Hired in 2007, this Sales Operations Manager had 12 straight years of great performance reviews, was a Top Performer, and most recently before her unfounded termination moved her mortgage team to #1 in the company.
When she identified and brought forth fraudulent activity and unethical practices, she began being bullied and harassed when she refused to look the other way. In the end she was terminated to protect the fraudulent activities that this company was conducting and protecting, the ones she spoke out against for months.
**The Sales Operations Manager role was designed specifically to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, policies and procedures related to mortgage lending, both within the Fortune 500 bank (referred to in this testimony) and Federal compliance regulations
In January of 2018, she began working for a new Mortgage Sales Manager after 2 mortgage offices merged.
Below is her timeline of events leading to her termination;
· July of 2018, after filling in for the District Sales Operations Manager, was brought back into an environment that the Mortgage Sales Manager admitted was a hostile environment and voiced his desire to “ruffle some feathers” to “clean up the branch”.
· September 2018-December 2018 - Identified several unethical and fraudulent actions by the team and brought them to the Mortgage Sales Manager’s attention. He adamantly demanded that ignore the situation, no matter how serious. This was known by several higher-powers, both nationally and on the divisional level
o The more situations I brought to his attention the more pressure he put on me to look the other way. This is when the bullying started and the hostility towards me escalated.
· September 2018 – After a joint decision was made with the District Operations Manager, I sent several documents, to our Fraud Department for investigation.
o Two of the Loan Officers involved quit during the month of December, prior any consequences being administered.
o December 7, 2018 – One Mortgage Loan Officer resigned reason being “I have been presented with an offer that would be fiscally illogical for me to refuse at this point in my professional career”.
o December 26, 2018 – Second Mortgage Loan Officer resigned with a two-week notice, the day before he would have been terminated for fraud.
§ If either would have been fired for fraud, they would never be allowed to work in the mortgage industry again. They now both work for the company that the Mortgage Sales Manager’s brother works for.
· December 31st, 2018 – My first contact with Employee Relations Consultant Global Human Resources/Domestic Employee Relations, with regards to the hostile environment, bullying, and retaliation actions of from my Mortgage Sales Manager which he was fueling and supporting. His bullying and hostility towards me escalated after sending documents on three of his loan officers to fraud for review and age discrimination (see above).
· January 31, 2019 - I had contact with a Vice President; Employee Relations Consultant Global Human Resources/Domestic Employee Relations with regards to the continued hostile environment my Manager was fueling, his bullying regarding adding excessive tasks and delay in implementation and his retaliation against me for the fraud incident.
· February 5. 2019 - A divisional policy was put into place regarding “all” divisional employees. My Mortgage Sales Manager chose to relieve three of the employees, in my location, due to a hardship of having children at home. He informed me I had to adhere since I had no children living at home. Once I Contacted Global Human Resources regarding age discrimination the decision was reversed and we “all” had to adhere to the new policy. Due to Human Resources, since the issue was fixed I was informed by Global Human Resources that I no longer had a claim.
· February 15, 2019 - contacted the first Employee Relations Consultant Global Human Resources/Domestic Employee Relations consultant that I spoke with in December 2018 as the bullying, hostility had gotten worse towards me by the Mortgage Sales Manager.
· February 20/21, 2019 - was sent to an Assistant Vice President; Employee Relations Consultant Global Human Resources/Domestic Employee Relations associate after filing the complaint with the original associate from December 2018.
o I have Epilepsy, which is known to the Mortgage Sales Manager as well as the associates I work with. The abuse at work was taking a major toll on my health; I wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t eating and it was effecting my mental health as well.
o The daily abuse and reprimands continued to get worse. I would get sick just thinking about going to work not knowing how bad the abuse would be that day.
· March 4, 2019 – Global Human resources reached out to my Mortgage Sales Manager to validate my claims against him, and when he stated that he was not bullying me, they accepted his word over mine.
· April 24, 2019 - contacted EAP (Employee Assistant Program) to discuss my taking a 30-day medical leave of absence to the incredibly strain the hostile and abusive work environment was taking on me. Together with the EAP department, we decided not to have it start until May 1st, so I could help the Mortgage Sales Manager end the moth strong.
· April 25th, 2019 - (the day after my meeting with EAP to discuss my leave date) I was copied on an email to my Mortgage Sales Manager from
· The Employee Assistant Program department whom I had arranged my leave of absence with on the previous day’s phone call, sent an email to my Mortgage Sales Manager informing him of my upcoming medical 30-day leave of absence starting May 1st.
o The Mortgage Sales Manager then sent me an e-mail asking if I was working at that moment, I responded yes.
o Within 2 hours he had driven up from Portland to Seattle, walked into my office and informed me the company had decided to terminate our relationship.
o There were no papers to sign and nothing else was said. I did ask if he could terminate me as he just found out I was taking a medical leave of absence (due to the bullying and abuse) and he said “yes, he checked”.
(Identity withheld for protection)