Opinion ID: 801202
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Tensions Mount

Text: Due to various medical and personal matters, Whitmore had been taking a significant amount of time on leave from work. Following the 2005 Oakland Tribune article, however, Whitmore's leave totals as reported by Dubois soon began to diverge from the totals maintained by the payroll system and from Whitmore's own informal calculations. Whitmore's attempts to speak with Dubois and/or Goddard about this issue were ignored or met with hostility. Whitmore and Dubois got into numerous arguments, resulting in a strained professional relationship. In early 2006, Whitmore began working with reporters for the Charlotte Observer on a series of articles relating to non-reported injuries in the poultry processing industry. One of the articles in the series is titled He says his agency is at fault Recordkeeping chief says OSHA lets companies underreport injuries. A956-66, A696. The article reported Whitmore as stating that OSHA was leaving businesses to police themselves and had little awareness of the hazards in certain industries. Id. By late 2006, in response to Whitmore's continued attempts to have his leave time properly granted and credited, Dubois instituted a special personnel procedure, unique to Whitmore, requiring Whitmore to present an original doctor's note supporting [his] illness claim whenever he called in sick. A768. Both Dubois and Goddard ignored Whitmore when he requested leave for serious health or family problems, and Dubois would charge Whitmore with Leave without Pay and Away Without Leave even though Whitmore had been directed by his physician to take time off. In 2007 Whitmore posted an offensive sign on his door, stating that that everyone must knock to enter his office, and that P.S. That includes you Ms. Feeling, referring to Dubois's assistant (actually named Cheryl Fielding). A752, A826.001.003. Whitmore testified that he believed Ms. Fielding was snooping in people's offices, and that given the hostility he felt generally directed toward him around OSHA, he was concerned for his safety. A401-02. After being repeatedly asked to remove the sign, Whitmore instead changed the name from Ms. Feeling to Joe Dubois. A752, A826.002. Throughout this time period, Whitmore sent a number of emails highly critical of if not hostile to Dubois, copying Whitmore's staff as well as OSHA officials having nothing to do with Whitmore's leave or his disputes with Dubois. A767-826 (stating, for example, I had difficulty sleeping last night after the week-long additional harassment that you put me through ... we both know the stress you are giving me is intentional and has got to stop; If I am not paid my full salary for this pay period, and done so in a timely manner, I will hold you personally responsible; and this illegal action smacks of retaliation). This insubordinate email behavior by Whitmore escalated over time, and resulted in Whitmore's being admonished by Robert Poogach, the Deputy Director of OSHA's Administrative Office, for copying uninvolved parties on his private issues, but Whitmore did not cease such practices. A818 (I would also add my disappointment that in your email to me you chose to continue your practice of cc'ing staff members in communications that does [sic] not properly concern them.). For his part, Dubois perpetuated such argumentative email threads between himself and Whitmore, copying uninvolved OSHA officials. See, e.g., A790 (copying Goddard and six other OSHA employees on email stating I have no control over this [religious comp time policy], but you whined about it for several months); A783-84 (copying Goddard and six other OSHA employees on email stating [y]ou have over two years of advanced sick leave, I am not approving any more); A798 (copying Goddard and two other OSHA officials on email to Whitmore, stating for the third time, I direct you to remove the sign taped to your door... [a]nd thank you for slamming your door in my face). On March 20, 2007, Whitmore submitted a Waste, Fraud, and Abuse claim to the DOL office of the Inspector General (IG) regarding an illegal gambling pool for the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament conducted by Dubois using government resources. Dubois' computer was confiscated by the IG, but no charges were ever pressed against him. On March 22, 2007, two days after Whitmore disclosed Dubois' purported illegal gambling activities, Dubois notified Whitmore that he was taking away Whitmore's authority as a rating officiali.e., removing Whitmore's responsibility for conducting the performance evaluations of the OSA personnel under Whitmore's supervision. In early 2007, the record shows that Dubois told Kitzmiller that he was intentionally altering Whitmore's timesheets to deprive Whitmore of leave time. In May 2007, Whitmore's numerous requests for a formal leave audit were finally granted, and the results were much closer to Whitmore's totals than Dubois's, finding 75 hours of leave time that had not been properly credited. Whitmore received minimally satisfactory performance evaluations in 2006 and 2007. He continually sought an opportunity to discuss his leave and other alleged harassment issues with his supervisors, or to otherwise remedy the problems via OSHA's internal grievance procedures, but to no avail. Goddard wrote two memoranda in the spring of 2007 describing Whitmore's behavior. An April 2007 memo described Whitmore as disruptive, showing signs of potential workplace violence and exhibiting disturbing bullying behavior. A903. A June 2007 memo noted the continued escalation of Mr. Whitmore's unprofessional conduct, and again expressed concerns for safety of other OSHA personnel. A899.