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[socratesnation]

I have had a professional disagreement with one of my colleagues for about two years now.  At the end of last semester, it went a step further: this person is now actively lobbying the chair to get me fired! I have done absolutely nothing unprofessional in stating my opposition to this person, and my annual reviews and student evaluations are excellent.  Since this person has the ear of the chair, I am afraid this might jeopardize a contract renewal for next year.  Should I report this to the dean, or just prepare to pack my bags and leave?  This person has systematically turned everyone in my department against me, and now it seems this person wants me out completely.  At this point, I kind of feel like a change would do me good.  Any thoughts? I am in a renewable one-year contract position, so I apologize for posting this in the tenure track section, but I was hoping I might get more responses here.

[larryc]

It is hard to believe that everyone in the department could be against you without your help. Perhaps you should leave. But do take a moment to think about what you might have done differently, and what lessons you will take from this to your next position.

[untenured]

I'm sorry this has happened.  What an awful situation.  Can you tell us more about yourself?  Are you tenured?  How did this problem arise?

Given the unique nature of academics, it's hard to believe that everyone in the entire department would agree on anything.  That of course can work to your advantage.

Tell us more.

Untenured

[socratesnation]

I think I should clarify.  I do believe there are a fair number of my colleagues who either silently agree with me on the matter my colleague and I have a disagreement on (I think they may fear suffering my fate if they speak out), or they at least are sympathetic to my view.  So I shouldn't write everyone off in my department as I did.  Most of my colleagues are actually a very sound, friendly bunch.  I think some may fear associating with me though because they do not want to be seen as being sympathetic to my view.  I am in a non-tenure track position, which is a one-year renewable position.

The main problem is this:  while only a few people vehemently disagree with my view, the one saboteur colleague is very political, very Machiavellian, and they will stop at nothing to see that what they want gets done.  This person can be extremely vicious if you oppose them, and again I think many in the department just fear this person, or at the very least just don't want to deal with the headaches this person can cause.

[svenc]

You are in a position that requires constant renewal, and in a department that is (as you describe it) seriously poisoned by this viper colleague of yours.  Moreover, your student evals and annual reviews are excellent.  Even if you do think your contract will be renewed next year, what possible reason could there be to not be actively looking for other positions?  Your current working environment does not sound particularly pleasant or secure.

Do it now while your credentials are good.  Your annual reviews may not always be so good (either if your work hits a bad year, or if your nasty colleague manages to infiltrate that process as well).  Or everything can go on as it does, and a budget crunch can put your position on the chopping block regardless of your performance or tolerance of the unpleasant situation.

You are not in a position to turn this department into a nice place to work.  You are in a position to do what's best for you.  Is there some other compelling personal or professional reason to stay that you haven't shared with us?

[socratesnation]

There's no reason other than inertia.  I have started applying to positions elsewhere, and I am hopeful something will turn up there.  But my fear is that it may be really hard to get on elsewhere, as competitive as the market is.

If your contract is not renewed, is it possible to apply for unemployment benefits?  Even if I cannot get a job elsewhere, I really cannot see staying in such a poisonous environment.  I'd hate to choose the unemployment option, but may if it absolutely comes down to it.

[clean]

If your contract is not renewed, is it possible to apply for unemployment benefits

It could be different where you are, but in my limited experience on such matters, you could not get unemployment compensation for nonrenewal of a term contract. The contract simply expired.  In fact, in the instance that I am remembering, the employee was not even told that they were not being renewed.  That is basically how they found out.  Others had their contracts and she did not.  When she asked about it, she was told that there was not one for her.

for what it is worth,

clean

[mdwlark]

What LarryC said.   

I feel for you, but it is time to reflect on why and how a person in an annual renewable position got into a professional disagreement with a powerful viper and kept that conflict going for two years.  As you go to your next job, learn and take with you the divine wisdom of when to STFU.  It takes some of us gadflies longer to learn it than others.  I was a slow study myself.     

You probably should have recognized that you had lost the battle a long time ago, and nodded and smiled and told Viper that you were so glad to get the benefit of his wisdom.  Then you should have stealthfully adapted your plan around his plan as best you could without making waves. 

You say you are being sabotaged by a colleague, but the truth is you are not actually colleagues.  Colleagues have a horizontal relationship.  Unless Viper is also a VAP, you are in a hierarchical pecking order, and you are on a lower rung of the ladder.  You could be renewed for 10 - 20 years, but they don't think of you as permanent.  They keep you only as long as you are convenient, pleasant, and useful.  A tenured or even a TT prof is considered a permanent resident.  You don't cross a powerful permanent resident unless you have big guns on your side, like the department chair or head of a program within the department.  Then you let him fight with them instead of you. 

There may be some totally different reason why you are on the hit list, but you will need to do some very honest soul searching to figure out what that reason is and what lessons you need to learn from this.  Even if you only share a small part of the responsibility, analyzing the other players' part in this won't help you, because you can't change them, you can only change your response to similar situations in the future. 

I've been in one of the biggest mobbing blood baths you can imagine, and I was an innocent bystander who nearly got caught in the crossfire, so I know something about this.  I ended up quitting because it was the only thing I could do, but at least I left on my own timetable and with a better job lined up.     

[socratesnation]

This person is not in a TT position either, so they are not above me in that sense.  They simply know how best to make trouble for those who oppose them.  I did not oppose this person in any mean or disrespectful way.  I naively thought that we could share our differences in a professional manner.  What I did not know until fairly recently was the lengths this person would go to remove opposition.  Most importantly, perhaps, my say and support in opposing this colleague was solicited by another colleague and former friend. This colleague, perhaps more wisely than I, anticipated which way the wind was blowing and has just this semester changed their view on the issue.  I view it as a bit of a betrayal.

The bottom line, though, is my motivation was driven by a desire to stop a petty tyrant and bully.  While you suggest that I should learn when to STFU, I felt that doing so in this particular situation would only create an environment that would encourage the tyrannical behavior.  Simply put, I thought I was doing the right thing.

In my next job I will be much more careful in not only the colleagues I choose as friends, but also in what I say.  This certainly has been a learning experience.  I will never get involved in departmental politics again, whether it's the right thing to do or not.

[untenured]

The lesson from this is not to avoid departmental politics altogether or become a permanently amoral academic.  The lesson is to approach righting wrongs with a frank pragmatism about the power you have to make the change, the importance of the change, and the strength of those that might oppose you.

Too many junior and unempowered faculty whip out their proverbial sword for minor issues and when there's no chance of success.  Like a parent does with a toddler, pick your battles and you will be happier and more ethically fulfilled in the long run.

Untenured

[mdwlark]

Socratesnation, from your original post I got the impression that you had kept a battle going for two years, which seemed a little foolhardy for an annually renewed employee, but your latest explanation casts a different light on it.  It does sound like your friend set you up to play "let's you and him fight."   

Untenured is right, it is about achieving balance and exercising caution while still being able to look yourself in the mirror.  I'm not sure that, had I been more circumspect in my previous situation, it would have turned out any differently.  On my current job, I have learned that it is also potentially dangerous to keep quiet and allow misunderstandings to go unchallenged, so "the stairway is treacherous" regardless of how you negotiate it.  If you do a lot of reflecting on these experiences you walk away with a new skill set. Knowing when to STFU is a relatively new skill for me, and it seems to be a useful one.

In a just world, the vipers would be the ones who lost their jobs, but it doesn't seem to work that way.  You might want to do a search in the CHE fora on "mobbing" and also Google "academic mobbing."   

[fannie]

Also, check out Ms Mentor from yesterday.

[socratesnation]

Wow.  I looked up academic mobbing as you suggested, and what an eye-opener that was!  The consequences of my standing up for what is right have been greater than what I have shared with you here.  Since this viper has targeted me, I have been the focus of undesirable attention by my chair in several ways, including having course releases revoked, a piling-on of first-year courses,  and all sorts of things that, taken together, smell fishy.  A new question is this:  can you make a case for a hostile work environment because of academic mobbing? Some of the literature seems to say no, but I wonder.

[untenured]

A new question is this:  can you make a case for a hostile work environment because of academic mobbing? Some of the literature seems to say no, but I wonder.

No.  Title VII is not a civility code.

Untenured

[scheherazade]

If your contract is not renewed, is it possible to apply for unemployment benefits

It could be different where you are, but in my limited experience on such matters, you could not get unemployment compensation for nonrenewal of a term contract. The contract simply expired.  In fact, in the instance that I am remembering, the employee was not even told that they were not being renewed.  That is basically how they found out.  Others had their contracts and she did not.  When she asked about it, she was told that there was not one for her.

for what it is worth,

clean

Actually, I was nonrenewed for a high school teaching position, and I was able to get unemployment.  It may depend on your state.