when working at the Department of Health is bad for your health

Time to expose two supervisors who work with the Hawaii Department of Health who are bad for the mental and physical health  for  their employees

Joanne Higashi & Kimberly Arakaki,
- supervisors within the Hawaii Department of Health
- very toxic towards the mental health of employees
- too stupid to realize that in the social media age, their toxic style of supervision will be exposed online to a worldwide audience 

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 In December 2022, I took a temp office assistant position with the Department of Health (DOH).

I was looking for a full-time position, and I was interested in clerical work, whether in a library or an office.

The person who interviewed me for the position of DOH was Joanne Higashi. She seemed so inviting and friendly. The interview went smoothly and she seemed so excited about having me join the position.

But great recruiters don't always make good leaders.

Good leaders are organized when it comes to training their assistants.

That isn't only done with oral instructions but also by giving outlines, lists, workflow charts, and other visual cues to help us.

Joanne Higashi doesn't believe in any of that!

This is what I wrote to her supervisor, Sage Goto. 

Aloha Sage,

I'm sorry to bring you the bad news but I am having problems dealing with Joanne Higashi and I'm getting the feeling that she may not be the best mentor for me.

Today (01/05/2023), she kept piling on more assignments and expected me to take in the information without giving me a list. Then to add insult to injury while she was describing the CDC RPE forms and how to do them, she told me to not write things down, "just listen to me". THAT right there is the epitome of a toxic work environment. I had a nervous breakdown at that moment. I later discussed the issue with her, but Joanne has never apologized.

If I have to multi- step tasks, I can only work well when given lists, templates and other written guidelines. Joanne doesn't seem to believe in any of that. She just tells me "just use the previous emails as guide".  It was only TODAY (weeks after starting the job) that she tells me exactly which people to route invoices/MOAs/PO's/etc to. A list of those names should've been given to me the first week of doing routing assignments.  It doesn't work well for me to just look at previous emails to figure out who to route documents to. 

Joanne has never given me a list, templates, or written guidelines.  These are things that make workflows more simpler. Her mentality is just "I tell you orally, that's it". This is not compatible to guiding me to work success.

Contrast to that to the way you were able to map out on the white board on how to organize files into Fiscal Year folders. I LOVED THAT! :)  That made the work flow so much more smoother.  That's the type of instructions I want to have when given work assignments.

 

However, Joanne doesn't operate that way. 

I'm OK with learning all the clerical skills, but Joanne's way doesn't work for me. I'm actually thinking of not wanting to renew my 89-day contract beyond this month, and it might even get to the point where I might walk out before the month ends.  

I understand your hands may be tied in some ways, but if for the rest of the current "contract" I could work on tasks that don't need Joanne's guidance, that'll be great.  I'll understand if that's not an available option. 

I would love to meet with you to discuss more if you have further questions or concerns

The following day, Sage Goto didn't show up but Joanne Higashi did. It was awkward silence all day. 

That was a Friday.

I came home that day and came across an article title "How Anger Affects the Body" and I was nowhere near done with that article that I realized "don't wait, just leave the job, it's too unhealthy to stay".

Saturday, I sent the following email to Sage Goto and Joanne Higashi.

To: Sage Goto, Joanne Higashi

As I look over the events of this past week, and as I think about what is best for my mental & physical health, I feel that it is best to remove from myself working at this job at this time.  

It's not the office tasks I want to get away from.  What I need to get away from is Joanne Higashi's psychologically dangerous style of "leadership".

When I did the interview and talked with Joanne Higashi through the hiring process, I assumed that this will be a very wonderful partnership with someone who can guide me with psychologically safe practices.

Unfortunately, the events of January 5, 2023 proved all that wrong. I basically had a nervous breakdown because of Joanne Higashi's psychologically dangerous way of interaction. On that day,  she kept piling on more assignments and expected me to take in the information without giving me a list of tasks. Then to add insult to injury while she was describing the CDC RPE forms and how to do them, she told me to not write things down, "just listen to me". THAT right there is the epitome of a toxic work environment. I had a nervous breakdown at that moment. I later discussed the issue with her, but Joanne has never apologized.

If I had known that Joanne Higashi would treat me like that, I would NEVER had accepted the job.  Only a psychologically dangerous person would treat a person that way and not apologize for it. If this is how Joanne Higashi treats someone who is trying to help her, that means sooner or later, those trying to help her would stop helping her.  I'm done! 

But it doesn't start there. Joanne Higashi's practice in training me is very inefficient.  Efficient training emphasize clarity, and the best way to do that is give out visual guidelines.  Things like charts, lists, templates. Joanne Higashi doesn't believe in any of that, she just believes in just telling me orally, and just telling me "just use the previous emails as guide". Why should I search through hundreds of email when you could've printed me a template in the beginning?

For example, when I was first assigned to do routing, she could've given me a list of who to route documents to when it comes to invoices/MOAs/requisition. She didn't do that. She doesn't believe in giving me a list, she believes in just telling me to look at previous emails. Looking at previous emails isn't effective. Giving me lists, flow charts and templates is effective. 

With a previous employer, when I was given a chart listing priorities and tasks, that worked wonders for me. It made work flow smoother. 

Or for a good example at this worksite, when Sage Goto was going over how to organize e-files, he drew a flow-chart on the white board. That made the work flow so much easier.  That's kind of leader I want to work for. 

Unfortunately, Joanne doesn't believe in doing that, she only believes in oral instructions, and saying "don't write, listen to me" when giving instructions.  Who wants to work for someone like that?

And the thing is just thinking about that incident puts me at risk of a heart attack or a stroke.  So not only is Joanne Higashi's practices dangerous to my mental health, it's dangerous to my physical health. I'm literally putting my life at risk by working with someone like Joanne Higashi. 

And then for her to smile and say "don't stress"?

It's not the tasks by themselves that's giving me stress, it's Joanne Higashi's "leadership" style that is giving me life-threatening stress. 

In fact, just hours after coming home on 01/06/2023 that I came across an article titled "How Anger Affects the Body", I was nowhere near done reading it before I realized dealing how Joanne Higashi treated me on 01/05/2023 is literally dangerous to my physical health, and that I need to move on if I want to remain literally alive. 

I can't work like this!  Dealing with middle schoolers when I was a substitute teacher was less stressful than this. 

In fact, when I was a substitute teacher, I was usually given clear lesson plans (with charts, lists and other visuals) and I was encouraged to write things down. When school admins give me info, they don't say "don't write, just listen", they encourage me to write things down. This made the job much easier. 

Clarity is what made great lesson plans.

Clarity is what makes workflow smooth.

Clarity reduces the chance of life-threatening stress.

Clarity saves lives.

But Joanne Higashi's instructional and "leadership" style doesn't bring clarity. 

It is this lack of clarity and this kind of rudeness that made me leave the Library Assistant job at Kalakaua Middle School, a job that should've been a dream job if it wasn't for the rude head librarian who doesn't believe in providing clarity for assistants. 

This is exactly what working with Joanne Higashi reminds me of. 

And on 01/06/2023 (the day after my nervous breakdown), it was all awkward silence and zero apology from Joanne Higashi about what happened the previous day. 

This again reminds me of the Kalakaua Middle School library job. 

And the sad thing was that a few days earlier, when the Office Assistant III job finally appeared on governmentjobs.com, I applied thinking this could extend my time with SVP.

 

But after 01/05/2023, I need to end my time with SVP!  Working like this is not sustainable. 

I did send Sage Goto an email that night. Sage, I still want to talk with you about this. You can email or call me. I'm sorry you have to get in the middle of all this. Sage, you have a communication style that works well with me and I trust you. 

I could try give Joanne Higashi another chance, but I think it's best we go our separate ways. 

Joanne, I really need you to read all that I just wrote so that when you ever get a new assistant, you can be a better guide and not made the same mistake you made with me.  Otherwise, you'll just keep doing the same thing, alienating assistants and it becomes a revolving door of assistants. You may also want to learn from Sage on how to develop a more effective communication style when guiding assistants.  You may also want to learn from the person who was mentoring me at Macy's the last few months I was there. That person is (name deleted to protect the innocent), and he was great in guiding me in learning new tasks and dealing with problems. He never used degrading tactics like "don't write, just listen to me" even when going over big-picture things. 

And Joanne, you want to talk about big picture things, let's talk about big picture things, your leadership style will cause problems for you because you have just alienated an assistant who was so enthusiastic about working with you in the beginning. You can't mistreat your assistants and expect them to continue to help you.  Your leadership style causes employee turnover and it's not sustainable for your program.  DOH is already struggling with multiple vacancies as it is.

Now, I wish I didn't leave Macy's for this. And just to think, I wanted to move on from Macy's for months, but I left SVP in less than a month since starting. A Macy's co-worker was right to tell me the grass isn't always greeener on the other side.

So it's time for me to say goodbye. I am resigning effective immediately. 

Mahalo,

Pablo Wegesend

Yes, I "went there" and told Higashi off by telling her how she's an ineffective leader and a toxic supervisor.

This NEEDS TO HAPPEN because Higashi needs to understand how her tactics, if they don't change, will only going to cause more problems for her in the long run. Now she knows how she alienated me and how she can prevent herself from making the same mistake with the next assistant. 

If I just stay silent, I am hurting the next assistant to be hired.

By speaking up, and telling Higashi off in an email also sent to her supervisor, she should know now how to better assist her next assistant. Higashi can no longer use the excuse of "I didn't know" and "nobody warned me".

If I stayed, it gives Higashi the impression that what she did "wasn't that bad". I left, I told her why, so know she knows, her tactics are That Bad! 

And with this blog post, she is now publicly exposed as a toxic boss who is only nice when recruiting employees. 

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Do I regret leaving? No. 

I did lose some money, but I gained dignity.

Also, I now have time to do what I've been putting off, which is to talk to a mental health professional to address my mental health concerns and how it affects my career development.   

(And I'll discuss the details some other time)

And I found temp employers who'll give me time to deal with all that! 

(Where? You may find out some other time) 

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BONUS PICS

Joanne Higashi,

the person with degrees in psychology and social work who alienates assistants in less than one month due to her psychologically unsafe practices, 

and walks away from a tough conversation when her ass isn't being kissed!

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Joanne Higashi, the person with degrees in psychology and social work ......... 

who doesn't understand who doesn't understand the psychological benefits of providing written guidelines for her assistants. 

Even worse, she only gives in oral instructions and gets mad when her assistants writes notes to help memorize important information. 

Her degrees are all for NOTHING

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Joanne Higashi,

 a supervisor who doesn't prioritize providing clarity or written guidelines for her assistants.

 A very disorganized person who doesn't respect the assistant who kept things organized for her. 

Yet, she wonders why her assistants don't stick around.

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Joanne Higashi

- during the interview & hiring process, she presents herself as a wonderful mentor who will make your worklife a heaven.

- once the job begins, she fosters a toxic work environment and would rather eat fecal matter than apologize for the psychological harms caused by her mangement style.

-To top it all off, she's too stupid to realize that in the social media age, the people she mistreats can expose her contradictions to a worldwide audience with a click of a button

PS: Joanne Higashi, you asked in the job interview about my thoughts about social media. I mentioned that I'm a social media user.  If you didn't expect me to expose you like this, then  you're a special kind of stupid! 

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Also, the Department of Health isn't immune from covidiots who want us to pretend the pandemic is over. 

One of those covidiots is Kimberly Arakaki.

Here is an email I sent to her supervisor Matthew Shim!

Aloha Matthew Shim,

I have become aware that you are in charge of the Family Health Services Division (FHSD). I am a new 89-day office assistant who experienced a negative encounter with Kimberly Arakaki on Monday, December 19.

I have sent a letter to DOH's Human Resource Office and the earliest they might get it might be Wednesday 12/20/2022. The following are the contents of the letter

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12/19/2022

From: Pablo Wegesend

To: Hawaii Department of Health, Human Resource Office

Aloha,

I am a newly hired Office Assistant with DOH’s Sexual Violence Prevention (SVP) program working as an 89-day hire, and therefore lack access to union representation.

I believe that I am dealing with a hostile work environment due to the action of Kimberly Arakaki, who is the supervisor of my supervisors (Joanne Higashi, Sage Goto).

On Monday, December 19, 2022, Kimberly Arakaki wanted to talk in private in the office room I was working at. When she entered my office room, she told me that she wanted me to take off my mask and face shield and she said “I want to see your face”. All of that was said in a hostile, aggressive and rude manner.  I informed her that I feel very uncomfortable when people tell me to take off my mask and shield.

Arakaki then told me, in a rude & hostile manner, that masks are no longer required.  Then she asked in a rude manner “do you go to the bank, they ask you to take off the mask”.

When I go to an actual bank, they politely ask me to pull down my mask for a few seconds, and they ask that with a plexiglass between me and them.  That is very different from the situation where Arakaki rudely demand “take off your mask, I want to see your face”.

Arakaki mentioned that she needs to know who is in the building because it’s a secured facility. I noted that I have a badge with my name, photo and the building I work at (Wilcox Building).

As for the photo on my badge, I will note that the person from the HR office who took the photo (Rachel Nakagawa) had a mask on, and was very polite when she asked to remove my mask for a few seconds for the photo.  I appreciate Nakagawa’s politeness.

And to add insult to injury, Arakaki said it was “weird” that I didn’t want to show my face. Not only is the word “weird” unprofessional, the way she said it was rude, confrontational and hostile.

I see no reason why Arakaki had to ask me to take off my mask and show my face in a hostile manner. In the pandemic era, it shouldn’t be considered “weird” when someone wants to keep their mask on.  And it shouldn’t be considered “weird” by someone who works for the Department of Health.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have worked for Macy’s, Kamaaina Kids and Bishop & Co. None of them demanded that to me that “I want to see your face”. None of them asked me to remove my mask and shield. If it’s not necessary for them for me to take off my mask because “I want to see your face”, then why is it necessary for Arakaki to make those demands?

Talking about secured facilities, when I was working with Bishop & Co during 2020, I was sent to work at HonBlue, the location where the ballots were being printed. It was a secured facility. Nobody demanded that I remove my mask and “show my face”. So I see no reason why “this is a secure facility” would be a good reason for a supervisor to start a conversation in a rude manner to remove my mask and shield.

The way that Arakaki communicated is as if she was a high school teacher dealing with a unruly teenager who refuse to stop playing in class.  This is no way to treat an adult professional who wear a mask and face shield for protection.

I also want to note that I wear a mask and face shield because I take public transportation in which I no control over who I encounter, whether it’s an ill person or an immune-compromised person who I really don’t want to infect. I also have parents who are in their 70’s and I don’t want to infect them when I meet them.  Also, because I don’t have access to sick leave, I can’t afford to be infected.

I understand that not everyone wants to take the same precautions that I do. But I want my choice to take those precautions to be respected.

Also, I don’t want to have to worry about dealing with hostile communications at my workplace.

So far, I like most aspects of my new positions, and I like most of my colleagues, but I cannot tolerate the hostile work environment fostered by the rude, aggressive and confrontational mannerism of Kimberly Arakaki.

While I understand that I can’t really make demands on what you might do with this information, I would really like to request that you inform Kimberly Arakaki to not retaliate against me for documenting this situation.  And I will continue to document if this situation continues.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, you may contact me at my personal email or my work email.

Mahalo,

Pablo Wegesend

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PS: I will also want to add that if this treatment by Kimberly Arakaki continues, I will not hesitate to walk off the job (which took DOH 6+ months to find someone to fill) and share my story of mistreatment with the media. 

After that email to Mr. Shim, Kimberly Arakaki was begging for forgiveness! 

No! 

You want war, you get it!

Kimberly Aragaki, a covidiot who demands everyone takes off their mask when talking to her

Kimberly Arakaki, a Department of Health branch chief that believes it's OK to put employees at risk for covid, because she's a covidiot who thinks covid is a hoax!

Kimberly Arakaki, a workplace bully who demands unwavering submissiveness, and gets mad at employees who protect themselves and others from contagious respiratory diseases! And she works for the Department of Health!

Kimberly Arakaki, a workplace bully too stupid to realize that employee Pablo Wegesend would go on his blog to expose bullies like her! Only dummies like her pick fights with someone with years of experience exposing bullies on social media


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On the bright side, after her begging for forgiveness, she did wear a mask in my presence. Which was what she should've been doing  when she's around anyone this whole time! 

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Also, when  Joanne Higashi learned of my conflict with Kimberely Arakai, I mentioned that I can give here a written copy of my complaint, Joanne Higashi said "no, tell it me ".

What? Joanne Higashi, are you illiterate? 

No, what Joanne Highashi is is a psychologically illiterate (despite her psychology and social work degree) that doesn't understand that for some people (like me) prefer to write about instead of orally speak about emotional trauma. That's because it's emotionally and psychologically draining to orally speak about trauma and it's less draining to write about it instead. 

Joanee Higashi, if you didn't know that, then your psychology and social work degree is ALL FOR NOTHING! 

That was THE MOMENT that I realize that Joanne Higashi is NOT TO BE TRUSTED, and my biggest mistake is to give her a 2nd chance after that! 

But if Joanne Higashi wants war, HERE IT IS!