As of March 10th, 2008 Ms. Hallstrom has not received a final decision from the EEOC Administrative Judge nor has she heard a final decision from Federal Division of Occupational Worker’s Compensation. Ms. Hallstrom is on medical leave without pay.

There have been additional EEO complaints filed against the managers in Ms. Hallstrom’s office by other Federal employees recently. You can read more of her story below.

December 9th, 2007,

To: Department of Labor, Federal OWCP Division

From: Tracy Hallstrom, Claim # 132183400

To whom it may concern;

My nameTracy Hallstrom. I have been employed with the Department of Interior-Bureau of Land Management, Redding, California Field office since December 1999. I work in Administration and Public Contact.

On May 9, 2005 as Class Agent representing 100% females in our office, filed an EEO Class complaint against our Field office manager case #LLM-05-030 alleging Gender Discrimination and Hostile Harassment work environment.

On May 31, 2005 myself and another employee filed individual complaints with the basis of reprisal and discrimination, case #BLM-05-0440.

On September 21, 2005 the Class complaint became individual consolidated complaints where as my case# was BLM-05-0390.

On June 2, 2005 myself and others filed individual whistleblower disclosures with the Office of Special Counsel and the Department of Interior-Office of Inspector General in Washington DC disclosing waste, fraud, abuse, Contract fraud, misappropriations of the French fire monies including other allegations as well as prohibited personnel practices.

Since filing protected activity, I have been reprized against and bullied by managers and supervisors in my office on a regular basis. I have had to seek counseling from a therapist to help me deal with the hostile work environment and the undue stress that has been placed upon me since filing. I have had to use all of my annual and sick leave due to declining health from my work environment and have used hundreds of hours of leave without pay.

My EEOC Hearing was April 24, 2007 and the AJ had 180 days to reach a final decision on my case.

It is now December 9, 2007 and still no decision which has increased the hostile work environment and my stress. I have been taken off work numerous of times for work stress related illnesses and even at the advice of my treating doctors and therapist advising me to quit. I was reprised against two weeks ago on November 26th and again on the 27th.

In the early hours of the 28th, I woke up with severe chest pains and found myself in the Emergency room being admitted for having a possible mild heart attack. I was fortunate that I had passed a stress test the next day and there were no signs of damage to my heart.

It was at that point I decided to take the advice of all the doctors, nursing staff and apply for Occupational Stress because I can no longer handle the stress working in a hostile work environment. It has affected my health in the negative.

I am the sole caregiver for my elderly parents as well. They are 80 and 90 years old and my stress from my work environment has affected the care that I give my parents because I have been ill as well because of my work situation.

Had the BLM State Director Mike Pool and his Associate State Director Jim Abbott stepped in when I emailed them on numerous occasions to put a stop to the harassment, retaliation, and made reasonable accommodations for me several months ago, I wouldn’t be ill as I am now.

My hearing transcripts will prove that I have been reprised against and that because the BLM didn’t take my allegations of depression and stress from my work environment seriously it has caused me to become ill and that I can no longer work in the BLM Redding field office.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 12:35 pm and is filed under Equal Employment Opportunity, Federal Government Whistleblower, Government Accountability Project, Government Corruption, OSC, Office of Personnel Management, PEER, Project on Government Oversight, Scott Bloch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.