Make sure to read up on the company structure and the main characters before diving into the diary.
You missed part 3? Read it here.
2020-02-10 12:45
One by one I am climbing the stairs leading up to Patrick’s terrace, overlooking the entire compound. First thing one sees are the massive ancient (maybe Chinese?) wooden doors integrated into the back wall. Patrick has a thing for old wooden things. To my right I see the old wooden table – probably seating 20 people or more – in the outdoor kitchen and dining area Patrick built for his dinner parties. The sheer size of these items makes me feel tiny and powerless.
Patrick is already waiting on his couch chair. I sit down across him. For the next hour or so I discuss things with him. He points out that he had heard about the possibility of me involving a lawyer. He says that if I was to do that, he would not pay me my bonus for 2019/20. As my bonus is a substantial share of my overall compensation this would hit me hard. He adds that he had always done everything correctly and not a single time before in his life he had needed a lawyer.
He further asks why rumors are going around about him and a former female intern. I tell him that I have detailed records of the events on October 5th 2016 and he admits to sexually molesting the girl after promising her money and giving her alcohol but sees no wrongdoing on his end. He contradicts himself when first he says there was no alcohol involved but then corrects that they did drink, but together with others. Which to my knowledge is untrue.
We talk about the recycling program. He blames me for wasting working time and thus company money. I explain that me and my team worked on it in our free time only and exclusively spent my money. He gets loud and makes clear that in his view in my salary range there is no free time. He says it’s ok of course that I eat and rest, but other than that all my time belongs to the company. He further elaborates that doing anything besides work will lead to me thinking about it during work as well and would decrease my productivity.
He then generously offers not to claim copyright on the recycling machines we built (which are open source anyway) or the plastic sensor we used in the program (which a friend of mine developed as a hobby long before visiting me in Thailand and which by the way won the highly endowed James Dyson Award later on).
I try 3 times to talk about severance payment but he cuts me short. Also when I ask about interest on delayed bonus payments.
He agrees to pay my bonus in full even though he keeps complaining about my work. At some point he adds that it’s not just my fault, but also Emile’s and Antonia’s. (Presumably they should have let me go earlier). He explains that the bonus will be paid out in installments of 50k THB monthly, which means it will take 10 months for me to receive the full amount. His argument is that he doesn’t want to promise me something he can’t keep. My remark that payments to terminated employees are to be made within less than a month after the end of the contract gets disregarded.
We then talk further about my work. I explain a few of the things we developed, the way we structured our IT and I emphasize the importance of pre-emptive maintenance. He offers me a maintenance contract and calls it “free money”, totally disregarding what I just had said about the maintenance workload. I turn down the offer.
At the end I clearly state that I disagree with his financial offer and will need time to think about it.
After the meeting I send him the following summary to have his offer in writing in black and white:
He clearly knows that his offer is against the law and therefore does not answer to my email but on LINE, so it is harder to use this as evidence against him.
Only later I find out that he interpreted my email as me accepting his terms and right away sold this as success to Leo.
2020-02-10 15:36
I wanted to call Leo right after my talk with Patrick but at 14:49 he didn’t answer the phone. He calls back just after Patrick confirmed the meeting notes.
I explain to Leo that I disagree with Patricks offer as I can’t accept getting the money – for work I long did – up to one year into the future. I point out that Patrick’s offer is not compliant with Thai law. Leo adds that he was not aware of the legal situation either.
I point out to Leo that I am considering going to court. As before he first rants about ‘feeding the corrupt system’, then explains again that I will stand no chance in court because Patrick and Emile have contacts up to the highest levels in Thai government and will use these to silence me or create problems for me. Also he points to the competitor that Emile successfully stalled in court until they ran out of money.
I am not sure if he says these things because he is worried about me or as part of a good cop / bad cop scheme.
I explain that labour court is straightforward and can not be stalled for too long. He is surprised. I point out that if this case goes to court and I end up winning, this would damage the brand of The Green Lion as a caring and social organization. Now Leo gets loud, almost shouts. He says the brand is not to be touched as it is his brand and then he’d have to get involved. It comes across like a threat.
He asks me again about the incident with the girl. He says that Patrick dismissed this right away when they talked. He is surprised when I say that Patrick had just admitted it.
Last he brings up copyright concerns on our plastic recycling machines. I explain that we work closely with Precious Plastic (the initiative that developed the blue prints) and point him to a scene in our first video where we even publicly thank them. He is surprised. Apparently Patrick had brought it across to him as that I stole their ideas and promoted them within The Green Lion as my own.
He promises to talk to Patrick the same day and expresses that he would prefer us coming to a peaceful solution.
2020-02-11 9:00
We have breakfast together with Patrick, Ae and Patrick’s son Ernst (name changed) like a happy family. Patrick generously offers me coffee and cheese. He is playing the emotional card, making it much harder for me to turn down his offer.
2020-02-11 9:45
I start the talk by telling Patrick that I have one question about the sexual misconduct case with the girl, one about work. I offer that if he didn’t want to answer the question about the girl he didn’t have to.
My question is: “Why?”. Why did he attempt to sleep with an employee 40 years younger than him after offering her money and alcohol. His answer is simple: “Because I was fond of her”. This answer is as honest as it is shocking. When combined with the further events and conversations during the next few weeks it draws a picture of an egocentric yet charming person, taking whatever he wants, bending the truth and ignoring the law as he sees fit. I ask a few more questions around the subject and he adds that the alcohol certainly played a role, that he wouldn’t have kissed her (against her will) without it but that he still clearly knew what he was doing.
Read the detailed conversation protocol here.
I move on to my second question, the one about work. Since August 2019 Leo had offered to cover half of my salary if in return he got a say on the agenda of IT developments. Patrick had turned down the offer. I ask why he is now letting me go for financial reasons and even yesterday complained about me wasting so much money by working – in my leisure time – on a side project, but refused to let Leo pay half my salary.
Now he starts a tirade of attacks on my work and gets loud. I know that the finances had played a big role in letting me go and Antonia had confirmed that right on December 23rd, but now he claims it was never about the money at all and only about my work. He goes on and on about why my work was bad and unnecessary. He blames me for working too detailed and too exact. He says some things should not be connected and rather be done informally. He gives the following example: “Suppose we wanted to evade taxes, than having all finances in one accounting system would not be good.”. Interesting that this is the first example that he comes up with, yet not that surprising once you consider that in 2017 The Green Lion West made about 2 Million Euros revenue, 0.5 Million Euros Profit and paid about 1000 Euros corporate taxes due to creative accounting.
I end the talk by saying that I will need to think about his latest answers and I’d come talk to him again after lunch.
2020-02-11 14:00
We have lunch together with Patrick, Ae and Patrick’s son Ernst. It feels awkward. I have a hard time to keep up some small talk.
2020-02-11 14:30
After lunch I go with Patrick to his terrace. I explain to him that I thought about his offer but need to turn it down. He reacts unexpectedly calm and controlled. He says I never made a counter proposal so he couldn’t accept or reject it. That’s not quite true as I attempted to bring up the severance 3 times but was cut short each time. So I bring it up again now. He gets loud and says this was never agreed upon (well, it’s the law), that “this is something we don’t do” and if now I start changing the contract then he can do that as well.
He changes into the third person and says:
“So I think what I will do then is that I say ‘Ok, maybe he’s right there, I don’t think so, but then we just won’t pay the bonus’.”
It feels a bit like the moment in a movie when towards the end the villain explains his evil plan.
We talk for a few more minutes where I point out that I hope our professional disagreement would not burden our personal relationship. I explain that I am very interested in properly documenting and handing over all my work as I would not want to have lost 5 years years of my life working for nothing.
2020-02-11 15:45
I go to see Sebastian who was supposed to have a meeting with Patrick now. I summarize the conversation. He tells me that Patrick took my email the previous day as a victory in turning me around. Supposedly yesterday afternoon he had asked Sebastian to take me out for a drink last night to ‘make sure I had a good time’. Sebastian refused though as he already had evening plans.
I tell him I’ll be leaving in a bit.
2020-02-11 14:59:42
Much later I learn that shortly after we met, Patrick sent out an internal email. He forwards my meeting summary from the day before and adds: “This is Bernhard version first meeting. Pls do not discuss with Bernhard in writing!”
Looks like he is preparing for our upcoming legal dispute. And apparently he’s aware that he is not on the winning side. Otherwise he wouldn’t need to be afraid of written records.
2020-02-11 15:00:38
Just 15 minutes after I left and merely 56 seconds after his internal email, he sends me an email, again referring to my notes of the day before:
I had observed previous instances during the past years where I made a critical comment during a meeting and he right away went to search for dirt on my social media. As he had just pulled out that email from the day before, he is likely to be looking for further dirt on me right now. It would take another 26 months until I’d get this theory confirmed, when in court I get confronted with pictures he took from a colleague’s social media profiles. He’s so predictable in his rage. What really scares me is that I don’t know for sure how far he’s willing to go beyond what I already know of him.
I step out of my room and already hear him shouting audibly across the entire complex, probably on the phone with someone. I pack up my stuff and head to Bangkok.
Continue to Chapter 5
The Green Lion Diaries 