April 14, 2008

Staff give sector managers low marks

It is worse when the policies that are supposed to protect you are merely there as window-dressing. As someone suffering from work-related stress and depression who brought a grievance against their line manager for ignoring the health condition and threatening disciplinary action for things that were directly related to the health condition, only to be told by the Dean of the faculty that the issues were essentially "all my fault". I have no faith in any of the management in my institution. They are totally useless, ignore their duty of care to staff, and when real problems emerge, haven't got a clue how to deal with them.

And this is the third institution at which I have seen such poor management, and the second at which I have been subjected to bullying and harassment which management have completely ignored despite the effects on my health and their so-called exemplary policies. Policies are just words on a page. If they are not backed by real effective action, then you might as well have nothing.

Even worse - my union joined in and continues to perpetuate the bullying because I complained to them as well (the perpetrators at one university were all local executive members, so in breach of union rules as well as the employer rules). Kline and his ilk paid no heed to anything I said, so for him now to say that bullying is a problem, is shutting the door long after the horse has bolted. Bullying in higher education is rife and the sooner I get back to the private sector, the better.

From: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk

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