An officer allegedly harassed a full-time national serviceman (NSF) after he lodged a complaint about the said officer to a Commanding Officer (CO).
The NSF, who only wished to be known as Max, took to social media in order to ask other men for advice with regards to his situation.
In a post on Reddit on Wednesday (July 10), Max wrote that he recently made a private complaint to his CO about one of his officers. He said that it was about the way “the officer treats us and restricts our basic welfare”.
Max also did not specify if he was from the army, navy, air force, civil defence or police force.
Max also confirmed that he even went through the proper chain of command before holding a meeting with his CO for 3 hours.
While the situation seemed to improve for a week, as time went by, Max alleged that the officer started targeting him for “all the minor details and errors that I made”. This included things such as forgetting to inform the officer that he was going his lunch break, something, which Max said was not usual protocol.
When Max spoke to the officer saying that “there wasn’t such a rule”, the officer allegedly accused him of committing insubordination, and even went so far to add that the latter was a chargeable offence.
Despite Max making a confidential complaint to his CO, he got word that somehow the news leaked and that the officer he had complained about had found out.
Apparently, the officer had also said, “If Max wants to play with me, I will play with him too”.
Max added that the situation with the officer regressed over the week as “the officer kept on pressuring me and pushing for a punishment/charge for the most little of things like not reporting that I had gone for lunch”.
He also said that when he was down with shingles and had a medical certificate (MC), the officer again told him that he had failed to inform him personally of his MC and that accused Max of attempting to commit insubordination.
Max also alleged that the officer questioned the legitimacy of his MC and threatened to charge Max.
Max wrote, “At this point of time, it is quite obvious that I am being targeted for maybe revenge? But it is clear that she/he is harassing me and showing prejudice against me.
I know I will not get in trouble for these little things, but the constant fear and harassment that is exerted on me is too much to handle for the remaining time I have in service”.
Those who commented on the post advised that Max call a hotline specially designated for NSFs who face issues. Others said that Max would be breaking the chain of command by calling in, something frowned upon, but ultimately the consensus was to call in.
TISG has reached out to MINDEF for further comment. Max has said that he has not taken any action on his officer as of yet.
“I am just waiting to see if he gives up before taking action” he added. /TISG