I just finished reading your coverage of the Marlene Braun suicide at BLM in Bakersfield. While I am well aware that there are bullies in the workplace in this case you have it all wrong. Marlene was the bully! I watched her bully her employees for 3 1/2 years -- she supervised 5 people -- one tried to commit suicide, one had a heart attack after she harrassed him, and all of the others were looking for other jobs. Many are angry that she was allowed to go on abussing her employees for as long as she did! There were numeroue complaints and grievences filed against her. There is certainly more than one side to this story and only Marlene's side of the story is getting out -- the folks at BLM are just too nice and don't want to cause any her family any further distress by telling what really happened. However, without a doubt Marlene was the problem -- she tainted the entire office and it is actually a relief to have her gone -- not that anyone would have wanted to have her go the way she went. You must know that Marlene was a gun collector, served in the military, and many in the officer were frightened for their lives. As several have told me -- it could have gone another way with Marlene coming into the office with her guns and going postal. Thank God that didn't happen!

At any rate, I wouldn't use this story on your web site -- it is not a good example of what is a serious problem in our society! It basically makes a mockery of this serious problem of bullying in the workplace!

Dr. Namie replies: Actually, your comments and those of other detractors shows the length apologists for cruel managers like Huntsinger will go to rationalize abusive misconduct.

Anonymous

Marlene Braun was an intelligent and hard-working woman. She had a winning personality and could be very charming. She had noble ideals, and was very devoted to the Carrizo Plain National Monument. And ... she was mentally ill.

Those who worked with Marlene on a regular basis saw a side of Marlene that was hidden from her friends and the public. Marlene belittled people in front of others. She refused to listen to anyone who did not agree with her. She disrupted meetings and discussions. She lied to people. She changed input prepared by biologists and others to support her position. She refused to communicate or coordinate with others. She caused more stress, more people to cry, and more people to consider quitting than everyone else I have ever known in the workplace combined!! Strange how Kathy Hermes and the LA Times article overlook the fact that one of Marlene's employees attempted suicide a year or so before Marlene took her own life. The stated reason for that attempt -- Marlene. That is not to say Marlene wasn't intelligent, hard-working, and sweet -- she could be all those things. Marlene was a complicated -- and conflicted -- individual.

The LA Times article notes that Marlene was on a variety of medications for her mental problems -- apparently getting medications from two doctors without telling either doctor about the other. So not only was she apparently mixing medications, but according to those who worked with her, she sometimes would take her medication, and frequently would not. The result was a roller-coaster personality that was entirely irrational.

Marlene was obstinate and refused to follow directions from her supervisor (or anyone, for that matter). She once told me that her supervisor had ordered her to come and talk to him at least once a week (not an overly dastardly requirement, is it?). She told me that she was going to refuse, just to see what would happen. And she did.

Kathy Hermes says that the source of Marlene's stress was from her supervisor, who refused to transfer her and was going to fire her. Take it from someone who knows, that is a lie (but it is exactly what Marlene wanted people to think). Kathy especially seems incensed that BLM did not call 911. Yet Kathy herself says that Marlene "was the last person you would expect to commit suicide." Kathy neglects to mention that Marlene's note did not out-and-out say she was going to kill herself. In spite of this, BLM sent out the person who had been the closest confidante to Marlene, along with a law enforcement officer. They got there as soon as possible -- never dreaming that Marlene would take her life. And Kathy ignores the fact that according to attending medical personnel, there was nothing anyone could have done, regardless of how quickly they had arrived after the note was received. Hindsight is 20-20.

This tragedy was in no way because Marlene did her job, or failed to walk a certain party line. That makes for a good story, but the fact remains that Marlene was a poor manager who -- although she had the skills to be excellent -- was too obstinate to change. Marlene had a great deal of support, and even some recourse. But she chose her path. (She confided to one employee that she was going to "get" her supervisor. Those who knew her have no doubt that this is what she meant.) Marlene and Marlene alone was responsible for her death.

In closing, I want to state that I am uncomfortable speaking ill of Marlene. But there seems to be a concerted effort by some to place Marlene on a pedestal and not let this story die. But the longer this fictional story stays alive, the more truths will come out -- and this will not reflect well upon Marlene. Let us all remember her devotion and her laughter, and be allowed to put the other memories aside.

Anonymous

As all of you know, there are always 2 or more sides to each story. I watched the Marlene Braun story unfold from the sidelines for 3.5 years. Marlene came into Bakersfield with her mind already made up about resource management issues. She refused to listed to the experts and she refused to listed to the BLM staff specialists. She thought that grazing was bad and maybe in the systems that she came from it was bad -- but here in the desert of the southern San Joaquin Valley grazing and endangered species management actually are compatable! In wet years like this last one, if you don't graze the mulch from the non-native exotic grasses will build up and the Blunt-nosed Leopard Lizard, Giant Kangaroo Rat, Tipton Kangaroo Rat, and Coast Horned Lizard populations will crash! In one case a few years ago, a subspecies was lost (Fresno Kangaroo Rat) because the management agency in charge of the last 2 places they were found didn't get the cattle and sheep out there in time -- they haven't been seen since -- extinct! BLM is required under the Endangered Species Act to maintain populations of these species and that means grazing in the wet years. Marlene didn't want to follow these laws. This debate raged within the BLM office in Bakersfield for 3.5 years. Marlene wanted to end grazing for apparently esthetic reasons - if she had gotten her way what species would we have lost on the Carrizo?

This wasn't a matter of Bush's policies being forced on the BLM -- It wasn't a matter of bad decision making on BLM's part -- It was simply a matter of a manager (Marlene) not being able to listed to reason and not being willing to look at the data and make an honest assesment. We at BLM are all saddened that things ended the way they did, but most of us are not saddened that Marlene is no longer the Manager of the Carrizo Plains NM. She should have been removed from her position within the first 6 months after she came to work there.

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