An Example of How NOT to Treat Ex-Workers

[Tabren Wyldstar]

I want to relate to you a situation that happened today.

My fiance, until last week, was working as an independent contractor
at the Denver, Colorado offices of TIAA-CREF. She is a fibromyalgia
sufferer and has had an extended flare (very rare) for the past week,
which caused her to miss several days of work. TIAA-CREF chose to
terminate her contract with them, a technically permissible action,
though questionable on the ethics. Friday, she sent a message to Bret
Deardorff (bdear...@tiaa-cref.org) informing him that I would be
coming this morning (Monday, December 17th) to retrieve her personal
effects like her mp3 player and her purse, which she accidently left
at work last week.

When I arrived at their office this morning, I went straight to their
security desk, which is located on the 28th floor of the building they
are in (note that I am leaving the actual address out, please) and
attempted to request one of the TIAA-CREF staff retrieve her
belongings. I had her security badge with me, in case they requested
it, and the key to her desk. The security guard (Wes) stated he could
not reach anyone to help unless I knew their LAST name. At the time,
the information was on my fiance's Yahoo! Mail account. I tried to
reach her by phone while I was there, but was unsuccessful. I
informed the security guard that I would have to go back home to
retrieve the information he requested, but he refused to allow me to
leave unless I surrendered her badge immediately. Begrudgingly, I
gave it to him, but kept her desk key, intending on contacting Bert
Deardorff to request his presence when I returned. When I got home,
we found a letter from Chris Weston (head of Global System Staffing)
insisting on a contact phone number for Laura. It seems TIAA-CREF had
told him that Laura gave me her security badge and that I was
wandering around the building in violation of security rules, which
was a blatant lie.

I sent an email informing them that the security guard's action to
detain me was an illegal detainment which could subject them to civil
litigation action by me and that their lack of cooperation in
returning Laura's belongings were, under Colorado law, an act of
criminal theft (failure to surrender property to its rightful owner
when demanded), but that, as a professional courtesy between nonprofit
organizations (I run House Wyldstar) I was willing to overlook this
misconduct if they would simply return my fiance's belongings because
she needs her ID for a plane flight Wednesday morning.

Chris Weston flamed back an email accusing me of threatening them and
violating TIAA-CREF security, which I never did either of those, I
merely pointed out the misconduct of their staff in the situation and
reminded them of the potential effects of it.

I will admit, my last email was slightly more than heated, though I
did my best not to become abusing towards them. I was originally, in
response to their attitudes, going to have a civil escort go with me
this afternoon. I thought it might be prudent to have an officer
assist me with this crazy situation. Unfortunately the Denver Police
Department did not have one available before 5pm, so I will have to do
it in the morning.

Such misconduct is unbecoming to ANY organization, much less one with
as much responsibility as TIAA-CREF. I would personally NEVER treat
anyone like this and would NOT let a situation like this get out of
hand like they have done, but after viewing the wide variety of
consumer complaints against TIAA-CREF, I am really not surprised.

And by the way, if anyone from TIAA-CREF wishes to challenge my
statements here, I have the emails mentioned saved and could easily
post them online for everyone to view. Or we could post the security
video of my visit there and let the rest of the world judge for
themselves. Think about it.