Theory: Kangaroo Court is One Weapon They Use

Theory: Kangaroo Court is One Weapon They Use

Sick organizations are fairly well known for their use of kangaroo courts to silence those that would question their actions, etc. They may initially call such courts "appeal hearings" or something similar, but in a sick organization the appeal hearing becomes a kangaroo court because you have now challenged the organization's "right" to do as they wish to you. They are going to defend their "right" to do as they wish to you, as their worker, and teach you a lesson. Kangaroo courts are generally held in response to an appeal you made to a decision they made (that you question) about you or your job.


Kangaroo Court is defined as:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_court

A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Kangaroo+Court

An unfair, biased, or hasty judicial proceeding that ends in a harsh punishment; an unauthorized trial conducted by individuals who have taken the law into their own hands, such as those put on by vigilantes or prison inmates; a proceeding and its leaders who are considered sham, corrupt, and without regard for the law.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/kangaroo+court

any crudely or irregularly operated court, especially one so controlled as to render a fair trial impossible.

Kangaroo courts, by definition, are designed by the establishment so they win and you lose, and they teach you their lesson. They are mainly done to intimidate you and rest of staff, showing they can do anything to anybody at anytime, and that they are in control. A kangaroo court session is held to put someone down, to let them know who is boss, to stop criticism/talk before it gets started much, etc.

The Director/CEO of the sick organization usually chooses who will sit (usually 5 people) in judgement on the kangaroo court. They may give you one token choice of someone to sit at the hearing (they may ask for a list of several), and they choose one of those from your list who will judge you which will not mean anything in the final vote, because the vote is already rigged against you (4 votes to your one choice). This enables them to find out who ELSE thinks your way and needs to be controlled, so they can single them out for persecution, attitude adjustment, or firing, too. The kangaroo bunch gets together to question and beat up on you (their rules) and you have to sit there and take it while they go out for breaks, coffee, and to get more ammo (questions, charges) from other bullies not at "court" hearing.

They take great delight in watching you squirm and try to defend yourself against all sorts of charges against the sick organization, mostly various acts of supposed insubordination against your bully boss, false charges about your job performance, and your sayings to others. You cannot bring anyone in with you to help in your defense (like an attorney, or witness). They make up stuff, twist the truth, exaggerate, etc. everything so there is little truth anywhere in their charges against you. If they have instilled a little fear in you about what they can do, they have done what they wanted.

They have access to your personnel file where people have put anything they wanted for the time of your employment there. This is also "evidence" against you; you usually don't know what is in there and usually have no way to correct any false information. If you can, examine your personnel file to see what they are saying. Your yearly job performance evaluation is also usually in this file.

Do not expect to use the staff handbook (if there is one) in your defense. They will say things like: it is being revised and is not in effect at this time, or we (or those at the main office) are in the process of updating it, or something similar.

Since I think and observe fairly well, I have heard about various kangaroo courts in my life, from those in elementary school days on up to various jobs to divorce court (where, for some examples, motherhood is equated to sainthood, and a man is no good and must be punished by taking what he earned away from him, even though his wife committed adultery). In my opinion, divorce courts are more like kangaroo courts, and are full of lies and unfair "justice."

In my opinion, one of the most outrageous kangaroo courts a person was forced to go through happened after he just happened to ask "Do you realize you're eating better than the ........?" after he saw all the steaks, luncheon meats, drinks, and other goodies bought on ........ money for an outing. They held two days of hearings on what he asked (one question) to stress him out and bother him, to let him know they were boss, to let him know he must not question any of their actions, to let him know they were doing anything they wanted, to let him know he had no control over anything (including his own job and future), etc. For good measure they later made him pick up all the cigarette butts around the building, to exercise their control over him and show the rest of the staff they were in control and they'd better stay in line or they'd get similar treatment.

A kangaroo court is not a nice thing to go through; a sick organization is a bad place to work for the average worker, a horrible place for a worker who voices his opinion, believes in freedom of speech, and seeks the truth, and a good place to work for those in power and having fun at others' expense.

Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D.,   (C)  2012 --