[If you want to enjoy the rest of today, don't bother reading this post...]



I left my house at 8AM this morning. My mother's car was still parked on 
the driveway. She should have been at work an hour ago. Instead, she was 
laying in bed, SOBBING UNCONTROLLABLY. The women was inconsolable. I 
repeat: inconsolable.

Have you ever seen a grown women reduced to the hysterical crying of a 
small child? It isn't pretty.

And what has brought this on, you ask? It seems that after months of 
torment, she can no longer actually bring herself to set foot inside her 
employer's premises. She woke at 2AM, and spent several hours trying to 
convince herself to go to work. But several hours later when I awoke, 
she had given up trying. The thought of returning to that place was 
simply too horrifying.

My mother is, understandably, terrified about losing her job. My 
piffling wages would make a very small dent in the running costs of our 
house. And my mother seems convinced that she will never find another 
job that mays anywhere near the same wages. But after months and months 
of constant pressure, criticism, harassment, bullying, shouting, 
threatening letters, lies and manipulation, she simply can't take any more.

I don't think she's decided to quit. I don't think she's *decided* 
anything. I think it's more that she has lost the capacity for rational 
thought. There are no thoughts any more, only fear. Months of sleep 
deprevation and endless stress have finally crippled her brain beyond 
the point of normal functioning.

All of this makes me very, very angry. You may say "that's life", but I 
do not accept that. It SHOULD NOT BE LEGAL for a commercial entity to 
deliberately DESTROY A HUMAN BEING. It shouldn't be legal to prevent 
somebody from eating and drinking. It shoesn't be legal to threaten to 
fire them unless they stop taking time off sick. And it should NOT be 
legal to make their lives hell in the hope that they'll quit and you 
won't have to keep paying them.

Sometimes I get so angry I want to actually drive over there and give 
those people... not so much a piece of my mind as a piece of my FIST. 
And I'm not a violent person. I am a shy, quiet person. But this crap 
has crossed the line!

...Of course, all that will happen with that plan is that I'll spend the 
rest of my life in jail. Which would pretty much suck. And besides, the 
managers are only doing what they've been told to do; "get rid of the 
expensive employeers, it doesn't matter how".

So, does anybody have any *constructive* suggestions for how to remedy 
this unholy situation?

(UK law applies, remember.)

PS. No, the union doesn't appear to be especially helpful.

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