. . . about four women who were sacked from their jobs in a US town for gossiping about their boss, writes Erika Hayasaki
On a chilly day in March, a man walked into the building department on the second floor of the town hall in Hooksett, New Hampshire. After finishing his business, he asked a secretary: "Did you hear?" Word on the street was that the town administrator was having an affair. The mistress was a municipal employee. Was it true? The gossiper left.
"You're not going to believe what I just heard," the secretary said later to three co-workers downstairs in the assessor's office. The four women chattered on. Could that explain the late nights their boss spent at work? Could that be why the town employee had been promoted, even though others had more experience? As they speculated, another town employee listened. Then, she told the town administrator. The administrator told the town council. The town council investigated. After interviewing many of the town hall's 16 workers, officials concluded the four women were guilty. The charge? Gossiping.
The rumour was false, the town administrator said, and it had damaged him and humiliated his wife.
One day in April, the council members - eight men and one woman - voted in closed session to fire the four workers. Three of the women made it to work. When they arrived at town hall, a counsellor told each separately: "Your services are no longer needed." The fourth found out the next day. Local newspapers dubbed the fired women the "Hooksett Four". Now, the people in this town of 13,000 can hardly avoid gossiping about the rumour that has since spread across the nation and the world.
IN A LIVING room a town away, the four - who have become tight-knit friends - gather for their weekly support session. They compare job hunts and comb through the latest articles featuring them. They have designed matching grey T-shirts for themselves with a bull's-eye target and the slogan: "Support the Hooksett 4." Talk turns to the council members.
"They want remorse," says Michelle Bonsteel (55), the former code-enforcement officer who inspected buildings, homes and businesses for Hooksett for two years. "Remorse for what?" says Sandra Piper (59), who used to be the head of the assessing department. "Was there a murder here that I didn't know about?" asks Joann Drewniak (47), a town secretary for nine years.
The women laugh. But their smiles don't last long.
"Four lives were destroyed," says Bonsteel, who can't find an employer willing to risk the publicity by hiring her. "I mean, we're in the paper every day."
"We're frustrated," says Piper, who often speaks on behalf of the Hooksett Four and is the only one who lives in Hooksett. Every time she visits the grocery store or Wal-Mart people stop her, so she has been staying at a summer home in another town. "You get the depression," Piper says. "You get the anger."
Jessica Skorupski (30), stays quiet. The former town secretary had worked there for seven years and had hoped for a promotion.
"I send out my resumé on average one a day," says Bonsteel, who is divorced with two adult daughters. She says she received a glowing review and a raise a month before she was fired.
"I am ready to apply at Lowe's and Home Depot just to be able to put food on the table," Bonsteel says.
"This is high-school baloney," Piper says. "This is like grammar-school children: 'yah, yah, yah, Johnny said this about me.' This was a witch hunt."
A local, Gerry Lachamce (68), speaks cautiously. He feels bad for the Hooksett Four and ashamed of the town council. "In this community you've got to be very careful," he says. "They're a small town and they're vindictive." The town fired four hard-working employees, he says. "It's very difficult for the town to undo what they've done. I mean, really, they look like fools."
For months, the council of elected officials stayed quiet on the sackings. Local newspapers taunted them with headlines such as: "Hooksett council can't talk to press." The council wrote a letter to a local newspaper criticising its coverage of the firings. The paper ran an article with a quote from its city editor, John Toole, in response: "The New Hampshire Union Leader sure as heck is going to report about whatever goes on at Hooksett Town Hall, with or without the council's help." On June 5th, the newspaper published a letter from the council. It said the ordeal had damaged the reputation of town administrator David Jodoin, "a respectable family man". Jodoin, who has held the job for two years, has not talked publicly.
The letter continued: "It was clear to the council that the issue was not one of idle gossip but a conscious and concerted effort to damage reputations, to spread untrue stories with the knowledge that they were not true and evidently to retaliate for some perceived preferential treatment." It concluded: "The Town Council accepts full responsibility for its decisions in this matter and stands squarely by them."
"They were malicious," said George Longfellow, chairman of the Hooksett Town Council, in a recent interview. He is the only council member who has talked to the media about the fired four. "It wasn't only gossip, it was slander. They tried to ruin his life and his marriage." About 420 registered voters have signed a petition asking the council to restore the women's jobs. But the council rejected it. The Hooksett Four have since filed lawsuits against the town.
Even if they did gossip, Piper says, what's the big deal? "There isn't a person who doesn't do it."