Dear Sirs,

We will like to bring your attention to a grave matter affecting the morale and productivity of our team. The matter concerns Mr. A.K. who has joined our group recently after spending a considerable time on overseas assignment. Mr. A.K.’s conduct and his behavior are causing a serious problem for a lot of our team mates and hence we would like to bring the management’s attention to this matter.

Firstly, we understand that Mr. AK has serious concerns on the conduct and behavior during the team meetings. On numerous occasions, Mr. AK has cut-short the speaking members if they happened to speak in Hindi language. Not only Mr. AK reprimanded the said team members during the team meetings, he also went on to launch an attack on the Hindi language and north Indian culture and that how north Indians have been inflicting serious injuries to the country’s culture. Needless to say, Mr. AK’s such actions have seriously affected the morale of team members and caused them concern. Some of these team-mates are highly qualified and are much more senior in the company than Mr. AK.

Secondly, it is understood that Mr. AK has some issues with the usage of Hindi language during the team-meetings. It is also understood that Mr. AK is unable to communicate in Hindi language, which has been the lingua franca of this team prior to Mr. AK’s arrival. Not only usage of Hindi was encouraged during the tenure of previous manager but all of the team-members also expressed satisfaction with the opportunity to express themselves in one of country’s foremost language. Also, every effort was made to communicate with external clients in the business language of the company, i.e. English. Thus so far, none had any concerns or issues with such practices in the past. Several of the team-mates have offered their help and time outside of the business hours to help Mr. AK communicate in Hindi language but he out rightly rebuked and insulted the said team-members and also used inappropriate words to describe their native languages and customs.

Thirdly, it has also come to our attention that Mr. AK has directly threatened some of the team-mates with dire consequences if they did not stop communicating in Hindi language. He has also on numerous occasions motioned that he will make sure that the Hindi-speaking team-mates will be penalized during their annual review. While we understand that Mr. AK in his managerial capacity has authority to assign individual goals to team-member’s annual development plan, it is very inappropriate on Mr. AK’s part to unilaterally assign these goals with out taking the affected team-members into confidence and deliberating with the HR department before making such pronouncements. Being highly qualified and experienced members of this company, we expect some courtesy from Mr. AK before he takes any such steps.

Further, it has also come to our notice that Mr. AK went around and conducted a poll in very unprofessional manner and asked every team-member of their native languages. Thus, although there is no official data on the native languages of the team-members, Mr. AK is said to maintain a list of team-member and their native languages. And he has used this information to single out non-Hindi speakers and publicly ridiculed them for communicating in Hindi language. Needless to say, these team-members have taken a personal affront to them being publicly castigated for exercising their choice and the prevalent mode of communication with in the group.

Last but not the least, Mr. AK has been extolling the virtues of Tamil Brahmin culture during his interactions with the team-mates and has on some occasions referred to the fact that in his family, women are not allowed to perform any religious rituals and/or visit the kitchen during their menstruation days. While, the mention of his family rituals is highly irrelevant to the professional environment, moreover such practices are highly deplorable if practiced. Needless to say, some of the female teammates have expressed serious concerns on the conduct of Mr. AK in group settings.

Thus, we request the senior management to take a note of this grave situation and take a remedial action as soon as possible. We request the management to take a serious look at Mr. AK’s professional conduct and reevaluate his role in this group and the company. Since Mr. AK has joined our group, staff morale and productivity has taken a nose-dive and has affected each and every team member. At the very least, we will request the management to immediately transfer Mr. AK to a different group or a different geographical location with in the company, till the time a formal inquiry into his conduct has been completed.

Looking for an immediate and a favorable action in this regard.

Aggrieved member’s of Mr. AK’s team.

P.S. This post has been