On March 29, 2002, I was told to remove the photos from the partition. When I asked why, I was told "It's a no-no." A trip to Human Resources and a look at the Employee Policy manual revealed that there was, in fact, no hospital rule governing employee photos on bulletin boards or partitions. There were rules about soliciting and/or distributing information to employees, but none governing what an employee might place on a bulletin board or partition in their work space.

This photo documents a stage in the partition saga after a grievance had been filed (of this more later). We were told that until the grievance was settled, I should remove the photos or the manager would do it.

STEPS LEADING TO THE GRIEVANCE: Our contract advises that we should try to resolve disputes with our employer at the lowest possible level in order to avoid taking the time and resources that the additional steps require. In an effort to do this, my co-worker and I spoke with the department manager and were told that removing the photos was a directive from HR and thus would have to be dealt with at that level. He suggested that the HR representative come to our department to view the partition and photos, and this was arranged. Later, we learned that our partition had proved to be unacceptable and we were asked to remove the photos. At this point, we requested and got a meeting with our Human Resources representative.

When asked to produce a rule about employee photos and bulletin boards, the HR representative acknowledged that it was not in the policy manual because it was an "unwritten rule" and one that she could not change and was required to enforce.

After mulling this over, the three transcribers in our room decided to file a grievance. There was a clock ticking on this decision-- A grievance must be filed within 30 days of the time when an employee realizes that there is a problem. If you miss this deadline, you've lost your chance.