June 25, 2008
Academic Bullies
The problem with workplace bullies, says Historiann on her blog, is not just that they drive off good employees but also that they turn “those who remain into bullies themselves.”
In Parts I and II of a post about bullies, Historiann advises their targets: “Don’t sue — run for your lives.”
“We don’t encourage people in abusive relationships to believe they can make the abuser change. Why should we expect people in bullying work environments to stick around and try to change the culture, when they have little if any power or influence to force reform?
She quotes Robert Sutton, author of The No A$$hole Rule, who wrote that research “on emotional contagion, and on abusive supervision in particular, finds that if you work with or around a bunch of nasty and demeaning people, odds are you will become one of them.”
Historiann chronicles her own troubles with a nasty “colleague” at her former university, and writes:
“Bullying academic departments tend not to allow assistant professors to follow their own bliss, either in the classroom or in their research agendas. This is sometimes the very motive for the bullying: Many departments really don’t want anything — or anyone — new or innovative around. And scrutinizing other people’s work to belittle it is one of the pleasures of academic bullying!”
She says the “million-dollar question” is, “How can anyone turn a bad department into a good one?”
By Denise Magner | Posted on Wednesday June 25, 2008 | PermalinkComments
Commenting is closed for this article.
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There is no doubt that the victim of workplace bullying in academia and elsewhere, is likely to pay a heavy price if he/she decides to take on the system, and there are no guarantees that he/she can win, and even lesser guarantees that if they win change will indeed follow. This is indeed at the core of the question “How can anyone turn a bad department into a good one?” However, if there is any chance for change it will be because somebody does take on the system and not because victims run away from their bullies.
www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com
— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Jun 25, 02:10 PM #
Faculty and staff who are bullied need to confront the bully and file the appropriate charges and grievances. I know of such bullies. Their tenure is seldom broken but they are often compelled to report directly to the dean’s office and their departmental relationships (as necessary) are suspended. Relocation to other buildings is a useful strategy. Stand up. Bullies are generally cowards who have not been confronted successfully. There is no reason to tolerate their behavior.
— BeenThereDoneThat Jun 25, 02:58 PM #
Yeah, sure. I confronted the male bullies at my employment (Kentucky small community college), and my contract wasn’t renewed, and the dean broke into my office, and I was put on Administrative Leave, and blacklisted (I’m still unemployed after three years) – no, people need to just leave the bullies alone. They’ll destroy your life. The school administration and courts don’t give a crap about defending the rights of women in the workplace. It’s all about the insurance lawyers destroying your career to protect the institution.
— Muap Conners Jun 25, 07:22 PM #
The dean broke into your office? (Must have been a slow day when s/he had a lot of time to kill.) You’re blacklisted (where—throughout the cosmos?) The school administration and courts don’t give a crap about defending the rights of women in the workplace? Not where I live.
— BeenThereDoneThat Jun 25, 08:19 PM #
C’mon don’t attack someone’s experience just because you are lucky to have never experienced bullying. Conners isn’t blacklisted everywhere, but not everyone can pack their bags and leave town.
— jenny Jun 26, 07:37 AM #
I confronted a bully who was made Chair after our beloved Chair passed away. This was a faculty member with scores to settle. And she used the position to do just that. Teachers were given early morning or late evening classes (her adjunct friends secured the day classes), we were spied on and reported to the Dean (her partner in crime) for letting classes out 5 minutes early, our reviews were mean spirited & ultimately, because I had enough, I filed a grievance, only to lose my position. It was such a great department until the bully arrived!
— Barb Jun 26, 08:49 AM #
Workplace bullying takes many forms and exists at all levels in every type of organization. At my university, one senior administrator consistently diminishes the contributions of her targets, whispering into the ears of administrators and regents about the incompetence of this or that person, excluding her targets from key meetings or withholding important information, etc. This is tolerated, and we are advised by HR that grievances will only make matters worse. When there is truly no recourse except to leave, there’s something very wrong with the organization that will ultimately bring grief to the university. I agree about confronting bullies, though, if for no other reason than the satisfaction brought by letting someone know that you’re onto them.
— UnderHerThumb Jun 26, 09:30 AM #
Confronted by a senior female colleague known for her rash, often verbally abusive treatment of junior faculty, I went first to my chair. He laughed at my concerns, even though the woman was taking every opportunity, including faculty meetings, to humiliate me. Examples? She complained that my record of faculty meetings were too detailed and that I was always talking about African history (my field—well, duh). I received no help from the chair, nor did he ever take steps to at least check her mean spiritedness. As chair of the Department PRC, she saw to it that any request I made to be on a committee was denied and criticized to my face and behind my back any outreach efforts I headed up. I received more support from other departments and programs across the University than I did in my own department. I finally committeed myself to two years of talk therapy with a psychologist experienced in the academic workplace in order to try to turn around a situation that was increasingly threatening my career and always undermining my work. The upshot? She became chair inspite of serious objections on the part of other department members, put her best friend in place as chair of the PRC the year I came up for tenure and saw to it that my tenure bid was denied. My teaching evaluations were stellar, my service—inspite of her constant undermining—strong and my book was in press with a major publisher in my field. What was the problem? PRC Chair/thug called my editor and reported that the book was in press, but not yet actually published—and that was not enough for my department. My union would do nothing to help me. the university did not allow faculty to go up for tenure a second time, even when the book was out. The result of bullying? She ruined my career.
— Mary Bivins Jun 26, 10:37 AM #
There is no universal rule — sometimes fighting back is the right choice, sometimes avoiding it or even fleeing is better. You have to decide in each case individually. But one thing is for sure — always fleeing is bad for the society, always fighting back is bad for yourself.
— Mark de Goz Jun 26, 11:42 AM #
There’s a bully in our department that constantly pitches temper tantrums and is rude and obnoxious to everyone who works in our group — except the boss. We all walk on eggshells around this person, and it does affect morale and productivity because we dread having to deal with this person on a daily basis. In this case, fighting back is out of the question. You either learn to deal with it or move on.
— Callie Jun 26, 11:53 AM #
Academic bullying, or “mobbing,” is common at Columbia University — especially in the “pink collar” departments (e.g. social work, education). It’s impossible to fight because it’s completely a part of the culture here. The sad thing is that we lose the best doctoral students as a result because they see this nonsense for what it is. If they fight it, we get rid of them. Or, if they’re tired, they just leave.
It’s a crime of epic proportions and very few people are talking about it.
— Columbia Prof Jun 26, 11:55 AM #
As someone who was a subject of a previous Chronicle of Higher Ed article that was related to bullying in the workplace, I know something about it. But the article understates the true costs. Bullies only try to hire, and they only tolerate, their own kind. When the unfit are hired and retained, there are direct costs with the damages they do and the costs of removing them, but there are also lost opportunity costs in terms of all the good that could have been done not being done because the non-bullies and competent were not hired.
As Plato put it: “Those who seek power are invariably the least fit to hold and wield it.” Indeed it seems that personality disorders such as narcisism, megalomania, bullying and others are requisite for management positions in academia, business, government and even non-profits.
— James Craven Jun 26, 11:58 AM #
I experienced bullying from a collegue in the form of him screaming profanities at me in the hallway, with several other collegues and the chair there. The most unforunate part, is that this bully has “the ear of the chair,” so much so, that my evaluation was negatively impacted, and full of language almost identical to the bully’s. I agree that there may not be much a person can do to change the culture of a department, but a person can take steps to protect him/herself both personally and professionally. For me, I confronted the bully calmly and professionally, and was able to walk away feeling like the bigger person. I dealt with the chair by documenting everything and addressing what I felt was unjustified or unfair in writing. Knowing that the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better, keeps me focused on producing what I need to produce to get the next job, so that I’m not powerless to leave an unpleasant situation.
— ForwardFocus Jun 26, 12:06 PM #
Okay, I never blog but had to. I was a postdoc at a R1 research institute and saw and was the victim of bullying first hand. And you feel completely helpless. Since it was a post-doc at the bully’s own research institute my only choice seemed to be to leave (no other faculty members to work with there) which was not an option. I was humiliated, yelled at (publicly and privately), things picked up off my desk and thrown back, told i was a disaster repeatedly, almost prevented from using the bathroom on one occasion (i am not kidding or exaggerating), and was questioned about my eating habits (seriously.). Yes, the person was off her rocker. At first, friends and colleagues would encourage me to speak up or suggest that maybe she was being tough on me in order to help me improve my work. But everyone soon realized that this wasn’t a mentor who is light on the praise, but a crazy person with a little bit of power. Since she was out of her mind and as the head of a research center where there was no one witnessing what was going on except postdocs and graduate students in similar situations. I almost had to be medicated by the end of it. I have had a person or two say – well, aren’t you proud of your self for sticking it out? The fact that I had to stay because I would have been homeless otherwise and allowed someone to treat in a way that I would not have allowed in any other area of my life was not an accomplishment. And like any good serial abuser, after a bad episode – I was was told how smart and pretty I was and promised trips to conferences literally all over the world. Sick. I actually get chills thinking about it. Worst year and a half of my life. Have even taken it off my c.v.
— post-abilify Jun 26, 12:27 PM #
If you send me your address, I can mail you the worlds smallest violin; so that you can hear all the sad sad songs you need to listen to against all those big bad bullies….wah, wah, wah….
— J.A.H. Jun 26, 12:32 PM #
“If you send me your address, I can mail you the worlds smallest violin; so that you can hear all the sad sad songs you need to listen to against all those big bad bullies….wah, wah, wah….”
Piss off, troll.
— gollum Jun 26, 12:58 PM #
This thread developed into a shrink’s coach or some other confession place rather than into a dialog of how to deal with bullying.
— Mark de Goz Jun 26, 01:02 PM #
A recent publication in the Academy of Management Journal (2007) addresses this topic directly. The researchers find that in the long-term, directly confronting abusive supervisors buffers the effect of exposure on depression and anxiety. The use of avoidance strategies has the opposite effect. The authors acknowledge that confrontation may produce unfavorable outcomes such as termination and escalation of hostility (on the part of the perpetrator), but that for the long-term sake of the victim’s mental health, confrontation may be appropriate.
— William Jun 26, 01:29 PM #
Remarkable how the on-line bullies emerge to ridicule individual’s experiences. Sad we have to share air with them, so ignore them.
Bullies can literally destroy a Department, I have seen it happen.
— Jon Jun 26, 01:47 PM #
Academic bullying is yet another example of what happens when you combine massive egos with puny salaries. I’d be bitter and want to take it out on subordinates too.
— gollum Jun 26, 03:07 PM #
Eventually the bully or bully club does something totally outrageous and enough people are incensed. That is the precise time to rally the troops who have been abused and others who are horrified at the abuse, ban together and stick it to the bully at every corner – faculty meetings, elections, dean’s reports, private meetings, etc. Propose some good-hearted committee, or one that wants to collaborate or cooperate and you will see that the bullies do not want to play anymore. Creating enough situations where they are on display for their lack of cooperation and their outrageous behavior is public to others with good nature and balance and eventually their power dissipates. They will retreat to their caves, licking their wounds.
Do not be deceived, however, they are only plotting their return. They are quietly trying to get to new faculty members and others who express a negative POV at a meeting. They wil try to become their best friends. They will prey on those with low self-esteem or those who are prone to flattery. Therefore, the “new majority” of cooperative people must be steadfast in welcoming the new faculty member, mentoring the junior professor and quickly coming to the side of one who expresses something negative so that they can express their reservations to those who will hear them, but not suck them into an even larger whirlwind of negativity.
— DrFunZ Jun 26, 03:26 PM #
Academic bullying must never be tolerated in higher education.
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
— William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Jun 26, 04:12 PM #
In response to #21, that’s a great idea in principle, but it falls apart in a union shop. I’ve seen a union zealously defend a vicious bully while it did nothing whatsoever for his victims, who were mostly members of the same union. You see, the union contract has provisions to protect the rights of an employee who is being fired, but nothing whatsoever to protect employees who are being systematically abused, so our dues basically went to pay for the cost of defending the very man who was making our working lives unbearable. Even when there was a critical mass of people willing to speak out and sufficient political will among the top administrators to take this guy on and get him out once and for all, in the end all they could do is demote him and give him a smaller office. You can guess what that did for his already abusive disposition. As for HR, they basically said that unless any of us could prove conclusively that we were being bullied because we were members of a protected class (gender, race, etc.), there was nothing they could do. Discrimination is illegal. Being an abusive manager is not.
— Been there, survived that Jun 26, 04:46 PM #
It strikes me as ironic that the biggest bully on campus sent the URL for this article out to the campus.
— Being Bullied Jun 26, 05:02 PM #
We also need to be clear what bullying really is. For example, sometimes those who love power but escew any accountability, reagard the demand they be held accountable, and provide solid evidence, reasoning and law to justify their own bullying, which often they lack the intellect and preparation to defend, as they are the types that seek power to bully, then the bullies will call their own inadeqacies being exposed—by their own self-impeaching behavior—- as “Being Bullied” —like the pseudonyms they hide behind. And these types, usually hide in backrooms and whisper, often filing false charges with no accountability, unwilling to even face the accused with their accusations as they themselves would want to be treated, and then what they call bullying, is really their own bullying being exposed and themselves being exposed for what they really are.
I highly recommend the book “Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work by Paul Barbiat and Robert Hare (leading expert on psychopathy) They show not only how to spot psychopaths, but why academia and business are target- rich environments for these types who think wearing a suit somehow makes them something special. But let’s be honest, there are teachers every bit as dicatorial in the classroom as the managers they suffer under—often they are interchangeable.
— James Craven Jun 26, 08:16 PM #
There needs to be a mass exodus before anyone in power does anything about the bullying. I’m at a small college that this year alone lost over 20% of their junior faculty, many of whom are leaving because of a culture that tolerates senior faculty members’ bullying of junior faculty members.
The dean is aware of and very sensitive about what this failure to retain junior faculty means for the college, and as a result, the dean has started to speak to the departments that have been the worst offenders. Only time will tell what the result will be.
— Leaving a bullying college Jun 26, 11:31 PM #
As a secondary school person with an earned doctorate in education and National Board certification, I have often looked up from the hectic life of a secondary school teacher/administrator and thought, “how much easier it would be to wander in the groves of academe”—i.e., higher education, where students are interested and sit still and colleagues engage in lofty discussion and in the disinterested pursuit of knowledge. But, after 26 years, I now realize that I am the one who has it good. I make more than most of you, I don’t have to publish a thing, I have a continuing contract and am therefore protected from dismissal by law unless I do something illegal, and, what’s best, I have the bright smiles and the many problems of my high-school students to deal with every year. I think the best thing to do is focus on our students. They’re the idealists and they have boundless energy from which we can draw strength. Oh sure, there are petty rivalries in secondary ed., but I am convinced that we are better protected than you are in post-secondary education from all the nonsense I have been reading about here!! By the way, we could use a few of you in math, English, foreign languages, and science to work with our kids!! Get off your rock and do some real work with America’s teenagers. They are our future!
— Richard Jun 26, 11:48 PM #
When I started my job as an assistant professor, I became very close friends with a tenured member of my department very quickly. He and I were in similar fields and had similar interests. He was alienated from the rest of the department, and he talked constantly about how marginalized he was. I sympathized with him and thought he was someone who was horribly misunderstood.
To make a long story short, I eventually discovered that he was doing things and saying things behind my back to undermine me. He spread horrible rumors about me and told me that other members of the department were saying bad things about me. He became territorial due to our being in similar fields. He belittled my research and my teaching.
I’ve learned an important lesson from this experience, which is that people who are obsessed with their victimization are actually bullies themselves. Stay far, far away from them for your own sake!
— Got bullied Jun 27, 01:38 AM #
It is obvious that there are no easy solutions/options. It is also obvious that there is an almost universal problem with workplace bullying in higher education. Irrespective of what an ideal solution might look like, it is useful that we are voicing our concerns in public and not hiding, for any change – when and if it ever comes – does entail making public what the issues are.
www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com
— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Jun 27, 04:16 AM #
I laughed when i read this post…the bully business is throughout the business, academic, and especially 5013-C world…I avoid these people in my line of work…sometimes folks will say the bully is a bulldog employed by the higherups…usually the bulldog is just another “*ss” on a power trip…u in the Ivory Towers go download off the net this weekend the 1930 anti-war classic “All Quiet on the Western Front.” The scene early in the film where the kindly wunderbar postal worker is bringing smiles and mail to the townsfolks especially the young folks…then five seconds later he is an office in the army and very very brutal to the same kids…that is the two-faced bully type that is universal…a good cry in the restroom usually gets u thru the day…
— deadmonz Jun 27, 05:28 AM #
I’ve found it interesting reading the posts how much bullying is Faculty on Faculty as our experience in New York State by people contacting us is that that vast majority of bullying in higher education is Faculty bullying Staff. Part of this is due to poor leadership by Deans, Chairs and other academic alledged VIP’s who only want to look at the “big picture” of their roles. In doing so they create a working environment that is free to allow Faculty Bullies to have free will to do as they please to lower ranking employees. Thus far everyone person who has contacted us in higher education has come from SUNY making it the worst employer in the state as far as by numbers of people stating their experiences to us. I hope SUNY wakes up soon and starts to take notice as research strongly supports that Generation Y will not tolerate such hostile working environments and that this generation itself has a stronger sense of narcissism making it likely workplace bullying will be a more serious issue in the academic workplace.
Mike Schlicht
State Coordinator
New York Healthy Workplace Advocates
— Mike Schlicht Jun 27, 06:54 AM #
Our main department bully is an equal opportunity offender and is truly horrible to everyone in the department. But the department chair is completely dependent on the bully as the bully covers up for our chair’s major inadequacies. Therefore the department chair is not a resource for help when dealing with the bully. In fact, the department chair has regularly lied to higher up administration to defend the bully against some very serious & very true accusations. Leaving the institution is definitely not an option for me, so I did what I could to make my work life more enjoyable. I moved my office when the opportunity come up to be farther away from the bully, and I choose not to be on committees with the bully if possible. Now I am back to enjoying my job. Some of my colleagues choose to confront the bully, try to reason with her, or try to “rally the troops” behind the bully’s back for a mass confrontation. All tactics always backfire with the bully and our department chair and dean. Until we have administration that is interested in dealing with the bully (not likely since our new top level administrator seems to be quite the bully), I think the best strategy is to do what is necessary to make my job enjoyable and to limit my contact with the bully. However, when the bully is made department chair in the next few years (something that is inevitable once our chair retires), I’m sure there will be a mass exodus of faculty from the department.
— bluecatch Jun 27, 08:34 AM #
Taking on an abusive out-of-control supervisor, dean, superior, etc. should be done with MUCH caution or better yet, with 100s of revised résumés or vitaes leaving your home office everyday and a one-way ticket elsewhere, no matter how many feel-good pieces of advice you receive from “colleagues”.
My story…I had been heavily recruited to accept an upper middle management position (director) of a large campus-wide division at a large Midwestern R-1, with a “reputation” for a “liberal, progressive, non-sexist, non-racist, non-homophobic, anti-hetero-sexist” body politic. I gave up my position at an Ivy League school of over 10 years for my entry into this politically-corrected Shangri-La.
At first, seemingly all was going well —- evaluations showed an upward trajectory of faculty, staff and student opinion of the unit, its mission and its staff. I worked 70 hour weeks and weekends as well. The unit had previously undergone FOUR managers before me in 18 MONTHS! That was the first clue that I didn’t read clearly of the profound dysfunction, bad decision-making and personal politics were already alive and well at Big10 Ivy-Wannabe-Self—Important U. Trusting that my energy level, integrity, and self-motivation would suffice to get the job done, I proceeded into my day like a walking smiley face poster. I went about repairing fences and soothing egos and un-ruffling feathers everywhere I encountered them, and the place began to really perform at the level that I had envisioned, DESPITE a staff of uncooperative, unprofessional and immature staff that had grown accustomed to the chaos of the past and had accepted it as “normal”.
Well one night my phone rang at 2a.m. and who was it, but my alcoholic, 3x divorced, narcissistic, aging hag of a dean who had gotten it into her hair-sprayed fake-red, bouffant’d head that I was partner material for her. Never mind I was already in a healthy and committed relationship of TEN years. These phone calls were obscene and soon to be followed by even more obscene e-mails and face-to-face encounters at our bi-weekly meetings. At first I thought I could just avoid contact with her, but in her psychosis, she just got even crazier when I recoiled from her “attention”. When it came time to renew my contract, she did not. When I attempted to discuss the matter, she REFUSED.
Finally with my professional iceberg shrinking under me (financially, emotionally and professionally), I went to HR, AA, Ombudsmen, the Provost and EVEN the Chancellor. Not one of these gutless cowards would listen or even make suggestions for remedy. Finally, I felt compelled to call a meeting for myself and a couple of these administrative weasels so that not only I could move on with my professional life, but so that they might have a chance TO DO THEIR JOBS!!! I was the ONLY one that showed up for the meeting.
We lost our home, my credit rating hit rock bottom (for the first time ever) and my partner and I suffered immeasurable strife of every imaginable kind and my career of 25 years was erased as if it had never been. I was able to secure other employment in my field and that combined with consultancy abroad and in the US, helped to pay the bills. My health suffered incredibly and today I am on heart meds despite my marathon-running level of physical ability.
I will NEVER forget what was done to me, nor the horrendously impotent response of my “inclusive colleagues”, who were too busy ordering kayaks on the internet or fretting about being able to sleep under that less than 100% cotton comforter they received as an anniversary gift. I never imagined the level of passive conspiracy that I would experience.
My dean was finally removed from post (after I left), when the continuous blood baths she indulged herself in had splattered so much flesh and gore on the walls of her office that the cleaning crews couldn’t keep up with their luminal spray to verify whose blood it was THAT particular week.
Today, she rests comfortably in a 6-figure job in the attic of central administration awaiting her even fatter retirement pension to kick-in in about 7 years at taxpayer expense and can be found in the ladies room around 10a (when she arrives on campus) dousing herself with Static Guard (she gets upset when her clothes cling to her rolls of fat).
My advice when encountering a bully? GET A LAWYER IMMEDIATELY, preferably one with lots of experience suing and winning against your particular institution. Don’t trust for a nano-second that any of the fake administrative gestures “in place” to “provide a safe working environment” will help you. Remember where these offices get their funding and where the staff’s paychecks come from.
My book will be published next year and it will include all the e-mails and the names of the cowering weasels that left me and countless others to die agonizing professional deaths. They will finally get the recognition that they deserve.
Hmmmmmmmmmm, I can see the early retirement party invitations being posted on the U’s website already. I think I’ll go. Wanna come?
— Rich Port Jun 27, 08:47 AM #
Monmouth University’s Department of Social Work – soon to be School of Social Work, like Columbia University (#11) is another example of “pink collar” bullying aka mobbing. Ironically, each year there is an exodus of junior faculty who leave for positions at more prestigious universities. Perhaps some day the Provost and Dean will awaken to find Monmouth’s social work faculty’s reputation for mobbing causing a lack of talented professors in the school, and a subsequent drop in enrollment in the MSW program.
It would be helpful if the Chronicle compiled a bully rating system for universities. By making this situation public an opportunity may arise for change.
— SJHR Jun 27, 09:31 AM #
The egregious examples here are really fascinating, but what I think is a lot more common is a subtler kind of bullying: nasty rumors, saying bad things, killing chances for internal leaves/grants, messing with teaching schedules, being nasty on dissertation cmtes, that sort of thing. In my previous U, I observed (but fortunately was not the victim of) senior fac mbrs doing such things to junior ones who didn’t kowtow, conform, socialize, kiss up properly. This is why those “collegiality” clauses in tenure standards suck: a couple of those kids were terrific, just introverted non-partiers who didn’t sufficiently socialize with the seniors. Me, I stayed out of it, published a lot, got tenure, and promptly moved to a better U. Ah but now, at Better U, a thoroughly obnoxious sr fac member has decided that I (and two other fac women) do not sufficiently kiss up to her—-and she has slandered us to deans and chairs & others. Here’s what I’ve learned that may be helpful to others in this situation:
If you decide not to confront the bully, here are some tactics: 1) mind your own business, and stay as far away from the bully as possible (as a previous poster said, move your office, be on cmtes that she is not on, change your teaching and office hours to minimize contact with her, etc.)
2) develop a strong professional profile outside the U: publish, publish, publish, get grants, and make sure you are widely known and respected outside. The bully can’t touch you out there, and it will increase your potential mobility should you decide to leave. It also makes you less vulnerable to her bullying inside the U; when she spreads rumors that you are, for instance, not a good researcher, as mine tried to do, well, your national grant (etc.) speaks loudly otherwise.3) document everything, and if there is ever a question about YOUR actions, pull out those emails and say the magic wordsto your chair: “Gosh, given all this evidence, I would hate to have to make heractions public by contacting HR or my LAWYERS.” Depending on your chair, this can calm things down. Any kind of meeting with or about the bully? Follow it up with a “Just to confirm our conversation yesterday” email, so it is clear to all that you are keeping records, and that distortions will not do them any good.
4)maintain a (fictional of course) pleasant, friendly, happy, upbeat, professional demeanor. Pretend that none of this bothers you in the slightest. Laugh, if you can, when bully behavior flares out in public, especially if it is aimed at humiliating you, and say things like, “Oh, poor Susie, she seems to have been having a hard time lately—I wouldn’t take all that too seriously.” Or to the bully, pause and say “well, I’m sure you can’t possibly mean that as it sounds—-people might think you were implying that my research isn’t valuable, when clearly, the NIH thinksit is; so let’s reframe the discussion….” And say this kindly, as if you sort of feel sorry for her.
Good luck, everyone—-remember, a good private life is the best solace!
— subtly bullied Jun 27, 05:33 PM #
There does indeed need to be the equivalent of a bathroom wall on which bullying departments, administrators and the like could be outed. Given the rampant lying involved in the average academic job search, it can be difficult if not impossible to ascertain things like real turnover in a department, the string of others who left your new position, and the like.
I did manage to cull a few warning flags from my experience: 1) look out for schools with no diversity regionally on the faculty and administration. Bullies often arise in situations where everyone’s degrees and experience are less portable – it’s a rats-in-a-cage situation. 2) Beware jobs in states with a poor or nonexistent employment (pro employee) bar. You can find this out simply by acting, during the prolonged academic interview process, as though you need a lawyer. See if you could hire one if you needed one in that area. Are the few pro-employee lawyers unavailable? Are there very few? Bad sign. 3) Ignore the standard academic advice to take the job at Fabulous Research U or Tiny Remote U just because it “looks” like the thing that you should do. As several here have pointed out, you could find your stellar career in the garbage simply because you were gullible and well-wooed. Instead, focus on the big picture of your career and look for well, sane, people. Study them. Make pleasant demands in the interview process. See how miffed they become. Watch out for flattery. Etc. 4) If you find yourself in a terrible position, record them, if it’s legal to do so in your state. Contact the attorney you had on stand-by immediately. They can give you great advice about how to proceed while you’re job-looking. 5) Make sure you find allies who will agree to be your recommenders. It’s great to be able to take something off your CV, but in the event that that’s difficult, one or two well-placed colleagues who know you were lied to, harassed, and put through the wringer, who are willing to tell the truth about your abilities and be your recommenders, is what you need. Oh, and 6) start looking for another job immediately. Chances are good that you won’t have the money to sue in any but the most clear-cut discrimination instances – which is why bullies flourish. The laws allow people to do in the workplace things they couldn’t get away with as parents or neighbors. Get away and leave them – because they always cluster, they’re usually part of a sick institution – to circle the toilet bowl together. 7) Warn others as you can. Chalk it up to a close encounter with a sociopath/psychopath – which can happen to anyone. Get on with your life in your new and better circumstances. Living well is the best revenge.
— Elle Wakefield Jun 27, 07:28 PM #
Two more ideas I wish someone had told me: 1) watch out for the bully’s “fixer” – the person on faculty or staff (because the bully can be the dean, a staff member who has the power to make your life hell, or any administrator as well) who will befriend you, extract details of your personal life, ascertain your sexuality, religiosity, financial status, and so forth, and then forward them to be used against you by the bully. Bullying research shows that bullies know who to pick on – for instance, single faculty members, those who have limited mobility in job terms because of a spouse, those who need their jobs because of a sick parent, and so forth. If I had to do it again, I’d show no vulnerability to any colleague whatsoever. I’d be sure to have a spouse-equivalent attend parties, invent a mythical trust fund, keep all family details to myself, and in general give them no reason to think that I couldn’t quit on the spot if I needed to. And second, I’d get a second job on the side, where I could ramp up the hours at any minute if I needed to. I currently follow this strategy, and it has already made me far more confident and powerful in dealing with nascent bullies – and it improves my bank account.
— Elle2 Jun 27, 07:50 PM #
It is often an axiom, like the best defense is a good offense, that the bully and his/her victim will cross-charge each other with the same offense. So how to know which is the real victim and which is the real victimizer?
Victimizers are afraid of sunlight victims are not; victimizers are afraid of going to paper or being taped, victims are not; victimizers are afraid of press scrutiny, victims are generally not; victimizers hide behind pseudonyms, whispering in backrooms and covert intrigue, and victims do not; victimizers are afraid of openly and directly confronting accused with their accusations, whereas victims are not if they have any chance of a fair and impartial hearing; victimizers rigg hearings with their own kind to guarantee results, victims do not;
victimizers fear and eschew accountability, victims do not; victimizers fear full, open, impartial and transparent hearings, victims demand them; victimizers fear due process, while victims demand it even for the victimizers; victimizers demand for themselves what they deny others, victims do not; victimizers hide behind carefully constructed masks, victims do not; victimizers are often psychopaths and sociopaths,victims are not.
So to find out who is who, just look at what they really do, what they fear, and demand, and how openly they are willing to proclaim and defend their allegations if due process can be guaranteed for all parties.
— James Craven Jun 27, 11:30 PM #
While I agree most academic bullying indeed goes on at the peer-to-peer or supervisor-to-professor levels, few discuss how students can sometimes bully their professors (often enlisting supervisors and others in their little war).
I was mobbed by a few students who decided to slander me in student evaluations and send rude e-mails. They crafted a fiction of the semester that I was on some sort of crusade to “get them” when, in reality, they had decided not to follow the syllabus and wanted all sort of extreme favors and good grades for mediocre or deficient work. They then banded together to slam me in evals, which we all know are an instructor’s avenue to continued employment.
Couple this behavior with colleagues who automatically side with “oppressed” students [because they could not possibly be lying!], and who themselves overstep their authority at grade grievance hearings [like ignoring the out-right lie made by a student complainant] and you get a lovely alchemy of bullying.
The fact that several student [often not even the high-performers] openly praised the course and my instruction simply wasn’t enough…
— Mobbed/Bullied by Students Jun 28, 01:42 AM #
I would like to know how others have handled situations where their Dean is the bully? In our case about 50% (27) junior faculty are currently on the market and many of them have openly told their department chairs about their plans.
— Bill Jun 28, 09:57 AM #
Taking the initiative from one of the posters above, I have created a blog for the purpose of publicizing academic bullies and the institutions that tolerate them. The URL is http://abusedacademics.blogspot.com
— Abused Academic Jun 28, 01:39 PM #
In my first academic job I experienced several sources of the bullying listed here. Below are the most serious, though there were other more minor irritants:
1. My deptartment’s senior faculty member targeted me because she had been in a 15 year dispute with my chairman, who had favored my candidacy. On her own (non-)authority and before I even arrived on campus, she went to the book store and cancelled an order for a course I was to teach, leaving my students and me without textbooks for three weeks. For about three months after my arrival she even refused to make eye contact with me. At later times she tried hard to sabotage my teaching schedule and behaved dismissively toward my new courses, accomplishments, and other contributions.
2. A colleague in another department started dating my wife while she and I were having marital problems. I called him out on it on campus and he challenged me to a fight. Since this was at an institution outside the US and security was tightly controlled by the provost’s office, I could not have him arrested for assault or disorderly conduct, which I could have done in most US jurisdictions. Instead, I reported the incident to my chairman and dean, who were powerless to do anything, and to my provost, who was a complete coward on his way to a long overdue retirement and refused to deal with the matter in any satisfactory way despite very direct language about the university’s refusal to tolerate harrassment and all the relevant US labor laws.
3. Shortly before this incident the provost received an anonymous denunciation of me for unprofessional conduct. My dean concealed it from me until the physical threat happened, but had ordered my department chairman, who also kept it a secret, to conduct a secret investigation of me. I was cleared of all the allegations, but it sat poorly with me that I had been secretly investigated.
4. A sour dept. colleague who was at my exact level but about 8 years older and jealous of me for a variety of reasons tried hard to put down my work and me personally.
5. An older colleague outside my department whom I never actually met in person but sat on university grant committees opened every discussion of my grant applications by declaring that she hated me. I was tipped off by a friend on the committee who got to listen to this. Other sources confirmed it and told me she was supported by the associate dean, a depressing mediocrity formerly in my department who had applied for her job essentially because she had no chance of getting tenure (who knows why she got it?). The committee harridan never confronted me or even introduced herself, but the associate dean more than once questioned the legitimacy of my work, in one case by e-mailing me a list of passive-aggressive statements commenting on my past success in receiving grants.
How did I deal?:
1. I ignored the senior department colleague. It was both easy and fun. Ignoring her just made her angrier and look stupider. The department chairman was already against her because of their feud, and her similar treatment of pretty much everyone else ensured that she would be isolated, alone, and powerless without me having to do anything but let her be herself.
2. I went to lawyers, told the administration that I had, and infomed the cowardly provost that if anything close to the incident ever happened again, he would start his retirement on a witness stand. Happily nothing did happen. For good measure I told the campus gossip, another but more harmless dept. colleague who had the added virtues of being totally gullible and naive even by academia’s standards, what had happened – which duly spread around – and that I hoped I never saw the man in question off campus – which sent a message. About three months later the colleague who threatened me was diagnosed with a terminal illness. My now ex dumped him the next day, thus proving that I have excellent reasons to celebrate rather than regret the collapse of the marriage. The other man left the university after another semester or two because he was too sick to work and is now at death’s door. I firmly believe in karma.
3. I let the dean’s action go. It was pretty unprofessional and followed shortly by something far worse and even dangerous (i.e. the threat to my person), but I had ultimately been exonerated and thought affecting a quiet dignity would be the best route. She remained a supportive dean ever more thereafter.
4. I affected a supercilious disdain for the sour puss, who after all was sour to me precisely because she could neither do anything to me but be nasty nor compete with me professionally, which was why she was jealous in the first place. Toward the end I was even faux friendly to her, just to exaggerate her sense of powerless.
5. I made sure every grant application I submitted to the harridan’s committee was unimpeachable on both procedural and professional grounds. The other committee members saw right through her BS, the resentful associate dean was left with nothing to say, and I got everything I applied for with only one minor exception that was admittedly a reach in the first place.
Finally, deciding that after two years I had better things to do with my life than be around those losers, I applied for and received a year of leave. So I moved to New York with my new several years younger girlfriend, had fun, travelled widely, scored yet more research and conference support from my former institution, did not an ounce of work, explored other professional options, landed a better and more attractive job with a higher salary at my former institution’s bitterest rival, and then told my former institution I wasn’t coming back, a choice shared, to my delight if not to my surprise, by 40% of my department colleagues this year. To make it all the sweeter, the former institution turns out to be heavily in debt, reputedly because of high level corruption (thus destroying any hope for higher salaries or more research support for those who wronged me there), and – extra icing – just arbitrarily increased the length of all classes.
— bored with academia Jun 28, 02:50 PM #
http://abusedacademics.blogspot.com
- What a wonderful idea! Will the creator of this excellent new site allow us to name bullies in campus visit situations as well as those we encounter in our daily lives?
— bored with academia Jun 28, 03:13 PM #
Sure, why not?
— Abused Academic Jun 28, 06:28 PM #
So far, I’ve had no takers? Why not?
— Abused Academic Jun 28, 06:55 PM #
I have some fear of emailing to an unknown. Perhaps I can do it from someone else’s computer, someone who is not affiliated with my university. But that may take a while to arrange.
There is also the question of whether the information I provide could expose my identity.
I do thank you for the offer, and hope to take you up when I have resolved these issues.
— Josephine Jun 28, 07:44 PM #
> #11 Academic bullying, or “mobbing,” is common at Columbia University — especially in the “pink collar” departments (e.g. social work, education). It’s impossible to fight because it’s completely a part of the culture here.
This is a very perceptive observation (about the “pink collar” departments as places prone to a bullying culture). At Columbia the Madonna Constantine case is surely a classic example. This can spread to other parts of a campus via divisions of Student Affairs, which have their cultural origin in programs like social work and education. One only has to look at the controlling culture of Student Affairs programs (speech codes, behavior codes, thought control, emotional manipulation) to see that this has less to do with politics per se and everything to do with psychological bullying.
— Student Affairs Observer Jun 28, 10:58 PM #
We have no problem naming and shaming institutions and/or individual bullies in higher education. We also run a ‘Hall of Shame’. For more info please visit: www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com
— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Jun 29, 02:09 AM #
I would race to name names but can’t find your e-mail address on the site. You would probably get a much larger response if you posted news of the site on H-NET or similar fora or see how Ratemyprofessors.com took off.
Sure, I’m certain that my own identity could be surmised, but I would like to make the following points:
1. In many cases my bullies couldn’t do anything to me when they tried. I can’t imagine how this would change when they are exposed.
2. What risk if we report bullies at institutions we are longer at or, in job talk cases, didn’t get jobs in?
3. If you are currently being bullied, the bullies involved surely already know what they are doing. If our gutless administrators are unresponsive to complaints, public shaming is the next best thing, both psychologically for ourselves and professionally for the larger community.
— bored with academia Jun 29, 03:10 AM #
Another more subtle means of bullying:
Telling us that by not resisting or doing anything about abuse, we are taking “the high road.” Borrowed from new age philosophy, this essentially says “If you accept your unacceptable working conditions, enable those who create them by remaining silent, and continue placing yourself at potential risk, we will tell you you’re a nice person.” This is the desparate cry of cowardly administrators who want to sweep problems under the rug without having to do their jobs.
— bored with academia Jun 29, 03:46 AM #
Our email address is:
bullied.academics@yahoo.co.uk
Our blog is at:
www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com
We respect and understand the need for anonymity and confidentiality.
— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Jun 29, 06:08 AM #
Depending on how severe the “bullying” is, in some cases it may be tolerable. In other cases, however, particularly where the entire administration is working against a junior faculty member, sometimes it is not so easy to survive through the bullying. I was a junior faculty member at a small, “Christian” liberal arts college very close to Knoxville, Tennessee. When I was hired, they made a point to emphasize the importance of the person getting this position to be involved in recruitment activities. So I worked very hard on that as soon as I started working there, but it turned out that some other faculty members didn’t like my idea (or perhaps they felt threatened? I don’t know), so whatever I came up with, my head would have a reason why it wouldn’t work. I became very frustrated and depressed. Then during my second year, one day because I cried in my office, they had people coming into my office, blocking the door so that I couldn’t go to class, and then when I finally got out of my office after more than an hour, they followed me to my car and had security pull me out of my own car. Not only that, but the day after, they cancelled my classes for three weeks while putting me on leave and not allowing me on campus. The HR person would talk to me in a threatening tonal voice, and every time I got on campus, they would freak out as though I was a criminal. When I got back to campus, they presented me with an extremely mean memorandum with lots of accusations. When I followed their procedurs of filing an appeal, they wrote back after two weeks saying that I didn’t have the right to appeal at all. When I wanted to have my lawyer come to meetings with them, they would not allow that … Anyway, I got back to campus and they had reassigned my duties from teaching to downloading music from ITues! They also threatened that if I ever talked to any student, staff, or faculty about anything they did to me, they would fire me immediately. I tolerated that period because I figured they just wanted to force me to resign early. After tolerating that, they still gave me a letter to say they wouldn’t renew my contract. It’s a horrible place and I really wish I could warn other people hoping to get a job at this place. They are very hypocritical. On the surface they “welcome diversity,” but actually they just want you to do what they want you to do — which is not rock the boat and not try to shine! I am glad I hanged in there for the entire year and now that I’m gone, I am finally in the process of filing a lawsuit against them. My lawyer thinks I can sue for false imprisonment, assault, and discrimination. Even if I don’t win, at least that’s my way of standing up for myself and letting the community know about the truths. Wish me luck, and I also hope nobody else will run into such a bad situation indeed!
— AW Jun 29, 01:28 PM #
Immediately after graduating, I was employed outside of my University for a few years. While the corporate culture was competitive, it was nothing like what it is here at a small extension of a larger university.
There is “blacklisting”,eye rolling, favoritisim, fist banging, name calling and swearing….all in the name of higher education.
Some have told me they expect our BULLY Asst Vice Chancellor’s antics to stop when his new boss – the Vice Chancellor commences employment.
I am afraid to confront or reveal him, because I know it can get worse.
— PyouSeaProf Jun 30, 09:42 AM #
The No Asshole Rule
… A few demeaning creeps can overwhelm the warm feelings generated by hoards of civilised people.
The abuse spewed out by just one jerk was ruining the experience of everyone at Little Joe’s that day. Remember that if you want to enforce the no asshole rule in your organisation, you’ll get more bang for your buck by eliminating those folks who bring people down.
Bear in mind that negative interactions have five times the effect on mood than positive interactions – it takes a lot of good people to make up the damage done by just a few demeaning jerks.
If you want a civilised workplace, take some insipiration from the CEO who made up the equivalent of twenty-five ‘asshole wanted posters’ and then purged those assholes from the company. So the first things you need to do are screen out, reform, and expel all the assholes in your workplace. It will then become easier to focus on helping people become warmer and more supportive …
Robert Sutton, The No Asshole Rule, Building A Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, 2007
www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com
— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Jul 2, 04:58 AM #
The poster upthread who suggested keeping your personal cards close to your vest is right.
At Columbia, a colleague reported the social work school to the Fed for grant fraud. She had four boxes of evidence.
Meanwhile, the wife of one of the adjuncts (who had some lowly clerical/clinical position) befriended this colleague. This “wife” reported everything she was told to the deans.
Long story short, this wife now has a faculty position and our colleague was raked over the coals (e.g. she had a sick family member and the school threatened her with eviction from Columbia housing).
Higher ed is one nasty business.
— Another Columbia Prof Jul 2, 11:25 AM #
Both my dean and department head are bullies. I don’t want to work here and no one else does either (they bully everyone). I have been here longer than anyone in my department (other than the bullies)- a whopping nine years.
I would like to move jobs, but here are my questions: who do you use for a reference when your supervisors are losers and bullies? And if bullying is so widespread as these comments suggest, who says moving a job will make things any better? Someone recently commented to me that it is better to work for the devil you know, than the one you don’t know?
It is very discouraging.
— another bullied Jul 24, 09:34 AM #