Make sure to read up on the company structure and the main characters before diving into the diary.
You missed part 1? Read it here.
2019-12-23
After I receive Patrick’s message, I reach out to Antonia.
2020-01-02
Antonia announces my departure in an email to all country teams. She clearly points out that it was not her decision but taken by Patrick and Ae, driven by financial reasons.
Afterwards I receive a few Goodbye Emails from local teams, thanking me for our time together.
2020-01-03
Patrick answers back to an email I had sent to Antonia. He is clearly speaking of ‘terminating my contract’, a phrasing that from there onward he carefully avoids.
His argument is flawed and demonstrates little knowledge of my work. He uses a passion project me and my team developed in our own leisure time and paid for (exclusively) from my money as a reason to terminate me.
2020-01-03
I inform one of our business partners whom I usually worked closely with about my upcoming departure and she answers back:
2020-01-14
Antonia schedules a meeting with me, her, Emile, Patrick and Ae one day after I return to Thailand:
Patrick cancels the meeting as he “thinks there is no need for everyone to be there”. That’s disappointing as he was the one who terminated me the day before Christmas and now doesn’t even want to face me in person to talk things through.
2020-01-20
Antonia posts a message about my departure and a few other structural changes into in Hangouts Chat group for country managers. More clearly than before she points to the financial situation as reason for my termination.
The message is seen and acknowledged by several of the local teams.
2020-01-23
Patrick messages me, asking to meet him in Hua Hin in February. It’s been 1 month now since he terminated me.
His request is for mid-February, which would make it 8 weeks after he terminated me. In addition he asks me to come to Hua Hin which is a 16 hour drive there and back.
As my mom will visit me in Thailand for a last time and plans on arriving around these dates I message back that I’ll confirm later. Given that the date is 4 weeks into the future I don’t feel bad about this.
He reacts pointing out that the work schedule has priority over private schedules. This is interesting as last time I asked for more money he gave me a long talk about how money doesn’t lead to happiness and it’s really only strong social connections that create lasting happiness. He encouraged me to give family priority and emphasized how my mom could always come visit.
I get the feeling that he flexibly changes perspectives into the one that suits him most.
2020-01-26
Patrick messages me again with new dates. It’s Sunday, so I don’t answer.
2020-01-27
For the upcoming week we have received bookings for the recycling program. Given that I paid for the machines, built them in my leisure time, the company has made no offer to buy the machines off me and I have been terminated I made it clear that the company could not use my machines that week.
I leave Bangkok in the morning and just when I arrive to Singburi Sebastian hands me the phone with Patrick. He’s angry why I didn’t respond to his message yesterday. I point out that it was Sunday but he just ignores that. He rants about my mom visiting and makes clear that “work is always more important than family”.
He then complains why I’m so uncooperative about the recycling machines. He says that he had wanted to talk to me about that in February but now that I’m blocking it he will certainly not buy them off me anymore. He says that he feels like I wanted to fight.
I confirm the meeting request shortly after.
2020-01-29
Leo calls. He asks what is going on as he supposedly only heard half the truth from Patrick. That’s indeed a pattern that before as well as through the upcoming weeks. Patrick is very selective in what he tells others to make them look bad and play them against each other.
I tell him my (certainly also biased) side of the story starting with being terminated the day before Christmas and being told my work was bad. He interrupts that everybody in the entire company appreciates my work, except for Patrick and Emile, whom he usually refers to as “these two”.
He asks if we couldn’t work out the current conflict somehow and is very interested in me working long term with The Green Lion. He promises to find an arrangement, such as making me co-owner in something new and promises me a big future. This reminds me of exactly what Patrick promised me 5 years ago and I get cautious.
I explain which amounts of money I should be getting according to my contract and the law and that Patrick had hinted I may not get them. He must have heard from Sebastian that I considered taking a lawyer and started ranting that I shouldn’t “feed into the corrupted system” and that I will stand no chance against Emile and his lawyers. They would just drag out the process until I ran out of money and gave up. I would lose either way so I should save myself the money and go with whatever Patrick offers me.
I feel very discouraged now. There indeed had been a case where Emile kept a local competitor busy in court for months until they gave up and got pushed out of the market. And while The Green Lion currently had cash flow issues I knew that if they could drag out my case they’d always have access to more funds than me. In addition Emile used to work with the Prime Minister and still has contacts high up in the government that he could use to cause issues for me or silence me.
Continue to chapter 3
The Green Lion Diaries 