BrownMan is concerned about his safety

The matter has been escalated from HR to ER. ER is Employee Relations Advice Connection, a corporate wide HR like body. BrownMan expressed his concern for safety. Since the matter became public it was important to protect the victim from the perpetrator of the crime. He did not recieve any reply. Note that BrownMan has added CEO's diversity statement in his signature

-----------------------------

Hello Mariela,

Thanks for your note. Can we do it on 9/3 anytime or after. Please send me a meeting invite and I will call you from one of the conference rooms here. I have one major concern if you could answer now.

I am very uncomfortable in the workplace cubicle I am in, my manager is 2 cubicles behind me. Current situation is affecting my ability to concentrate on my work also. Is there some mechanism by which I can be accomodated some other work cubicle distant from the current one until this investigation is complete and the matter is settled. I know some companies have a policy about this, I could not find anything on this in JPMC's intranet site. Please let me know.

regards,
BrownMan
“Building a workplace where differences are respected and valued is critical to our future. We have an amazing opportunity in front of us to build the best financial services company in the world. Achieving this depends on having the best people doing their best work. For us, the business case is simple: JPMorgan Chase is a place for talented people from all backgrounds and nationalities. Gender, race, sexual orientation, age and physical ability are just some of the kinds of differences that make people unique — and give us the diversity of perspective that will set us apart. We’re committed to ensuring that diversity remains a key priority...our collective diversity is our strength.” – Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO, JPMorgan Chase

-----------------------------

Hello BrownMan,

I would be happy to discuss your concerns further. I'd like to set up a call with you tomorrow or first part of next week. Please let me know your availability. I am available tomorrow between 12 noon and 3:30 CT and anytime on Tuesday, 9/2, after 9am CT.

Thank you,
Mariela Recio
Employee Relations Advice Connection

-----------------------------

BrownMan,

Your grievance has been escalated to Employee Relations for further review as I have already reviewed and concluded the results of my investigation.

Regards,
Christine

BrownMan's manager was called to New York

Sources have revealed that management decided to call Greg to NY. He was there on Monday and Tuesday 8/25-8/26. Questions remain.

1. Was he disciplined? May be, a white man gets a slap on the wrist!
2. Was he instructed how to proceed? With a wink and a nod!
3. Was he involved in strategizing if this snowballed into bigger issue?

Armtwisting by senior manager, threat?

[ Read it bottom up , BrownMan believes management doing armtwisting, making threats. The meeting Anna was trying to setup was regarding his rebuttal of mid year review thus indicating closure to pending case with HR and moving forward. But per BrownMan it was far from over since he had sent his 2nd letter and awaiting response to it. ]

Anna,

Considering the nature of my complaint I have put it all down in my letters or as email. Regarding further meetings, more than once, I have clarified to Christine that it's lacking transparency. I am not comfortable with all being verbal - Why don't we have a paper trail so that none can argue later that what was said was not said or vice versa. If you read my letters it's clear and rational why I don't want to report to Greg.I am not resigning.

regards,
BrownMan

----------------

BrownMan,

I have read through all your emails and have made 3 attempts to meet with yourself and Christine. I take such claims in my area extremely serious and have supported the efforts to get to the bottom of the issue. Your role at this point in time is reporting to Greg and that has not changed. To the extent that you no longer wish to report to Greg then you are free to resign.

Regards,
Anna

----------------

Anna,

I will not be able to report to Greg going forward. Until the dust fully settles I can report to you at best. I have expressed my thoughts in following email1 and email2. Please read if you have not. You simply dont understand the gravity of the situation or want to ignore it conveniently.


regards,
BrownMan

----------------

BrownMan,

I hope your family will soon be well.

All future notes regarding sick leave should be addressed to Greg Dillard as he is your direct manager. Thank you.

Regards,
Anna

----------------

Anna,

Family still sick, taking sick day today. Thanks.

BrownMan

----------------

Stonewalled, so reaching upper management + CEO

To : brian.fay, bill.t.winters, jamie.dimon
cc : Christine.Eckert, Jocelyn.Donat, richard.clew, Mariela.Recio

dateTue, Aug 26, 2008 at 10:37 PM
subjectCONFIDENTIAL - PLEASE READ
mailed-byjpmchase.com


Dear Sirs,

After 3 weeks of pursuing this matter I am reaching out to higher levels of management. I understand that you are all very busy people but I sincerely request your time and attention as soon as you can find some. Attached are 3 letters - It’s very important and a must to consider the human element - prejudice/racism - in the letters considering the core values of our firm. First is that letter attached in this email. Second is my response to the distortions, exaggerations and obfuscations that have appeared in my manager, Gregory R Dillard’s mid year comments about me. They were in direct contradiction to realities. My response appears in this font and interspersed and indented between his comments. HR came back with findings that lacked objectivity and transparency. I have expressed my concerns again in a 3rd letter. I request you all to consider these in totality. I have told the HR that I will not be able to continue to work and perform my best in this particular work environment any further. Thank you.

3 letters in the order mentioned above:
Supporting evidence/documentation:

regards,
BrownMan

Sending a rejoinder to 2nd Letter

Hello Christine,

Consider this as my addendum to the letter addressed to you earlier. This is specifically about Greg asking - “Why are some Indians Black and some White” on the first informal socializing event between us.

Apart from what I have already stated in my letter please understand that this is the number one issue that needs to be investigated, analyzed and disciplined about. Race and Color is big issue in America and it needs to be addressed giving it due importance.

Your short reply earlier makes me suspect that there is no sincere effort to investigate this, instead there is a hurry to cover it up. It’s not just me but several of my colleagues who are aware of this incident feel this way. Considering first two listed in the order of importance we spent relatively lot more time on less significant incident 3 ( name calling as “plad” ). Let me know when you want to call Sadath Mohammed, I want to be present during your call. If you have already called him, I want you to call him again in my presence so that it’s completely transparent.

Thank you.

Meeting with HR and 2nd Letter

Hello Christine,

Earlier I had expressed my concerns regarding HR investigation and about our one on one conversations that we have had so far as follows:

I am getting advice from people I have spoken outside work and an attorney friend of a friend that it's best to have these conversations as transparent as possible while still keeping it confidential. I expressed this concern yesterday also. This is a matter of such gravity and relevance that I am not at all comfortable being on one on one with you, I would rather talk to a panel of HR advisors. I would also like to have few people at my end also who can be in listening mode only. If not this way at least I need a paper trail, you send me questions and I will provide answers or clarifications or whatever needed through email. You will agree that this will lend more credence to this investigation process. Was it Ronald Reagan who said - "Trust in God, but lock your Car".

You said earlier that there will be some sort of "climate survey". How does this work? If I have to guess this right, this is about sending questionnaire to people in the group I work with. It's almost 3 weeks and I have not seen nor heard anything about this survey. On the other hand most people of Indian origin that were part of the group are no more here, two are on an extended leave because of personal matters, so I am not sure how much the survey will gauge the situation of the past and present, spanning my tenure here.

You replied:

Our meeting today will be to review the results of my investigation of your claim for prejudice at the workplace. I have booked a room for you at 1111 Fannin (Waco room) to contact me on my office phone. This is a private meeting, not disciplinary in content, therefore you are not permitted to have additional individuals attend the meeting. Kindly confirm if you wish to continue with our plans to speak one on one with me today at 1pm (2pm EST)

I replied:

Can I have a copy of results before the start of the meeting sent as an email. Also I did not see any response from you about "climate survey". Yes we are on based on your clarification. Thank you.

You replied:

I do not intend to share the results with you in writing. I will review them verbally with you today. I will respond to your questions about climate survey during that meeting.


So, with above concerns alive we still went ahead and had our one on one meeting last Friday (8/22) to discuss the result of HR findings. I made notes captured from our conversation. I sense a lack of objectivity in your findings and following are my concerns about the same.

In summary you said: “We have done the investigation and the result of the finding is that there is no prejudice”

I disagreed but kept quiet and was eager to know how you arrived at such conclusion. So I pointedly started asking about various incidents that was listed in my letter addressed to HR.

1. Greg asking - “Why are some Indians Black and some White” on the first informal socializing event between us.

You said: We investigated and found no prejudice

I asked: How do you know? Did you get a chance to speak to Sadath Mohammed?

You said: I cannot say that. Cannot say whether we have or we have not spoken to him.

That’s a non-starter. That’s going nowhere. If you have not spoken then there is no incident. He was the only witness to this incident. There is absolutely no transparency here. If you have spoken and he denied about the incident I can still understand his dilemma – he being contractor is more interested in extending his contract and such interests rather than being embroiled in all this. If you have spoken and he did agree about the incident then I would appreciate his courage to speak the truth.


2. Greg sending an unsolicited and the only web link he ever sent to me unrelated to work during my tenure of 2 years – about the plight of some Hindu widows in India.

You said: Greg did not know your religious background when he sent the link

I said: But that was not appropriate to send

You said: Everyone has certain level of tolerance. I have discussed this with Greg and he is willing to discuss with you to better the working relationship.

You say as if it’s normal to you. If he had sent several links over variety of topics during my tenure then it would be close to normal, not normal but close. But that was not the case at all. He never sent me any links about ills of American/Western society, like,

a) Racial segregation of churches in America
b) History of Slavery in America or Civil rights movement
c) The confinement of original Americans in zoos called “reservations”
d) Teenage pregnancies, extreme infidelity, wife-swapping and such.

OK. So you get my point. Also, I am not convinced that Greg does not know about my religious background, in fact just the opposite, that’s exactly why he sent the link. He has lied to you. He not only sent the link to me, but to two other Hindus as far as I know. You can check the Lotus Notes ST server history for that particular day.

I have been thinking and you too would think the same if you were to step into my shoes, had the situation been reversed. It smacks of Eurocentrism. Many westerners do it either consciously or subconsciously. Please read about in detail anywhere but here’s a snippet to begin to gain some basic understanding.

“Eurocentrism is a variant of Ethnocentrism. In general, ethnocentrism puts the own ethnic, national, religious or linguistic identity as the norm to judge other countries and cultures, or even subgroups in the own society. Since the other cultures or groups can never fully conform to the standards or criteria defined by another group to apply to itself, it tends to imply a biased judgement about “good” and “bad”. The own cultural context is automatically perceived as positive, as good, and as the proper yardstick for everybody else, and any deviation from this yardstick will be interpreted as a weakness, as something “uncivilized”, or as morally inferior.Eurocentrism is a mental attitude to perceive non-Europeans (or today, non-Westerners) as less relevant, less modern, less civilized, and less than equal”

About your statement – “Everyone has certain level of tolerance” – It’s full of double standards and again smacks of Eurocentrism. The issue at hand is NOT about my level of tolerance but HIS level of INTOLERANCE. His right to swing his fist stops where my nose begins. But being a “manager” he thought he had the rights to do it and still get away with it. I am very tolerant person, but will not tolerate intolerance. Did you know this fundamental tenet of religious pluralism?

----------Tolerance should never tolerate Intolerance--------------

Your personal suggestion about his willingness to discuss with me seems like a deflection of issue at hand and again smacks of superiority complex. Let’s consider this. He’s the perpetrator of the crime and I am the victim, if he expressed his desire why did he not carry it through to fruition. Now I believe it’s too late to have the discussion. Discussion is like a patch, cleansing his mind with all sincerity is the true way to fix the problem. On two incidents anyway he has not showed any inclination to indulge in dialog and educate himself. There’s not much hope on that front.


3. Greg addressing me as “plad” on multiple occasions.

You said: You should have told Greg that you are not comfortable, don’t like it

That’s beside the point. Please don’t try to justify his behavior. He does not have the right to coin a new name and distort my identity. I have already stated in my letter that he knew better, with the “Sunny” example, and I had no reason to educate him again especially in the thick of important discussions going on about projects. It’s as simple as that. Will he ever do that for a Christian name? So, why the discrimination? Connect this with other issues related to calling names stated in my letter and his prejudice will become clear.

We did not get a chance to talk about “climate survey”. How was this accomplished? Apart from concerns that I already expressed before there are larger issues of relevance here. I am the only Indian Hindu employee reporting to him, another one is on medical leave. Other Hindu/Indian people in the work group are either contractors or do not directly report to him or both. They do not have direct stakes in career with the firm as much as I do and neither has Greg as much controlling influence on them as much as he has on me when it comes to performance management and such. On the other hand contractors are at the mercy of his good will to get their contracts extended. All this is relevant.

Eurocentrism and resultants of it are at odds with diversity related values of the firm where irrespective of race, gender, religion etc., everyone is expected to be treated equal and fairly. People of Indian origin account for about 50% of Houston location. 90% of them follow in various degree a way of life called Sanathan Dharma, also called Hinduism.

Considering all of the above I want to resubmit my complaint about Gregory R Dillard. This time around please consider above concerns of mine in terms of transparency. Have a panel of diversity experts with at least one Indian Hindu in the panel.

The investigation shouldn’t be all hogwash. I hope my worst fears are not going to come true either. If you protect the culprit and he goes scot-free then it will set a bad precedence for all those who can hope that they can receive justice under similar circumstances. And no one would ever come forward like the way I have done expecting nothing would happen anyway or worse fearing reprisal.

At the very least I expect to be mobilized out of this work group and provided an opportunity to continue my services at the firm with no baggage of the past to affect my future. Greg should be disciplined appropriately. Let the “white” man and the “brown” man treated equitably in a manner that rest of the employees can see that it’s been handled in a way that reflects the core values of the firm. Truly I have rendered a service to the firm by exposing these incidents, how will you otherwise identify rotten apples that will cause irreparable damage to the firm from inside?

His midyear comments that are distorted, exaggerated and obfuscated are a direct result of his prejudice. A lie told often enough becomes truth. Or a bunch of lies can get same job done. So it’s moot to talk about mid-year review comments and my rebuttal to the same until this whole matter is justly dealt with. In turn his “warning” is a result of those comments. As I stated earlier in good conscience I have not signed the warning note and reject it in entirety. I will never tolerate injustice. Ever since I made complaint to HR the group dynamics have subtly changed. Please note that my performance is doomed to suffer as long as I report to him in this group either in reality or affected by his prejudice.

Thank you

.

A phone call from a senior VP

BrownMan got a call one day from NY. The short conversation went like this

VP : Hi, You know you are doing the absolutely WRONG thing!
BM: Oh about that, you heard what’s going on? Why?
VP : Well, you know how this is going to end?
BM: I know what you mean, what if I say I have factored that in.
VP : Then you are doing the absolutely RIGHT thing!
BM: Thank you, I am just doing the right thing anyway, JPMC will hopefully prove you wrong!

Dear colleague, Please do the right thing!

[ BrownMan sent this out to his coworkers seeking cooperation after sensing work dynamics had changed for worse ]

Dear colleague,

This may seem like an odd email. I do not know how else to reach out, so please bear with me as I explain. For 2 years I have silently endured a hostile situation at my workplace and now I have been a victim of the same. I was hoping that it would never come to this but it did. In these 2 years I have closely interacted with you and probably know me that I value my work ethic and conform to the policies of our firm on a day to day work basis. Though in your capacity you cannot do much about this unsavoury state of affairs I have one request. Doing the right thing no matter what, I know you do.

I might be a little more pressed than normal when asking for confirmations - the usual ST chat or phone talk where we trust and agree on something usually need to be backed up by writing in email as confirmation. Please do not construe this as - "why doesn't he trust my word" thing. I might also press for work item delivery aspects/dates that are tied to mine as they are under special "scrutiny". There is also a possibility that my manager and others might influence you in ways that might affect your opinion about me. It has happened more than once. Please be wary of that. I could say more, but please do the right thing sticking to the core values of our firm rather than being swayed. Earnestly I hope you understand.

This is pertinent and important as my manager is "building a case" to support his prejudices which is under investigation by the HR as we speak. The same has spilled into him making distorted, exaggerated and obfuscated comments in his recent mid year review about me. So it has become complicated. Following is my letter to the HR in this regard which will give you a background of where I am coming from.

Thank you in advance.
Satyameva Jayate

regards,
BrownMan

Upstream says EMMI feed is not the same as EMTS

[ This is 2nd supporting document, that was attached with mid-year rebuttal , with EMMI team explaining how EMMI is different from EMTS ]




There are differences expected at every level. Per EMMI team EMTS feed can not be considered as a benchmark.


Mark Yadid's comments regarding differences:

The source of the differences are:

1) switch of emphasis from sensitivity to price based
2) change in methodology for generation of sensitivities
3) poor quality of current sensitivity data sent to VaRs which EMMI is expected to solve

Alik Barg’s email about differences:

Diane,

I discussed the "EMTS feed vs Murex feed reconciliation" issue with BrownMan, Siddharth, and with other project participants individually and at our joint meetings:

I am strongly convinced that there are too many differences between the Murex and the EMTS that make the EMTS vs. Murex feed comparison questionable.

As you know EMTS feed can not be considered as a benchmark.

Mark Yadid in his email sent today remarks that there many differences on the individual position level.
The source of the differences are
1) switch of emphasis from sensitivity to price based
2) change in methodology for generation of sensitivities
3) poor quality of current sensitivity data sent to VaRs which EMMI is expected to solve

I can add at least several other reasons that make me liken the EMTS vs Murex comparison to the apples-oranges comparison:

EMTS feed carries duplicated positions;
EMTS does not handle correctly dual currencies;
Murex introduces forward bond positions;
Murex aggregates trades by positions and the EMTS sends individual trades;

Any measure - VAR, or LMV, or quantities, or instruments, etc. - one would like to use for the feeds reconciliation is to be distorted by these factors.

As I expressed prior, in my opinion dealing with such reality it would be more prudent to approach to the Murex feed as to a new one.
The relationship between the EMTS and the Murex is only that one should assure:
the completeness of the EMTS to the Murex position migration;
the correctness of the position;
that required positions are being included in the VARS feed fully and correctly;
that feed has a proper format for the further processing;

I believe that the first two conditions were fulfilled during EMTS->Murex migration, which have been accompanied by multiple reconciliations and by business sign-offs. I don't think there is a reason to go through this process again. Items ##3,4 we were working on the last several months and did our best to satisfy them too.

I hope that we'll find a middle-ground in our approach and we'll accomplish this our mission soon.

Thank you.
Regards,
-Alik

P.S. Quantities in the feeds won't match because of duplicating issue in the EMTS. I did reconcile quantities sent in the feed vs Murex DB data.


Christian's comments:

Multiphase bonds were incorrectly calculated in EMTS
EQTY positions are not migrating from EMTS to EMMI feed

EMMI project's never ending issue list

[ This is the first supporting document, an excel spread sheet, that was attached with mid-year rebuttal ]



No
MRT Issue
Issue Date
Reported by
EMMI Comments
Status



1
Wrong spelling in Label fields, expected names are : quantity, cleanPrice, cusip
1/30/08
BrownMan
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



2
emts_pos_Murex has 10/23 COB date instead of 10/29 date.
2/1/08
BrownMan
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



3
emts_pos_Murex did not generate any IFIBPV* XPs since there are no sensitivity based positions ( none sensitivityValuationFlag set to 1, only 0s ). If this was not intended please provide the right feed with sensitivity based positions.
2/1/08
BrownMan
sensitivityValuationFlag set to 1
Closed



4
Columns AN and AO corresponding to creditSpread emts_pos isn't setup correctly, We are expecting numeric values. At least 0.
2/5/08
BrownMan
we fixed the AO column for the MP record, now is defaulted to '0', no change is required for the column AN for BP record as we already defaulted to '0'.
Closed



5
No Price based positions generated, thus RISKEXP2.XP file was empty since the file has sensitivityValuationFlag always set to 1. This is the opposite situation of earlier when sensitivityValuationFlag was always set to 0, then no IFIBPV*XP but RISKEXP2.XP was created. Looking at the latest production file (2/5) the flag can have either value (0,1) in both BP/MP records.
2/6/08
BrownMan
we will investigate the logic ahead of delivering the SIT files. In general the expectation is that Murex will provide the majority of instruments with correct sensitivity values and therefore sensitivity flag set to 1.
Closed



6
The extension is wrong - EMTSSPRD_Murex.TXT should actually be EMTSSPRD_Murex.out
2/6/08
BrownMan
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



7
EXPORTRM_Murex.DAT failed to load. But when I changed to COB date to 20080124 it loaded. This was due to gap days in our database, if this were a recent file it would load.
2/8/08
BrownMan
1/29 file loaded
Closed



8
RISKLDC_Murex.TXT had extra spaces for every record which caused our generic loader script to fail.
2/11/08
BrownMan
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



9
we are observing nominal differences between the MX and EMTS exportrm reports. The EMTS file appears to be showing double expected nominal value for USD repos. Are you aware of any issue on the nominal of this file?
2/19/08
Christian
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



10
Identified 3 jil jobs that are obsolete as the 3 files associated with them are being directly loaded by Market Data
2/15/08
BrownMan
Verified with Prod that these are not being used and there are Mkt Data jobs instead
Closed



11
In exportrm AE and AL columns are used to populate Quantity and RecVal fields in XP. The Calculator used for MarginFwd positions use Calc 244 that make use of Quantity value to arrive at BPV and Delta Market Value figures. So, Yes, they are critical and halved value does not sound good.
2/19/08
BrownMan
Same as Issue No.9 -- PRODUCTION issue
Closed



12
quantity in RISKEXP2 is a derived field and it's derived based on Calculators being used. Here's a sample list from code as is. As you can see lastMarketValue, parAmount are being used. This is not the complete list.
2/20/08
Alik
Could you please clarify which of emts_pos.Id fields is being used to populate the quantity field of the RISKEXP2.XP file
Closed



13
Replied to EMMI - If the instrument is present either in EMTS or EMMI feed then mkt data is required.
2/21/08
Christian
Independent of the current SIT files, are you able confirm the mkt data requirements for VARs, i.e. whether VARs requires mkt data for active positions only or every instrument that has been setup. The information is key to determine the feasibility of the pilot go live, using Murex mkt data.
Closed



14
Question regarding the portfolio mappings sent by Hok Yee - Are the portfolios highlighted in red ( rows 26, 30, 35 etc., ) to be included during UAT phase and after , not during SIT testing? What about portfolios in blue ..rows 47, 80, 81 etc.,
2/27/08
BrownMan
New Mappings to be sent / updated prior to UAT
Open



15
BOND Positions: Sign Convention – The quantity field, reconciliationValue, notional and lastMarketValue has a revers sign. Does this mean the absolute value of quantity is taken assuming the traded position (Short/Long) shows up in the sign of value?
2/27/08
Hrachia
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



16
Different Field Name – Field name appears differently for b_asw, b_default_yld, and b_stw. The prefix “b” and “_” are missing from EMMI feed. Because of this, the value for these fields show a zero
2/27/08
Hrachia
Fixed by EMMI
Closed



17
Flag Reversal– The flags for listed fields have reversed their values– is it expected and legitimate? distressedFlagpriceValuationFlagsensitivityValuationFlagcashFlowProvidedisFixed
2/27/08
Hrachia
Differences explained by EMMI as expected. isFixed will be fixed
Closed



18
Rating changed for a same issuer – The Chase rating is different – is it expected and legitimate?
2/27/08
Hrachia
Differences expected. To be reviewed by EMMI - The instrument setup in Murex is in line with Bloomberg for the majority of bonds and will not match EMTS for all instruments. On that basis differences vs the current emts pos ld file are expected. For instrument configuration details plse refer to the attached xls.

19
Issuer and countryOfIssuer–Uses different convention in Murex – is it expected and legitimate?
2/27/08
Hrachia
Differences expected due to change in reference data

20
Missing Information – In the new EMMI feed, information is missing for Counterparty, Industry, curveId and traderinitials fields
2/27/08
Hrachia
Differences expected

21
0 value/Missing Information – There are at least 24 cases where the values show a zero. It includes basisPointValue, Yield, and the Spread.
2/27/08
Hrachia
Details wanted

22
Different Definition – “daycountconvention” field has a different definition for its value in the feed. It shows 30E/360 as against the same without “E”
2/27/08
Hrachia
Explained

23
Different Value – There are at least 10 cases where the values are in conflict with EMTS feed. Portfolio, Issuer, and Position Id being the prominent ones
2/27/08
Hrachia
Details wanted

24
Value differing by a $mm – Par Amount shows a value which is million times over the value from EMTS
2/27/08
Hrachia
Will be fixed

25
Miscellaneous position: Sign Convention – Same issue as in BP record. The quantity field, reconciliationValue, notional and lastMarketValue has a revers sign.
2/27/08
Hrachia
Fixed by EMMI

26
Different Product type Classification – The productType appears F in EMTS and O in EMMI
2/27/08
Hrachia
GCRM feedback, signed off by Adrien Campbell

27
Missing Information – In the new EMMI feed, information is missing for book, branch, location fields
2/27/08
Hrachia
Details wanted. Reply: "book" is set to either book or instrument field. "Location" is set to location. It's OK to be blank.

28
Different Value – There are several cases where the values are in conflict with EMTS feed. Significant among them are Currency (earlier it was USD, now it is ARS), and Rating
2/27/08
Hrachia
Production issue - Xccy issue will be fixed and will now come in local CCY and all others will be in USD

29
Flag Reversal– The distressedFlag has reversed it’s value– is it expected and legitimate?
2/27/08
Hrachia
Explained

30
A small error: I believe when the file was regenerated the src system was reset to EMTS in murex file ..it should be EMMX
2/29/08
BrownMan
Fixed by EMMI

31
1. These two are portfolios have positons in the new feed but there are no positions for the corresponding old portfolio in the production feed - BRL STRUCT CBLBRL STRUCT SL
2/28/08
Siddharth
Fixed by EMMI

32
2. Further there are new instruments in the new feed which do not exist in old feed.
2/28/08
Siddharth
Fixed by EMMI

33
3. Further in the new feed if the last market value is populated in local currency we will have an impact and we will have to make code changes.
2/28/08
Siddharth


34
The three fields - quantity, lastMarketValue and reconciliationValue should be in USD, not in local Ccy.
3/5/08
BrownMan
Will be fixed

35
Christian wanted MRT to confirm list of portfolios provided by SBS
3/7/08
Christian
Provided feedback with the list

36
Re: BP record #12 0 value/missing info- (see below table for details). As you can see first of all industry is missing and firstCouponDate has been changed (which will drive duration changes, bat in different value?). The "missing/0 values" is really missing (0 values)d or due to priceValuationFlag/sensitivityValuationFlag changes?
2/29/08
Hrachia


37
Is Industry being used by VARS?
2/29/08
Christian
No per EMTS

38
Aggregation Level -We would like to knwo what is the aggregation level of the data that is being sent bu Murex in the new EMTS feed.Is the aggregation level same as compared to the original/production verison of the feed file.
2/29/08
Siddharth
Explained
Closed



39


There are some additional positons for which do not exist in the original/production verison of the feed file. PFA an XLS with the positons corresponding to addtional portfolio & additional unmapped positions.
2/29/08
Siddharth
Fixed by EMMI but not really fixed per Siddharth
Closed



40
whether the following is a valid portfolio - this one neither had book or instrument populated. Also, there are few others marked "UAT TEST", I don't see any of them in emts_pos file.
3/6/08
BrownMan
Not a valid portfolio, will be purged from Feed.
Closed



41
Specific to portfolio "BRADY DS SL" - The NOP, LASTMV, RecVal and Quantity are approximately half compared to corresponding EMTS values, values are in GBP instead of USD. This is known issue. The VAR is different entirely since it picks up a different calc, Calc 8 when it should really be Calc 9. This is driven by "distressedFlag" which is set to 0 in EMMI feed compared to 1 in EMTS feed. Also the "desk" values differ. See s/s
3/11/08
BrownMan


42
With regard to only VAR difference for a USD portfolio ( "LC PSM SL" ) . I see following differences in EMMI feed v/s EMTS one -- the most important being "countryOfIssuer" and parAmount, the latter impacting only 321 Calc.
3/11/08
BrownMan


43
Regarding "countryOfIssuer" confirmed that 3-letter currency code is required as it was the case in EMTS feed. We map this to 2-letter ISO country code internally.
3/12/08
BrownMan
EMMI will provide ISO country code only. Coding impact

44
with the position that we had seen before the diff was in MM being expanded into full million in numbers i.e 200 as 200000000 . But I am looking at some other positions and there is inconsistency with the values itself.
3/13/08
BrownMan


45
Here is a sample of the discrepancy that we see in the EMTS and EMM feeds. This is a non XCCY position(s) -
3/11/08
Imran


46
Cusips in EMTS are missing in EMMI
3/13/08
Hrachia
Summarizing "ISIN/CUSIP" part of the remarks: for me it looks like that ISIN information is enough for the VARS processing; RISKMAST feed is redundant and could be retired. However this would require changes in the feeds processing code;

47
In the sample s/s sent below by Imran in the previous mail the difference in "desk" field can be attributed to difference in portfolio names mostly but there is one important set of values missing i.e "DSTRSSD". There are no positions that are marked DSTRSSD in the EMMI feed. These are distressed based on price/rating or as dictated by business. We generate SN specific information specific to these records by processing the RISKMAST file. To process this accurately the ucn/cusip/isin values need to match too, but the Cusip values are different. RISKMAST information is used to generate SN records for for DSTRSSD positions. During processing of raw feed for each record with desk field = DSTRSSD a duplicate of that record with calculator set to 401 and a few other changes (for specific risk calculation) are done. We gather "RawIdentifiers" for SN from RISKMAST for each instrument whose desk is marked distressed. Basically without DSTRSSD positions we will miss generating 401 records for SN processing for that many positions.
3/17/08
BrownMan
As it was mentioned at yesterday meeting there is no such desk as 'DSTRSSD' in the Murex and the EMTS logic of overwriting the actual desk with the DSTRSSD value is not clear; As far as I know calculator 401, which is being assigned based on the 'DSTRSSD' value is used only for the specific risk and in reality is not a calculator - it does nothing but saves LMVs; I am wondering whether 401 plays any role in the specific risk calculations after GEM positions were migrated from CEDAR specific risk model to the PCM. I believe Han and Imran might answer on this question. Summarizing "DSTRSSD part" of my remarks - I doubt that DSTRSSD desk plays any role in the current process and necessary.

48
Though the file was loaded correctly I see some portfolio issues between previous and new EXPORTRM files. The portfolios listed in each are different. The BRD026 and REP012 are all MF positions which are not migrating to new but what about REP013 having REVREP positions. And there are 3 portfolios in the new that are not in before. Please explain.
3/21/08
BrownMan


49
Similar to EXPORTRM I found some portfolio inconsistencies in USTREAS also.
3/24/08
BrownMan

BrownMan's rebuttal to prejudiced mid-year review

[ BrownMan wrote this in 2 days as soon as he received soft copy from his manager. This is his response to the distortions, exaggerations and obfuscations that had appeared in his managers mid year comments. They were in direct contradiction to realities. His response appears in this font and interspersed and indented between manager's comments which are in blue]

------------

BrownMan

Strengths

Dedication - BrownMan takes it upon himself to work long hours and weekends in order to meet his project deliverables. He has demonstrated a willingness to put in whatever time is necessary for the projects he is working on.

I have worked 70hrs for 9+ Consecutive weeks including weekends and including July 4th holiday - always logging in 3-4 hours after office hours from home up to midnight or past it. It was so intense Greg even mentioned that I should take a day off when all this is over. However I do not want it. I have used my own vacation days instead. Working after hours and weekends has become a habit that I continue to do it even now just to be pro-active on work items in advance.


Knowledge Sharing - BrownMan can be counted on to share his knowledge and experience with both the new Cognizant team as well as the Market Data team. Recently, BrownMan took it upon himself to help train the Houston Market Data team to run VaR impact analyses, This has greatly reduced the amount of dependency that the Market Data team has on the VaRs BAU team freeing up VaRs resources to work on other projects. Additionally, he has provided guidance to the new Cognizant team, helping to onboard new team members.


Not only did I have a presentation session to train the Market data team I sat through 2 of their projects helping them to do VAR impact analysis and test runs. Following is the Thank You note I received for my presentation.

Subject: Had a very useful presentation/knowledge sharing session

Greg

I just wanted to let you know that we had a very useful knowledge transfer session with BrownMan today. He covered several topics and provided detailed explanations to our questions.

I am confident this session will help us to analyze the impacts of market data and the nuances of testing better.

Thanks for his time.

ps - we may circle back with more questions, when we really start testing VARS.

Thanks
Vishy Raman
713-750-3576


I had helped the GUI team on Clearcase issues helping them move their code without losing history. With regards to helping Cognizant team apart from answering questions about VARS, I have helped them on few critical occasions (Sudipta’s lost code) to migrate code from Clearcase, my background in Version control and Clearcase administration was valued on these occasions. I have helped Greg on several occasions answering his ad-hoc questions regarding Calculators, Framework and sometimes on pre-project related aspects which has enabled him to answer questions from business or upstream. This was not assigned to any project in PAR and sometimes took significant time.


Opportunities for Improvement

Ownership and Accountability - BrownMan must demonstrate the ownership and accountability necessary to ensure his projects are successful end to end. The recent EMMI Phase 2 project was a good example where understanding the process end to end would have been very beneficial and could have reduced issues. For example, BrownMan did not catch an issue with processing multiple tenors that caused a code change late in development. This change was prevalent in multiple iterations of EMMi files and should have been noticed during one of the iterations of unit tests. In this case, BrownMan needed to ensure that all records of the input feeds were being processed correctly by the VaRs code. If he is unable to verify these types of tests, then he should reach out to other team members and resources for assistance.

I believe this is a red herring. On the ownership and accountability front I have done exactly what was instructed to me by my previous manager Anna Guarnieri considering the circumstances. It seems like Greg has changing expectations and says to cover up for his failures on the same aspect of ownership and accountability.

He gives the example of EMMI. EMMI project did not have a Business Analyst during most of the development phase. There was no formal analysis phase either. Our best BA at that time, Lee Sheard, had clearly told me that EMTS system was a “black box” to him. I had repeatedly drawn attention to this fact, on a recent occasion Greg countered it saying – “Well, I don’t have 3 Lees”. On upstream end the analysis phase was done by EMMI team late last year in which I participated on a question/answer basis providing information on how various fields in the feed are being used by VARS, the analysis was done from an upstream perspective to meet their goal of generating an EMMI feed. It was NEVER intended to be an analysis document for VARS. If there was a BA on our end who would have analyzed the same from VARS side the “multiple tenors” would have jumped right of the page and easily understood. There is another important reason why Greg did not care much about the need for BA - This project was based on the premise and promise that EMMI will replace the incoming EMTS feeds as is and all that was expected from VARS was that we do technical testing of the files to make sure they get loaded. Everything else would fall in place. But as the project progressed we uncovered about 50+ issues in a span of 3 months. Issues were related not only from VARS but Stress, SNPR and PCM as well. There was no way to compare the files and know all this in advance, simply because EMMI started portraying though it’s EMTS replacement it will not be really like EMTS, in EMMI trades were aggregated unlike EMTS and they did not want to migrate all the bugs that came with EMTS feed. Everyone involved including the management was aware of this. Most of the issues were captured at some of point of time, please see attachment 1 and attachment 2.


Considering the above it turned out that VARS was used as a testing ground to verify the feed quality both in terms of format and content. While some issues turned out to be enhancements most others were flaws. Once we realized the flawed trend our request for EMMI to unit test their feed before sending to VARS did not really have the intended effect as EMMI was focused on reconciling the data to Front desk and not benchmarking it against an EMTS feed. Once we started producing VARS results there was a project manager who was assigned as BA but it was too late too little, it was almost deadline. Initially she was also lacking EMTS knowledge that we had to rely on the business user to validate our unit test results. This was a case of doing UAT equivalent testing in SIT environments with no BA to validate the test results. About reaching out to others in the team – At the time I started working on EMTS except for one developer admitting that she does not know anything more than just testing the feed nobody else in the team knew anything about EMTS at all. Another person who had enhanced EMTS and no more in the BAU team also was very wary of making any changes to EMTS code since he was unsure of what the code was intended to be doing.

Greg did not share very important information during EMMI project. After few weeks after project begins I found out through some usage of words by the upstream manager in the meeting, words like “pilot”, that there are actually 2 phases to EMMI project. No sooner I heard this I approached Greg and told him just to confirm. Greg replied – “May be, I must have forgotten”. Greg either forgot or did not understand what pilot and full go live actually meant from EMMI side. I believe this was very critical information that affected our project planning. I had to scramble to get several code aspects in place to handle this, it was akin to processing a “new” feed in addition to existing feed and process them in parallel. We were having a weekly call every Wednesday for 5 months and there was an upstream project manager asking for him always. Though he had delegated this meeting to me from VARS side it was a case of extreme delegation which cost us, If not all he could have attended some to share/interact what he knew at various junctures. Definitely he would have been able to understand the gravity of the situation first hand with feed issues discussed above and not simply blame me for all the failures. Once he expressed his displeasure about EMMI manager – “Why should I manage HIS project” after some phone talk and one other time he told me after EMMI pilot sign off was received – “Screw EMMI” – 2 clear instances that proved he did not like EMMI.


Additionally, he must be aware of changes in his environment that could impact his deliverables and be sure to coordinate with other teams that are using the MRT Production and UAT environments. In the both the CDS Idio-VaR and EMMi phase 2 projects, BrownMan missed multiple issues that should have been caught prior to UAT including:

- VaRs changes were not merged with MRI Backfeed ValSrv code changes for CDS Idio VaR.
- ValSrv changes were not correctly labeled and thus not picked up in the first CDS Idio-VaR test runs
- UAT forms and testing procedures were not coordinated with SNPR and PCM teams for CDS Idio-VaR
- Changes to Market Data jil jobs dependencies were made after BrownMan’s clearcase branch was created. BrownMan did not check for those dependencies and thus those changes were not incorporated in the original EMMi release. This caused a production issue.

Simply put, BrownMan must ensure that his projects run smoothly and do not encounter the last minute changes that have occurred on both the EMMi and Idio-VaR projects. While he has been working on 2 projects with tight timelines, he must ensure that his work is of top quality and ask for help if needed.


Since priorities keep shifting Greg has more background and information on when projects are going live. He did not share one of them sooner. On the day of UAT start for CDS Idio VAR project the ValSrv was packaged well and all set to be tested. But then he drops the line – “MRI Backfeed changes need to be part of your ValSrv”, I had no inkling of this going to come. The previous Sunday night there was a mail from one MRI Backfeed team member says “I think this has no conflict with our ValSrv” but nothing more. It’s common in VARS to run separate ValSrv before they get merged. MRI Backfeed changes had already been tested in UAT and if anyone they or Greg had better idea of when those changes are going in with what, in this case if their changes are going in with CDS Idio Var or not. Anyway as soon as he informs I got the configuration spec from others, removed my labels, merged MRI Backfeed code and built the binary. Even this did not compile on UAT end as there was another ValSrv change (RMBS) that even Greg was not aware of that needed to be merged – So I had to merge two other ValSrv changes to mine in the last minute while UAT was waiting on us.

Because of this in the rush I did not put the label back on 2 files which originally had it. This is a minor issue usually caught by Configuration management person and happens all the time but on this instance he also failed to mention it. He has to lookup the UAT form to gather all the code with a specific label and if he does not find any he responds back. That did not happen. This mistake cost us 2 days in UAT which was not entirely wasted since we discovered two other non VAR issues in that run. Considering that subsequent UAT run went on for 3 weeks, with PCM / MktData /SNPR code fixes, this matter seems highly exaggerated. 2 more weeks went by since there was a SNPR bug in legacy code before the project went live. I did not have a single code issue in UAT. The root cause was that Greg did not share the information he had which would have prevented these trivial happenings (these account for first 2 issues listed above).

About UAT forms and testing coordination it’s an additional responsibility I have taken up, but it’s not easy without cooperation from SNPR, Stress, PCM and Market data teams. For all the projects I have done so far I am the one who has collated all information that makes up most of the UAT form. I always ST and make phone calls to update/inform but haven’t received timely cooperation from others always. Other teams have their own priorities as spelled by their respective management and the message does not get across. In case of CDS Idio VAR project SNPR team was still making code changes when I was ready with the UAT form. Even on the day of UAT the form was not ready. They did not have any idea what the project is about either let alone how to test it. I was explaining them in detail on the day of UAT. The onus cannot come from VARS always when other teams have respective deliverables and equal responsibility and accountability. Whatever the reasons coordination despite being done does not elicit the desired response. I have ST evidence to prove this. Management push is required and I have used Greg whenever required. And if Greg thinks enough is not being done or achieved then he needs to step in.

About the production issue, I agree, but need to elaborate on this odd one. This was my first Production issue in 2 years with JPMC. And this happened because production support, not AD person, had introduced a dependency in a jil job, this happens very rarely, these dependencies are not identified by compilation processes. It was not a C++/script code issue. When the issue was raised to me I resolved it within half an hour after diligently working with Market data team and finding out the root cause. Proactively I informed larger development team what other jobs might be impacted because of this change introduced by production support.

All the issues highlighted by him are technically trivial, I have already stated the reasons for “last minute changes” and how they could have been avoided. Working on 2 projects was tight but never the reason for issues stated above. In fact Greg at one point gave me a choice to lighten my workload but I opted to continue to work on both projects. I had dedicated my time so much to both that I did not want to lose any credit for all the hard work that I had already put. And I really wanted to succeed.


Attention to Detail - BrownMan needs to spend time to do thorough analysis while working on a project. He missed an important piece of analysis in the CDS Idio-VaR project in that he did not notice that the VaRs conversion code was not retrieving the SPN name for certain source systems in the Instrument field. This was caught late in the project and a quick fix, that will need to be cleaned up in production, was implemented in order to meet the current project deadlines.

These statements are distorted. About the item he mentions about the CDS Idio-VaR project it was clearly a sudden expansion of project scope. Initially the BA had stated that – “Instr field was already expected to be in the XP with the SPN/UCN information”. Based on that available precondition we had several rounds of to and fro communication to arrive at a conclusion in terms of what needed to be done to get the project done. And I had given my estimate based on that premise. One day in the morning BA said it would not work for two source systems out of many. Immediately I started researching and arrived at a technically accurate solution within half a day. With this it was possible to continue work without affecting timelines. I conveyed my finding to Greg the same afternoon. Taking the classical approach would have cost us 2 to 3 weeks of additional effort in development and testing without any additional business value. He did not complain then but said we will have to clean up later. And I agreed and proceeded. I am not sure why this is misrepresented this way.

In general talking about attention to detail I can give numerous examples to support. Apart from 3-4 projects I have done so far I have done about 12 to 15 L3s. Some of the L3s I have researched in detail and have resulted in their scope being identified as projects because of the level of detail I put into research and interaction I had with business and upstream. In the course of CDS Idio VAR project I went beyond VARS scope to identify what needs to be changed for SNPR/Stress and conveyed to that team. During UAT phase when a defect was reported from UAT I fixed 3 defects on SNPR code proactively when the developer from that team was not around.

More attention to detail could have avoided the EMMi multiple tenor issue as described above as this was documented in the EMMi requirements that he helped to document.


I have already explained this above. It was EMMI specific doc and was stated in obscure comments section. It’s too important that it deserved an internal analysis document from VARS side created by a VARS BA considering how VARS was processing tenor in legacy code.


Communication - BrownMan has had issues with his communication this year. For example, he will often send cut and pastes of code to non-technical people when describing an issue. This has led to confusion and does not reflect well on BrownMan or his team.

Greg has not provided detail about this. So I have to guess from where this is coming from. I believe in cooperation and team work to get things done. As an IT person I was hired as a Software Developer primarily and not as a finance person. Finance is a secondary skill that I am constantly learning and improving upon. The situation is reversed for a BA. And when the two of us talk we try to reach a middle ground to comprehend what each is saying to the other. I explain in words – oral and written - any technical idea and provide the technical evidence, a code snippet as an example, to the BA since a ST chat is usually going on. And that necessarily is not the end of it and will clarify further if it’s clear or not. It has worked favorably on several occasions but if it did not help (or hurt instead) then I need to know. To be frank there is BA who knew nothing much about SQL and now he sort of understands it with bit of explanation. Since so much of our business logic is built in our SQLs showing the proof helps rest the case. In general I provide cut and paste as supporting item and not as a primary artifact. I can’t say anything further unless Greg provides more details and proves that it happens most of the time or all the time. I do not think so and do not want to nitpick on this any further.

Excessive/Unapproved Work from Home - Despite numerous conversations stating that he is required to give advance communciation and seek approval, BrownMan continues to work from home with no notice. During his 2007 year end review, he was told that all work from home, unless emergency, required prior notice and approval due to prior abuses of this privilege. BrownMan reached an agreement where he could work from home for days that he had pre-arranged dental appointments, but this also required advanced notice. Despite previous warnings, BrownMan continues to work from home unapproved, 7/28 – Child Sick, 7/15 –Sick. BrownMan is expected to be in the office unless previously communicated and approved by his manager.     

The above section about WFH is taken up from his “warning” note and needed to be addressed. This did not appear in mid year comments but has made it’s appearance in the warning. I have already stated that work was so intense, there were constant deliverables and it’s impossible to take advantage of it even if you wanted to. I have dentist appointments once every 3 weeks and WFH on those days. Greg knows about this arrangement and has agreed to it. And for each of these I have notified in advance. Greg has to get back to me with proof if I did not. I wish I knew sickness in advance. Sometime if my family or I am sick and if I am not totally incapacitated I can manage to squeeze in time to work and so I can WFH. I do not like WFH unless I am needed at home or cannot commute to work but still there is work to do that if I don’t project timelines are affected. I have made this clear to Greg on more than one occasion in one on one meetings, in fact I have even stated that in one mail as follows and asked him to respond to a sick & WFH case – asking if he does not like I am OK to take SICK and not login to work at all if he wants it that way – but did not get any response.

Date: 04/17/2008 12:39 AM
Subject: Sick or WFH ?
Greg,

I am not doing too well with allergies causing me mild fever, runny nose etc., Considering I have quite a bit on my plate I am willing to work from home, not incapacitated, if that's OK with you or can take sick. I will charge my time accordingly. Please let me know. Either way I will join Rich Clew's call.

regards,
BrownMan

I can understand why he did not respond, he very well knows there is plenty to do and I am also needed around to answer questions from team members since the projects we were working on involved working closely with other teams across multiple locations and time zones. I also ensure that I work beyond 8 hrs on days I WFH. If not charge my time accordingly. In fact there’s so much to do that 8 hour days are not enough, especially in VARS group.



Summary

In the first half of 2008, BrownMan has made contributions to VaRs projects and resolved Level 3s. However, there have been a high number of issues his deliverables as highlighted above. Due to this, he does not meet the expectations of someone in his role and of his tenure due to the issues highlighted above. His errors have caused additional work for his manager, the Operate team and have jeopardized not only the deliverable but the production environment

His development opportunities, particularly Ownership and Accountability, are still present despite a 2007 Yearend review that stated he must improve on these qualities. For someone of BrownMan’s experience and tenure, he is expected to be able to work independently and complete projects end to end. However, BrownMan’s performance on his last two projects has been poor and he has not demonstrated that he can be counted on to work on projects and ensure they are completed end to end with high quality and no careless errors.

Additionally he must conduct thorough analysis and avoid mistakes that have occurred for the first half of 2008. He must also work with other team members and do thorough analysis and testing on his projects so that last minute issues are avoided.

BrownMan’s current performance for 2008 is unacceptable and must improve if he wishes to remain an employee at JP Morgan.


My Summary

Overall I have to conclude that Greg does not fully understand SDLC when it’s applicable or the shortcomings of it in a RAD environment like VARS when it’s not, does not plan accordingly and does not understand the impact of his priorities and decisions. He is unlike other Build Managers who are more technical and come from a background similar to environments they manage. CDS Idio VaR was a near perfect project from VARS side while SNPR/PCM/Market Data all had issues and fixes going on even in UAT. EMMI is going on as good or bad as it could be, even today’s release is postponed due to high level issues from EMMI, again. There is a tendency by him to generalize and extrapolate single and trivial incidents often to arrive at wrong conclusions. He is quick to make comments and suggestions in hindsight. Usually he has nebulous understanding of projects and if timelines and outcomes are not in his favor, mostly a result of his priorities and decisions, he gets frustrated and tries to find a scapegoat in others. What else could explain Greg’s comments?

One thing does and I am absolutely certain about it. It is tinted by his prejudices. That’s the Human element, pending with HR. Hence I will not be able to accept the warning and such since it’s based on factually incorrect conclusions. Frankly speaking I very much wish to remain and prosper as an employee at JP Morgan but definitely not working for him. The last paragraph from my letter addressed to HR echoes this sentiment and is as follows:

“Unfortunately my experience with Greg has been hopeless. His behavior does not
reflect the core values of our firm, definitely unbecoming of a VP. I sincerely
hoped he would improve for the better over time but it has not happened. Since
late last year he is also my direct manager. Despite my best efforts at my job
duties I believe it has cast a shadow and influenced his opinions about my
performance. Recently in mid-year review comments he has distorted, exaggerated
and obfuscated facts. Despite setting me up for failure in many ways I have done
extremely well considering the adverse circumstances, In fact I was expecting
“Exceeds Expectations” rating. I have not missed a single delivery of work item
so far. I am writing a separate rebuttal about this to my management and will
copy you when I am done. In short, I will not be able to continue to work and
perform my best in this environment any further. I am looking forward to your
help and immediate corrective action in this regard. If you have any questions
or need further clarifications please contact me at the earliest. Thank
you.”

"plad" name calling on ST

There are 3 ST snippets here
--------------------------------

Gregory R Dilla... i'm fine with mrr doing it
plad what is
the impact?
of not doing this right now
BrownMan... when will they do
it?
tmrw's processing or after is impacted until they do it
affects the
MO rec qry
sooner done the better
Gregory R Dilla...
from sanjay's
email, mrr can request and they can do it tonight, right sanjay?
sanjay
can you work with mrr to get this approved and implemented tonight?
BrownMan...
sanjay, are u there?

---------------------

Sametime chat about Hindu widows

BrownMan note
ST chat appears with start and end as is, there is no Hello or Hi from Greg and no Bye, Thanks or OK from him either. Just Hit and Run. It’s important to note the fact that he NEVER EVER sent him any other web link on any other topic of interest except for this either over Sametime or in email before or after this during his 2 year tenure there.
-----------------------

[start]
1:52:45 PM Gregory R Dilla...
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/damon.india.widows/index.html

1:54:51 PM BrownMan...
The most downtrodden like in any society some by choice and some by chance

1:55:34 PM Gregory R Dilla...
the article implies that happens to all hindu widows....assume that's not the case

1:56:26 PM BrownMan...
NOPE, not at all.. 10% gets highlighted as 90%, the good never gets the limelight in western media only IT and BPO gets shome due share but that's where it stops This will be a good background read in case if you are interested in truer understanding =>http://rajivmalhotra.sulekha.com/blog/post/2002/01/cnn-s-pakistan-bias.htm
[end]

IBM incident and dialog

See the following dialog between BrownMan, an IBM employee of Indian origin and an IBM senior executive. This was attached alongwith first letter to HR as a proof of his tolerance and desire to indulge in a dialog. Read it bottom up.

--------------------------------------------------------------

John Krakoski wrote: 

Subject: Re: Your talk - "Caste System" - misconceptions and reality
From: John Krakoski 
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 18:30:55 -0600

BrownMan, I want to thank you again for pointing this out. I took some time to read some of the references you provided. Now that I know what the Caste system represents it appears that the Caste system is what we should be striving for in our organization. Everyone has a place and a function working in harmony towards a common goal. 

Beyond the material difference and the large numbers of people, the thing I found most striking in my trip to India was the peace, order(except for the driving that was quite hectic) and contentment I found in all of the people. It appeared to be a universal feeling everywhere I went. I look forward to learning more about your culture and would enjoy meeting sometime to discuss further !!

John J. Krakoski, PMP

IBM Global Services
Sr. Project Executive - Sprint
Network, Corp. & BI Systems
Sprint Office Phone: 913.315.8116
Mobile/PCS: 972.467.9764
Internet: krakoski@us.ibm.com


------------------------------------------------------

02/17/2005 05:59 PM
To: John Krakoski/Dallas/IBM@IBMUS
cc: Donald Wooten/Kansas City/IBM@IBMUS
Subject: Your talk - "Caste System" - misconceptions and reality

To: krakoski@us.ibm.com
Cc: wootend@us.ibm.com

Dear Mr. John Krakoski,

"Namaste!"

We were very pleased to see you in person yesterday (Feb 16) and listen to your perspective on what's ahead for IBM with respect to Sprint account. It was indeed a motivational talk and we are all energized by the same.

We are writing this letter to address one of our concerns and in effect to actually strengthen one of the values that IBM cherishes - Diversity and respect for it. Somewhere during your otherwise perfect talk you interspersed a remark that is usually and unfairly attributed to one of the most tolerant and pluaralistic faiths, the Hindusim, the majority faith in India; You said "There is no caste system here!" while speaking on the need for cooperation and respect among IBMers irrespective of geographical location and ethnic diversity, that we are all IBMers first and foremost. The idea is well taken, but the language not so.

We do not know whether it was bias or plain ignorance. Either way, we would like to say few words on this. "Cows, Caste and Curry" is a common negative stereotype that affected India for long time which was perpetuated in the west. We don't want to get to sources for this bias as that would be a complex topic in itself but it is enough to say that any usage of this "caste system" without proper understanding smacks of negative connotations, helps in pepetuating negative stereotypes and prejudices to a particular culture and ethnicity. From your talk, since you returned from India, others would relate it to Indian context and hence derogatory and damaging.

Why? Please read - why Caste system is not what you think it is - http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Caste_System.htm

By the way something similar to "caste system" prevails everywhere including the USA if you look at it objectively. It's discrimination based on some factor. Please read - Is There an American Caste System?


This letter earnestly hopes to correct your view about something that we feel has been grossly misunderstood by you. We believe that if it was not bias then you were totally innocent in your remarks. As such it's imperative for us as IBMers and as global citizens to make each others understand the differences between myth and reality among topics between cultures, socieities etc., As your talk implied, fostering harmony between diverse cultures in our workplaces is of paramount importance as we operate in a global village and to make IBM succeed. In the spirit of such mutual hope and desire comes this letter.

Thank you for your understanding.

sincerely,

IBM employees of Indian origin in Sprint Campus
Overland Park
Kansas

First letter to HR

Date: August 03, 2008

To: Christine, Jocelyn - Human Resources

Dear Madam/s,

I am a software developer (Associate) in the Market Risk Technology BAU VARS group in Houston. My manager’s name is Gregory R Dillard. It is relevant to mention the fact that I am the only employee of Indian origin following Hindu way of life reporting to him currently ( Later, I corrected and told HR there is another but is on medical leave )

Following are the incidents of prejudice/discrimination/racism that I have endured during my tenure at JP Morgan Chase so far.


1. I joined the firm on August 30th 2006. Though I was reporting to Lee Yuan, the technical manager in NY, Greg was my people manager here in Houston. It was about a week after my join date when the following happened. One morning Greg said - let's go and have some coffee. He called another person, Sadath Mohammed, a contractor who had joined the PCM group 2 weeks before me, also to accompany us. We three walked to the nearest Starbucks shop. With coffee in hand we sat down for small talk. I have to note that this was the first informal socializing event with my manager. The very first question he asks both of us is – “Now, tell me why are some Indians black and some white?” I was flabbergasted! I couldn’t believe what I heard. All thoughts flew by in my mind. Why was my manager focused on color? How can he be so wrong? Why or how this topic even remotely related to work especially a new hire like me? Have we known each other for significant amount of time for him to take liberty to pop this sensitive topic in this manner? Is this the way of getting to know each other? etc., Sadath was either fumbling for words or too stunned to say anything.

Meanwhile I regained my composure and tried to explain him to the best of my knowledge - that Indians are neither White nor Black but come in all shades of Brown. Same with other races, like the Chinese, who belong to the Mongoloid race, they are not really yellow but shades of Yellow. From a western or “white” reference point of view (so called “Eurocentrism”) rest of the world they believed they explored became colored and hence all these words now exist. If you gaze in reverse it’s similar to whites being not really White but shades of Pink or Red. In the Indian context, there are combination of factors. Majority of the population spend most of their time outdoors, about 70% of the population sustains on agriculture and it is done manually not mechanized. So the more time you spend in the equatorial hot sun the more a brown skin can get black, the less you do it gets fairer or pinkish. India is extremely diverse country and there are several ethnicities and each have a shade to begin with which will get morphed over time. I was very fair when I was in my preteens – used to be called as “kencha” (meaning Red in Kannada language) though I have begun getting more brown since then. And I paused.

He did not utter a single word and then he got up dismissively without any sign of acknowledgement. My effort at dialog did not elicit any response. We too got up and walked back, much in silence.


2. Last year on 7/5/2007, another incident happened. Greg without any introduction or greeting suddenly sends a web link over Sametime. Though it was distracting from my work I looked up on that link and it talked about the plight of Hindu widows in India. Then I got further distracted and disturbed. Reading few lines I could make out that the report was blatantly prejudiced and was representative of a minority of widows. In that regard I replied saying so. It showed one of the most pluralistic, tolerant and inclusive faiths of the world in a poor light. Reports like this perpetuate falsehoods. It does great harm to diversity in workplace. I further said western media, particularly CNN, has its own bias and it can publish any one sided report to suit its pre-existing bias. Sometimes they are plain ignorant. I gave a link to substantiate my position. It’s important to note the fact that he never sent me any other web link on any other topic of interest except for this either over Sametime or in email before or after this. So why this particular one and the only one? I was beginning to have some doubts about his prejudices. Again there was not much of a dialog. Second time it was hit and run. Please refer to the attached Sametime chat transcript 


3. After I joined the firm and started interacting with VARS colleagues in New York, I referred to one of them as Wenyun when I was talking to Greg. His actual name is Wenyun X Sun and I went by first name as is the norm. Greg corrected me saying that he likes to be called as “Sunny”. I stood corrected and that’s how we all call him. I am highlighting this as an example and evidence to the fact that unless someone wants to be called something else – nickname or otherwise - no one has the right to distort a name. And Greg was aware of that. People always try their best to say a name and if they can’t pronounce it or say it correctly they seek how to say the same from the person who wants to be addressed. Not everyone likes to anglicize a name either. A name is part of ones identity. And that needs to be respected. That said, recently in a Sametime chat Greg addressed me as "plad". A little confused I looked back (he sits 2 cubicles behind me). He said – “Is that ok?” I said – “What? You mean my name” and he nodded “Yes”. Being busy in the midst of working on two projects (70hrs/wk, 9 weeks consecutively) I did not have the time nor the inclination to convey my feeling and I did not have to since he knows better. But why did he not apply the same logic I wondered. He did this couple of times after that. I am attaching some chat copies below for your perusal.


4. Again about names - I have heard Greg saying on the phone some non-western names and then “whatever” after saying the name if he can’t get the name right. It seems harmless but it happens so often that it also seems intentional. Another thing – if he finds a non-western common last name – he wonders whether the people are related – is that his/her spouse is the question. He would not do that for a western name. Again seems innocuous but now I don’t know anymore.


5. I heard from one Cognizant member of our team that Greg has taken exception to a quote that goes with my signature. You can see that at the end of my email below. I believe it is harmless and in no way reflects negatively. Rather it helps conservation of Earth’s resources and is just pro-environment. Nothing more to it. And I put it after seeing our firm’s policy of exercising caution before printing an email, the little green tree. And if management higher up asks me to remove it for a reason I will comply with it.


6. I heard from the same Cognizant member that he overheard Greg talking to someone on his cell phone – “Indians have to be on tight leash”. He did not hear the full conversation and does not know the exact context this was spoken but I felt that it was a disparaging remark most probably directed at the larger Cognizant team that is now part of VARS group or similar offshore vendor group either in Houston or NY or elsewhere. Since I am an Indian I am getting included in that remark.


For the last two above cases I do not have direct evidence, it happened outside work place, so I have stated as I heard it.

I have been in the United States for more than 10 years. Apart from working with diverse group of people within India I have worked in Singapore and Malaysia before coming to the US. I have always done my best not only to fit in a diverse workplace, but going a step further, to contribute to mutual understanding of cultures since we operate in a global workplace. During my earlier stint with IBM Global Services I had corrected an executive’s misunderstanding of Caste System when he said in a town hall speech that “there is no caste system here in US”. Attached are the emails pertaining to that topic. I am providing this as a token of my tolerance, my pro-active ethic to work even with those who hold opinions that are harmful to a diverse workplace, with a hope that with dialog anything can be resolved.

Unfortunately my experience with Greg has been hopeless. His behavior does not reflect the core values of our firm, definitely unbecoming of a VP. I sincerely hoped he would improve for the better over time but it has not happened. Since late last year he is also my direct manager. Despite my best efforts at my job duties I believe it has cast a shadow and influenced his opinions about my performance. Recently in mid-year review comments he has distorted, exaggerated and obfuscated facts. Despite setting me up for failure in many ways I have done extremely well considering the adverse circumstances, In fact I was expecting “Exceeds Expectations” rating. I have not missed a single delivery of work item so far. I am writing a separate rebuttal about this to my management and will copy you when I am done. In short, I will not be able to continue to work and perform my best in this environment any further. I am looking forward to your help and immediate corrective action in this regard. If you have any questions or need further clarifications please contact me at the earliest. Thank you.


With best regards,
BrownMan
Market Risk Technology BAU VaR
"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed" - Mahatma Gandhi


Attachments/Evidence/Other:

One Sametime transcript attached for Incident 2
Three Sametime transcripts attached for Incident 3.
IBM incident and dialog