the US, reaching the required 11% quota was not a problem.
In Germany, where -on paper at least- the worker has some protection, obstacles have arisen. Therefore the company decided to show the muscles.
I was selected together with other employees, all or almost, over 40 to leave the company.
The selection criterion, officially insufficient performance (in reality the majority, like me, received a positive evaluation in the last annual assessment), is actually a mixture of age criterion and an empathic criterion (workers who do not enjoy the protection of any manager).
The selected employees received an economic offer to leave the company. Along with the offer, there is the message that those who do not accept the offer will have a difficult life.
The company’s offer is rejected by most workers. The company decides to play dirty trying to force employees to accept the proposed conditions. Who refuse will be subjected to humiliating micromanagement with daily activity reports.
According to the works council, the company intends to assign targets that are smoky enough to say that they have not been performed as requested. Or alternatively; assign targets that are impossible to reach.
In short, the company plays dirty.
I protested vehemently against the methods of Intel Corporation. I don’t let me bully from anyone. I was fired for my protest.
I sued, I won. But it was a crippled victory, because the sentence gave the company the chance to give me disciplinary warnings for my protests.

I returned to work in June 2017. It was a warm welcome: I received 2 official warning letters. At the same time, an Intel manager went around telling anyone I had been sanctioned and I would have been fired again.
This is the privacy concept they have at Intel Corporation.

In short, it is immediately clear that they want me to regret having won the case and be back to work.
It takes little to start with systematic bullying. Assignment of tasks with unrealistic deadlines. Information for my work are denied to me. Assignment of nonsense tasks. Vacation requests are ignored. Anything is a fight.
On my side, I decided that I would not give the company any chance to say that my job wasn’t done well. I’ve respected any deadlines, and I’ve always done things properly.

The company had only one possibility left: fakes. They did it.
Intel systematically falsified any result of my work, to be able to say that it wasn’t done properly.
It doesn’t matter how many evidence I brought, for them it was enough to ignore my requests and the bulletproof evidence provided.
All of my protests are ignored. I turned to the personnel department, the company director, the CEO, the legal department, senior managers.

No answer.

When my protests are not ignored I’ve received grotesque answers.
For example, an “independent investigator” of the legal department, wiped out all my complaints and evidence saying they were “on a micro-tactical level”, therefore they don’t have to be taken into consideration.
The other answers received are those of Intel’s works council (a mandatory institution in German companies) who are legally obliged to answer me. But they decided to deny any evidence, bending over backwards to justify the unjustifiable. They have denied any mobbing, but have refused to explain on what their denial is based.

Unfortunately, in Germany there is no anti-mobbing legislation. I should have taken legal action for every single fact. What is realistically (economically) impossible.

After a year and a half of continuous fake allegations, in a face-to-face meeting, I was accused again of not having done my job. These accusations never come in a team or a project meeting. It is hard to state in front of anyone that a job hasn’t been done when is evident to anyone that the job is delivered and works without any issue. So they keep it for face-to-face meeting. I experienced this as a regular mobbing procedure of Intel Corporation.

From my manager came increasingly ridiculous accusations, until I lose my nerves, I told my manager that it was obviously a provocation meeting. I got nervous, I raised my voice, I banged my hand on the table. My boss, according to the story he gave the court, was afraid of my reaction. He actually giggled because he had managed to make me lose patience.
Together with other fanciful details, invented from the ground up by Intel, like that I had pointed to my cell phone and the computer suggesting that I had recorded the discussion.

Shameless fake from Intel.

Finally, when I returned to the office, according to their story, I would have slammed the door in his face. The security camera right in front of the door? Off! It is known that security camera works better when they are off!

I’ve been fired again (2018).

Demonstrate you are right is not always easy, so I lost the cause in the first instance. Because I missed explaining how the provocation in the meeting was (actually an error of my lawyer).
I have the possibility of a second instance.
Meanwhile, I have published my story on my website FaceTheCompany https://www.facethecompany.de, you can read on it many more details of this story.
Publishing my website must have hurt Intel very much. It is clearly breaking the propaganda of a respectful and nice company. Therefore they fired me for the case I win in the second instance.

This is the current status of June 2019.

With my best regards,
AZ