SUBMITTED EDITORIAL
Dear Cayman Marl Road,
I read your recent post about Cayman Islands Customs Agency (CICA) and was shocked at the people attempting to defend a horrible manager and her ongoing unprofessional attitude. Her demeanor is nothing new at all. This has been happening for years and no one has suffered more than her employees.
Delayed shipments have not been delivered since February – long before the government lockdown. You are right to be suspicious. Many clients get no response to their emails so why is she pretending like you are annoying her when she ignoring 80% – guess you should feel lucky you got a rude reply.
Instead of people looking for reasons to justify her response to you they need to objectively look at the situation. Sadly people are stressed out and yet rogue employers continue to do as they wish but now can blame COVID-19. This pandemic has nothing to do with how poorly they treat workers and customers.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion about their lack of customer service and how Karen Ebanks responded to you. However, anyone who has ever had the displeasure of working for Karen could give you some additional insight into knowing that this attitude of hers is the norm. Honestly, she treats people like garbage all the time and it really doesn't matter if you're an employee or paying customer.
Customer complaints have existed for MANY years. A simple search of Facebook will demonstrate that point:
The truth is your experience is not unique. Other customers have complained about her in the past and have received less than truthful responses about the status of their shipments. Last week Tuesday (April 14) they told one customer that his shipment has not arrived in Cayman. However, their American partners, Deluxe Freight could confirm the container has been in the Cayman Islands since March 24.
My experiences are from the inside of the organization. I personally believe the reason why goods are not being cleared in a timely fashion right now is because of the fact that she fired FOUR employees since the COVID-19 situation. She is running a skeleton staff that cannot allow the company to now function properly.
It has nothing to do with the government forcing her to clear essential goods only for the past month. She's frustrated with you because you've highlighted her actions publically and have been insistent on an answer that makes sense and is truthful.
You're right in stating that no other shipping or freight forwarding company in Cayman is having this issue. Why?
Three of the five are from the imports department. Normally there are three agents and two couriers. Essentially only one person remains employed show is doing imports.
In typical Karen fashion, she fired people via email. This has nothing to do with COVID-19 as there are many other examples to illustrate her lack of professionalism both inside and outside of the organization. The truth is she doesn't follow the labour law and most people are afraid to speak out about it.
In another case, a young lady was fired who was on medical leave after having emergency surgery. The HR department approved the required leave per the physician's request. However, Karen insisted the worker return to work despite her doctor not releasing her to do so. When the doctor indicate she could work half days for three weeks that was refused. Despite an agreement to allow the person to stay home halfway through she backtracked on her word and threatened that if they did not return to work before being completely recovered they would lose their jobs.
The person returned to work only to fall ill again because of the stress and was admitted to the hospital as a result. After a week in the hospital once again her job was threatened if she did not immediately return to work. The person was still on required sick leave and decide for their own well being they would have to quit the job.
At one point she REFUSED to allow this sick employee to leave to see the doctor. She was having a severe flareup during the workday and when advised of this was told she could not leave. These actions are inhumane at best.
Then in January 2020 she called this same person back to work for her again as the storage clerk. She agreed despite the previous treatment to return. However when she decided to take a 15-minute break as permitted by law to go to the hospital to get access to the blood pressure machine Karen got upset at her again!
She specifically said she doesn't care about anyone's health as we are there to do her work and that's all that matters to her. She has refused to pay for health insurance plans upfront and sometimes waiting six months before making a payment.
You have to be employed for five years before being “entitled” to have a Saturday off. You cannot make doctor's appointments even on Saturdays. You are not permitted to work through your lunch break. Everyone must take lunch from 12-1 with no exceptions.
Karen walks around the office like a bully telling people not to speak in Spanish. Well as many must know by now she's from Costa Rican and guess what? She speaks Spanish in the office to the same employees she tells NOT to speak in Spanish.
So her poor attitude is a direct reflection on management style or lack thereof and has nothing to do with COVID-19 and definitely nothing to do with you! They have a serious issue with staff turnovers which impacts the quality of service that customers are able to get.
In my opinion, she is a wicked woman who simply doesn't care for others. I'm sorry your items are delayed because of how poorly she's allowed to run the business. During times like COVID-19 it will only highlight situations like this more. The core issues have long existed.
Despite what others may say I appreciate you speaking up and giving some a venue to have a voice about these matters. One day we can only hope that the government will start to deal with employers who continually breach labour laws.
The public needs to know the type of companies they are blindly supporting. People can think this is a trivial matter but imagine your shipping company outright lying to you.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid