Six Easy Steps
TO GET YOUR PAYOUT FROM WORKPLACE BULLYING IN NEW ZEALAND
Step 1
FIND A FRIEND
Find a friend who can support you through this process. Kiwis can be extremely toxic and mentally damaging to each other, but even worse to foreigners (except for Aussies who they look up to and kiss butt to).
There is a lot of free mental help online in NZ or via txt. If you live in New Zealand you will likely need it at some point. I recommend:
Need to Talk? https://1737.org.nz/
Suicide Crisis Helpline: free phone 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO).
Lifeline: free phone 0800 543 354 or free text 4357 (HELP).
Samaritans crisis helpline: free phone 0800 726 666 if you are experiencing loneliness, depression, despair, distress or suicidal feelings.
Email me if you don't have anyone to call (maria.castro.finalpaynz@gmail.com). I will try to answer if I can, as we are just getting started in providing free information.
Step 2
DOCUMENT EVERYTHING
Start documenting all the harassment. It only gets worse, you can count on it. When it does, write down time when each event happened, who did what, where it happened, how it made you feel (send an email to yourself with these details). This way you can present to lawyers or an advocate, chronologically, to build your case against the bully and / or toxic employer. As evidence in NZ needs to be chronological, keep record of all dates.
Step 3
SEE YOUR GP
Go see a GP and get a medical certificate, take time off. It gets so toxic it can feel like a concussion, it can give you tension headaches, make you feel paranoid, worthless, weak, minimized, undermined, inadequate, alienated (like you don't fit in), discriminated, treated unequally, cause you nightmares, even to the point of being unable to get out of bed to go to work, having to repress your true self, having to pretend to be "fake happy", take the joy out of your daily life, even if you are doing a good job. Bear in mind this is the exact purpose of the bullying behavior, to break your spirit. To show you they are stronger than you and as a way to subdue your foreign ass. In fact, they all act collectively once the bullying is initiated by your boss or the bully. It can take the form of minimization, mockery, humiliation, antagonizing, disrespect, alienation, one-on-one meetings to destroy self-esteem (refuse these meetings if you can), even yelling and treating the foreigner as slaves in some extreme cases (a residue of British colonialism from a long gone era where they actually sold human beings for cash, something Latin Americans will know well). New Zealand hasn't gotten the memo this type of treatment is not OK, though recent riots tell us there are still issues in the UK about it nowadays. Americans went through a long process of Civil Rights movements and lawsuits to get to a point where they are miles ahead on this subject, even if kiwis (funny enough) point fingers to American as racist. Having worked in both countries, I can guarantee you Americans are not nearly as racist or as hostile as kiwis, yet kiwis go through great efforts to present themselves as open to foreigners. It is only a facade to attract cheap labor from third world countries and highly skilled labour from Europe and the USA. Note that bullying can happen against ANY foreigner, no matter how white or European you think you are. Irish, South African, Italian, Canadian, Russian, you are all up for a surprise here.
Step 4
LAUGH AT THEM
Try to laugh at each ridicule attempt to bully you and do fight back, at least verbally. Even if you feel like punching them in the nose due to their stupidity, DON'T (unless you can find a friend to do it for you, will talk more about it later). They can charge you and you will lose your compensation due to gross misconduct charges. Write down what you want people to know about the bullying incident. They can be quite fascinating stories about the lowest of human nature and how in denial they are. They still think of themselves as great people who are doing nothing wrong, regardless of this primitive, ignorant behaviour against foreigners that is illegal and banned in most civilized countries. We will publish these stories for you to share, anonymously, so you and everyone can laugh about it later on. Treat it as a fascinating sociological research (as when one studies monkeys in the Amazon).
Step 5
GET A LAWYER
Find a No Win / No Fee Lawyer online (shinelawyers.co.nz, nowinnofee.co.nz), get advice from the Employment Relations Authority (https://www.era.govt.nz/footer/contact-us), Auckland Law Society (https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/branches-sections-and-groups/young-lawyer-groups/auckland-new-lawyers/contact-us), and other free online help. Beware that lawyers make money from this "business", so they don't help you keep your job, if that is what you want. You are better off leaving. They will help you settle for a Final Pay amount confidentially. "Take the money and run" is what a kiwi lawyer advised me after I was bullied for doing a great job and them wanting to give credit to a white kiwi male for my work... They can even construct false accusations, in that instance provoking a miscarriage, a criminal offense. This is why we are committed here to find justice by publishing the bullying stories online, from different countries, to help you bully the bullies.
Step 6
UNDERSTAND THE SYSTEM
Just so you can understand what is happening, companies in NZ have insurance to cover them from accusations of racism, sexual harassment, and other gross misconduct. Lawyers, advocates, therapists and too many people make money out of the Bullying Business in NZ, which is why the issue won't change easily. It is crazy that people will prefer to harm each other mentally than to be professional, but it is what it is.
HR departments generally are full of passive aggressive bullies themselves, who rather than enforcing the many "policies" they falsely and hypocritically write in Employee Conduct manuals, they actually protect the bullies and the company by conducting fake "Kangaroo Court" investigations. There was a case of an engineer who was bullied on Mental Health Week!!! She got paid $23,000 through a settlement, so she had the final laugh.
Because of the insurances, it doesn't cost the company anything to cover up bullying and settling for money instead. They actually prefer it and many even enjoy being bullies and participating in the harrasment effort, bonding through it, as an alternative to doing actual work. Maybe they lack real emotion in their sorry empty lives and find harassing foreignres exciting (maybe a bit of jealousy against more qualified foreigners) or maybe it is actual hatred of competent foreigners and locals too (search for Tall Poppy Syndrome in New Zealand, https://www.tiktok.com/@laytonvideo/video/7298572851974589698).
It is quite incredible that excellence and good work are discouraged by kiwis and it can generate such jealousy to the point of collective harassment and bringing the worst I have ever witness in human nature, specially at a workplace. All so they don't feel bad by being so mediocre. It is a national problem that kiwis recognize and talk a lot about it. But that is all talk, as far as I saw. No real intention to force the damaging system to end through dismissals, penalization, education, strong stance except for a few brave ones. It starts in elementary schools, I heard, where bullies usually get away with it. The bullied kid eventually needs to leave school, perceived as weak and not fitting in. Even teachers recommend the kid be moved to a different school...just like employers prefer to settle with money under the rug for the bullied person. Anyway, that is how it is. So learn to FIGHT BACK (like a maori friend recommended me), get your money and move on. Move out of the country if this keeps happening, or start your own business. It is not worth your mental health.
HR can even pay an outside "investigator" or law firm who will interview people involved in an incident (usually provoked by these same people through passive aggressive behaviour), they will force answers from you to frame you and to make your accusations sound like it was all your fault. They generally conclude there was no real bullying happening "on the basis of probabilities" ignoring real evidence such as doctor statements, emails, even videos that can't be denied, they will find a way to deny it (unless the company is owned by a foreigner, in which case they may favour the kiwi, even if he or she is lying). If you want to give yourself more time and love the law, like I do, go for the investigation, knowing it will never conclude there was any bullying involved. It can be fun arguing against and framing the lawyer back into his/her own trap. But the outcome will never be fair or will acknowledge the incident. It will be resolved with a Final Pay and a confidentiality agreement. TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN! TO THE MALL!!!