Peter / Brad,

Rather than trying to do all this on the phone "rapid fire", I thought I would take the time to prepare this email for your respective reviews.  That way we can discuss while viewing the same material.  I would ask that the medical portion of this be kept strictly confidential (Peter Cavanaugh and Brad Greene only) and my right to privacy be respected.

Gulf War Injuries resulting from an exploding ordinance:

Broken Neck 

Broken Back, Thoracic Spine 2 locations. With multiple disc ruptures and cord impingement.

Multiple Shrapnel penetrations head, neck, back, arms, butt and leg.  At this time two large pieces remain in my back that due to risk factors were not removed.  One piece is approx 1/2" from my Spinal column encapsulated in tissue.  The other is in the left mid back encapsulated and located in muscle tissue.

Broken Cochlea, left ear

Neurological injuries eyes, CNS, and extremities.  Due to concussion blast force.

As I recall this was the hit parade for day one.

I believe that I returned to "limited" work about a year later, and after approx 5 years (1995), I was "permanent & stationary" if that is the correct term and classified as 40% disabled by the state AME.  Throughout this time and to the present there was/is  trips to the doctors and continual lifestyle tweaks required.  My back and neck are constant sources of chronic pain that I manage WITHOUT the use of narcotic drugs.  No Drugs my choice.  On good days I can go through life appearing relatively normal in my activities providing that I am smart about it and limit any activities that will cause too much pain or stress.  On bad days it is a fight to get out of bed, take a shower or even walk around normally.  Unfortunately it is not a precise Science so I take it day by day to maximize what I can do.

In 1998 I began to suffer a condition of my endocrine system (as best could be determined perhaps related to GWS) that caused  inadequate hormone production.  I began receiving hormone injections and hormone patches to combat the problem.  I began to show signs of contracting diabetes and was told that if I continued on the hormone therapy, that I would probably contract Leukemia within five years due to bone marrow depletion.  I stopped the hormone therapy in 2002 and my body has resumed somewhat normal hormone production although my immune system was diminished and I could no longer tolerate large temperature changes.  As a result, I am prone to complications from simple events (dental work, minor surgeries) that can produce an abnormal recovery time.   So enough of all that.

On GE:

I have been a dedicated employee of GE for 10 years and have taken a fledgling automation business from $300K to $3M a year and produce far more, with less resources, than many of my contemporaries.  I produce excellent margin rates and have many happy customers that will attest to my professionalism and dedication.  I have created many significant innovations for customers that has helped their business grow and flourish and in turn, produce a profitable return for GE.  On the down side, I have taken only one vacation in ten years and have simply "written off" about 20 unused weeks of vacation time as business conditions would not permit being "out of touch".  I am "on call 7-24-365" to provide support for our GE customers Domestic and International.  I have had occasions where I am sick , while writing off vacation time but actually working, try that one on for size.  The bottom line is that I love what I do for GE and our customers.

Two years ago I moved from my house in Pollock Pines, Ca to Eureka, Ca with the permission from my manager Scott Lafleur.  The reason for the move was two fold.  The first was due to my growing inability to cope with the temperature extremes in the foothills and the Sacramento valley.  I could no longer tolerate living in  an area consisting of snow and 32F winters and 100+ summers. It was causing me considerable back and neck pain and an increase in respiratory infections.  The second was that the territory that I was moving to was occupied by a competitive independent distributor (Industrial Electric Supply) who, over the years had been a major thorn in my side.  Within 6 months of me moving into the territory, I had most of their customers buying from GE and they gave up selling Fanuc.  This resulted in GE gaining significant market share in Northern California that otherwise would have gone to an independent.

Around Christmas time last year, Scott traveled to Reno to have a "talk with me".  This talk was in regard to the amount of business that the branch was doing and that he demanded more as he said he was under tremendous pressure from Jim Hibberd to grow the business.  At that time, I was extremely ill from working from 4 am till 7 pm each day helping a customer closeout a year end project.  I told Scott that I was working to capacity in regards to branch business and that "whipping the horse is only going to make me more sick and have no desirable result."  I further stated that I needed better resources if I was going to be able to continue at the pace I had been maintaining.  I told Scott that I needed a new laptop because my old computer was 5 years old and I was not able to demo the new GE software products to customers.  Scott told me that I should just quit so that he could hire someone that would work harder.  I suggested that we have a meeting and that Mark Manion or Jim Hibberd attend so that we could have an even playing field for discussion.  At that point Scott said that if I were going to get Manion or Hibberd involved to help mediate the communication process, that he was going to "document everything" that was going on.  I took this a threat and basically said "whatever" and gave up.  Sometime later a few months perhaps, I broached the topic of the laptop and was shot down again.  Subsequently I purchased a new Dell laptop with my money approx $2500 and have been using it to perform software demo's for GE Customers.  I mentioned this to Mark Manion before he left GES and he called Scott and within a week I had a GE Laptop.

More recently while attending the San Francisco City swing for Jeff Immelt I made a comment to a long time friend and customer (15 years), that If they had a big project coming up, maybe I should go back into business for myself and do the job for them.  The reason for the comment to my friend was that a few weeks prior while I was at his place of business (Cambell Soup) he pulled out his business card file a gave me back the only existing business card from my old company "Delsman Controls Co." and said "hey remember these days".  It was a great time to remember.  A few days later, Scott LaFleur called me and wanted to know when I was going to quit.  Scott said that it was a good thing if I did quit and that GE would give me all the business that they could.  I explained that it was a private moment between me and Gurbaksh Singh from Campbell soup and that I was not interested in quitting.  Scott said that he had someone to take my job and that he wanted a commitment on a date. I told him to stop pressuring me about quitting.  Scott again told me he was under intense pressure from Jim Hibberd and that he wanted to hire someone that would work harder.  At this point I said I would think about it but really had no desire to leave GE.

After that things just continued to get worse, Scott would continually hound me about quitting so that he could replace me with someone else that would work harder.  It became increasingly difficult for me to travel to Sacramento on customer visits as Scott told me that Jim Hibberd said that I couldn't stay in Sacramento and expense the T&L because I chose to move.  On several occasions I went to Sacramento and paid the expenses out of my own pocket to make customer calls.  I also asked Scott if we could do anything about my cell phone bill.  I have a 900 min a month plan $75 I think, and my cell bill sometimes runs $250 or more from extended conversations with customers, again no help so I just pay the bill and get a $50 T&L expense. As you may know, once a year GE FANUC has an Automation Specialist training meeting known as University Week and is attended as part of our ongoing training.  I asked Scott how I was to arrange for the training as the branch had to send in a PO for I believe $600 per attendee.  Scott replied that he didn't't want me to go and that we were going to "have a talk".  I stated that I wanted to attend because I missed last year and needed to get up to speed on some new products. Scott said that he would get back to me on the details.  Scott didn't, and I was not allowed to attend. The meeting is going on now as we speak!

Most recently after more of the same old same old, I received an email from Jim Hibberd attached as (PDF) regarding his upcoming meeting with Steve Szamocki at the leadership meeting.

I was happy that Jim was interested in my feedback and answered as attached.

Much to my horror and disbelief came Jim Hibberd's response to the Extended team.

Now at this point I have no idea what the hell is going on.  That is certainly NOT the response that I sent to Jim, and I certainly don't want GE FANUC to think that this is what Rob Delsman from Sacramento said.  So right about now you are thinking, WOW! This Rob Delsman Guy is some kind of X-Files conspiracy nut, he thinks everyone is out to get him.  Actually, that's not it at all.  What I think is that Jim Hibberd probed Scott LaFleur about GE FANUC and Scott LaFleur seized on the moment to "defile" me in the face of GE FANUC in an effort to get me to quit. Unfortunately, armed with this mis-information Jim Hibberd would look rather foolish in a discussion with Steve Szamocki from FANUC.  So I replied to Jim Hibberd:

I have told you the truth, I would suggest that you call the customer at ASCO and do a "customer satisfaction pulse call" and find out the true story about the misinformation supplied to Jim Hibberd.

Contact Info:

Phil Tibbits

Engineering Manager

209-941-4111 ex 233

As far as the Integrity issues, I will discuss real time.

Best regards,

Rob Delsman

Automation Specialist

GE Supply, Sacramento

Office: (916) 339-4524

Cell: (916) 799-6374

Fax: (707) 441-9541