Make sure to read up on the company structure and the main characters before diving into the diary.
You missed part 5? Read it here.
2020-02-18 22:00
Sebastian calls. He points out that still the common opinion is that I will lose the case and that Patrick still feels betrayed by me.
2020-02-18 22:07
Antonia just noticed that she doesn’t have access to the source code repository. She logs into my company email account, probably attempting to get access. Then seemingly she tells Patrick as shortly after she asks me to return my laptop and any other company assets.
2020-02-19 8:37
A message from Antonia wakes me up. Patrick threatens to pursue criminal charges against me if I don’t hand over the logins to the source code by today.
I consult my lawyer who suggests to meet at his office in the afternoon. I pass this on. After Antonia confirms, I give her the address. She states that Patrick himself will join.
2020-02-19 14:30
I arrive at my lawyers office in time for a briefing and coffee. I bring the laptop and monitor that was asked back from me “upon cessation of [my]work”. Somebody in the elevator jokes that I took the term ‘portable computer’ to a whole new level. My lawyer puts both into a separate room.
Patrick comes late. He is being accompanied by young a lawyer who doesn’t seem to know a lot about my case.
When asked, Patrick states that he is not a manager of The Green Lion but a stakeholder. The lawyer states that he is not the company’s lawyer but Patrick’s lawyer. As such, neither of them should be attending this meeting.
When asked why Patrick came and why he is attending this meeting, he says he doesn’t know, he was invited to come here by me. Which technically is incorrect as I invited Antonia. Patrick adds that he had no intentions whatsoever. His lawyer than further elaborates that I have never been discontinued nor was there the intention to discontinue me. He says the expiring work permit was the mistake of a single staff member and is being fixed right now. His explanation is that the local team could not be aware of the expiry date of my work permit, as I had it with me. This is clearly a lie as my staff file that HR had just shown me a few days earlier contained several copies of all pages of my work permit.
The lawyer says he would later on follow up with the staff about extending my work permit. Which technically is impossible as the work permit is expired and can not be extended. It is necessary to apply for a new work permit which would involve me leaving the country.
He repeatedly emphasizes, that I am still working with The Green Lion. He contradicts himself when my legal team asks about my severance and he says that’s something they are looking into. He then later adds, that he is representing the company as well, not just Patrick. Yet again contradicting himself.
So after all the shouting and the threats of the past days, Patrick’s legal defense seemingly is lying. Not a single time do they ask for any company assets to be returned. If they had the legal basis they threatened with just 5 hours ago, now would have been the time to bring this up. But the way the conversation is developing I can’t shake off the feeling that all the harsh words were nothing but a bluff. An attempt to intimidate me.
After they left, my legal team briefly discusses and decides to still go ahead with the lawsuit. Obviously Patrick’s defense is that I never got an official letter of termination. Which he never gave me as that would be an admission that it’s not just my contract running out but him actually terminating me. Now he rows back and pleads that I’m still working there. We have plenty of proof of talks about my termination though and will mount the case in the upcoming days.
I send an email asking to confirm the outcome of the talk, which he will never respond to:
I head home with the laptop and the monitor. Only days later I notice that Patrick had messaged me on Line before the meeting:
So while he shouts at me in Hua Hin, threatens me by instant message, makes financial threats in case I’d even involve a lawyers and this very morning sends his intimidating legal bluffs via Antonia, the moment I invite him to my lawyers office he suddenly wants a peaceful solution soonest. During the meeting he acts innocent and lies about everything that happened so far. Poor performance for the founder of a social company.
2020-02-19 15:13
Leo adds me on Line and asks if we can talk later today. After the meeting with Patrick I answer back to Leo that I’m happy to talk, except for work related matters due to the current legal dispute.
2020-02-19 21:15
I talk to one of the Thai colleagues who got terminated and learn that their reason for termination was the economic outlook of the company. Given that The Green Lion still made profit (although potentially hidden by creative accounting) this might constitute a case of unfair dismissal. I run this by my lawyer, maybe we can mount a case together.
2020-02-20 10:30
Sebastian calls. He asks if I didn’t want to talk to Leo. Seemingly Leo had called him to tell him he couldn’t reach me.
2020-02-20 10:31
Leo calls. He asks what went on during my meeting with Patrick. It appears he doesn’t know yet that Patrick declared yesterday that I never had been terminated. I don’t tell him but ask him to talk to Patrick.
He says he and Antonia are very much on my side. He wants to help me sort this out. Because once Patrick needs to involve lawyers, he will bring Emile’s full legal team and no matter how this turns out, both parties would loose. This is interesting in the context of Patrick bringing a single uninformed lawyer the day before.
He asks about my work permit and about the rumors that I’m refusing to hand over source code. I explain that I am not allowed to work without my work permit and that Patrick clarified yesterday that he doesn’t actually want anything from me.
Leo points out that he has had many lawyers and worked with many lawyers in many countries and that they only wanted money. He offers that I should come to Chiang Mai to talk with him and sort out the situation. He asks what I want and if I was going to stop causing problems if I got it. Well… what I truly want is Patrick to apologize for breaking promise after promise and then finally firing me the day before Christmas. But that won’t happen. So I answer that if I got the money I was asking for I had no reason to ask for more money.
I make clear that I needed to talk to my lawyers first, before I could confirm meeting him.
2020-02-20 11:09
I just sat down to write the conversation protocol of Leo’s first call. He calls me again, asking if I already spoke to my lawyers. He says I needed to confirm asap and fly to Chiang Mai today as he could only give me a time slot tomorrow morning. I should book my flight right away.
He is obviously continuing the Good Cop / Bad Cop game while trying to build up pressure and implicit threats to push me into giving in.
2020-02-20 11:24
I call my lawyer. He advises me not to go to Chiang Mai. Leo is not authorized to sign any documents on behalf of Patrick’s part of The Green Lion, nor can he just give me money as I don’t work for him.
I also raise the question about the termination of the local Thai team. They have been offered severance according to the law, yet the reason why they were terminated is invalid. The company is not allowed to terminate staff due to the economic outlook, which was the reason given in their letters.
Unfortunately the local team already signed the letters and it is too late now to take action. Looks like The Green Lion got away with this.
I start drafting my email to Leo asking him to get in touch with my lawyer about finding an amicable solution and send it 11:54. My lawyer is in CC.
2020-02-20 12:36
Leo calls again. He did not respond to my email but likely his call is in response to it. I do not answer the call.
2020-02-20 12:57
Leo calls again. I don’t answer. I send him an email asking to do any correspondence from here forward in writing to avoid misunderstandings. I send the email at 13:12.
2020-02-20 13:14
Leo calls again. I don’t answer.
2020-02-20 13:45
Leo sends me a text message instead of answering my emails. He clearly doesn’t want to create one complete communication chain, just like Patrick before. He is aware that anything he writes down could be used against him.
Interesting is that he speaks of a mature solution, right after I was terminated, shouted at, threatened and then un-terminated. At the same time he emphasizes the importance of me coming to see him. An obvious power move.
2020-02-20 15:11
A colleague messages me. He just had a meeting with Patrick regarding his work. He was offered a fixed-term contract for the upcoming 2 years. It seems like after letting go so many of us, Patrick attempted to tie the ones left over to the company to easy the transition.
Seemingly Patrick also brought me up at some point, actually calling my work ‘brilliant’. Quite the opposite of what he told me the week before.
2020-02-20 16:24
Patrick sends me a text message:
4 minutes later I get the same message on Whatsapp:
I call my lawyer who promises to call me back. 16:32 I get the same message on Facebook:
Only later I notice that he also messaged me on Line at 16:08. I silenced him there as Line is no official communication channel.
Obviously he wanted to make sure I got the message. Yet, as before, he is not willing to send an email or to respond to the email I sent yesterday. He seems really afraid to leave any traces.
It gets even more interesting when the day after I open the chat with him as I needed to screenshot an older message to complete the journal. He added blank lines before and after the message. He has never done that before and it is unlikely to be a coincidence. But given that I didn’t open the previous message he sent me, he likely wanted to have less or no text visible in the preview so I would open the message out of curiosity and he’d be notified about me opening it.
Superficially friendly and polite, yet trying to play smart.
2020-02-20 16:38
Patrick calls. I don’t answer. I don’t feel like being shouted at and in the current situation I need written proof of any communication.
2020-02-20 16:38
My lawyer calls back. He says he just reconfirmed something he vaguely remembered: In Thailand the shareholder of a company who is not manager is not allowed to discuss work related issues with any employee. As such not just him meeting us yesterday was against the law but also his attempts to contact me right now.
2020-02-20 16:50
The last update from my lawyer makes a few things clearer. All these years Patrick only worked from his living room, never even sat down in the office once. For meetings he never used the meeting room, but always called us into his living room. Even when he flew around to visit agency partners or attend conferences, he refused to get presentation cards printed in his name and I never saw him signing any document whatsoever.
It appears he has literally been working illegally for many years, carefully covering his tracks.
I send a message back to him as discussed with my lawyer:
Continue to Chapter 7
The Green Lion Diaries 