My father was bullied out of his job as a Law Professor because he has Aspergers. When he went into hospital for a heart operation someone in the department wrote on his 'get well card': "It's so nice here without you. Hope you die soon."
Anonymous
Join the Facebook group
Can we help?
Join the Bullied Academics Yahoo Group
Useful and informative Links
Become a follower of this blog
Popular Posts
-
For more than a year, I have been engaged in a case against the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS), University of...
-
'Individual Effects Many studies show that psychological harassment has extremely negative effects for individuals. Generally, there a... -
Midway though her PhD, the anxious research student found herself on the receiving end of an unexpected - and unwelcome - level of interest ...
-
“ Tenure is supposed to protect scholars from outside control, but it does a lousy job of protecting them from one another .” -- Kenneth Wes...
-
Ruth McKay & Diane Huberman Arnold & Jae Fratzl & Roland Thomas, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Volume 20, Number... -
Harassment is behavior that manifests itself in the form of conduct, actions, and verbal comments, often insidious, aimed at destabilizing ... -
Dearest friends, something incredibly shocking has happened. Ian Parker has been suspended from Manchester Metropolitan University. It has... -
What Makes Narcissists Tick - "All con artists are thus protected by the pride of those they con..."... Many, if not most, narcissists get away with bullying, slander, calumny, and abuse (even as prosecutable offenses) their whole lives. Ho... -
Mediating in the Academic Bully Culture: The Chair's Responsibility to Faculty and Graduate StudentsFaculty incivility can rear its ugly head at various levels within higher education institutions. It can surface at any one of the many ... -
Corporate/institutional bullying occurs when bullying is entrenched in an organization and becomes accepted as part of the workplace culture...
Subscribe To Bullied Academics Blog
Posts
Comments
Contact Email
3 comments:
Several years ago, while I was teaching, my father was featured in a magazine article. I was quite pleased and proud of that and I made a photocopy and posted it in our department's coffee/lunch area.
Some people were impressed by what they read, but someone evidently wasn't. The article had a picture of my father and somebody took a pin and gouged the eyes on that image, as if someone was sending me a message.
It's bad enough if someone had a beef with me, but what did my father ever do to any of them? He never even met my colleagues, so why was he dragged into the issue?
And people wondered why I was less than collegial at times....
El Cid.
It's stories like this that make me see red. I really wish I could get a hold of that insensitive and cruel person and throttle them. Or better still, repay them in kind the next time they go into hospital.
No, you don't want to do that. Instead, you might try what I did when I quit my teaching position.
I resigned because I knew my days were numbered and that there was a price on my head. Certain people at that institution simply didn't like me and made my life miserable for several years. Fortunately, my investments were worth enough at that time that I could afford to quit.
I could have denounced my tormentor in a vitriolic manner and likely would have been justified in doing so. Instead, I took the high road and wrote a thank-you memo. I outlined various incidents in which this individual tried to thwart me but failed. I thanked him for having contributed to my success and was quite civil about it, knowing very well that he'd be quite irritated at being reminded of what happened.
We both knew what went on, but anyone not familiar with my situation would have thought I was expressing my gratitude. Instead, I was tweaking his nose and rubbing it in that he didn't win, but doing so in a chivalrous fashion. I wasn't around when he received that document, but I can imagine his face must have turned several shades of purple when he read it. It amuses me to think about it. Revenge, you see, may be a dish best served cold, but it certainly be livened up with some extra spicing.
Just to top it all off, I sent copies to the department head and to the dean just to let them know that I knew who was behind the incidents in question but that I wasn't about to stoop to his level to avenge myself.
I took a great delight in skewering him. The pen can, indeed, be mightier than the sword.
El Cid
Post a Comment