tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post3675989806753840123..comments2024-03-01T22:23:29.787+00:00Comments on Bullying of Academics in Higher Education: Former PhD student hopes to fund legal action via webUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post-48775587444636337922010-02-05T19:19:58.874+00:002010-02-05T19:19:58.874+00:00Thank you for this much-needed blog/website. I'...Thank you for this much-needed blog/website. I'm in the process of taking legal action against multiple instances of bullying by former Phd supervisor. I couldn't find the contact detail or email to make a contact. Can you help please? My email is a hotmail one and don't know if i need to get a different one for a group/blog subscription?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post-20051975299699726622009-02-02T18:19:00.000+00:002009-02-02T18:19:00.000+00:00Ah, you have uttered the crucial word 'integrity'....Ah, you have uttered the crucial word 'integrity'. Why is it that this quality is so severely lacking in university personnel, esp senior management? 'Integrity' seems to be the one quality that most of us on here share--and we have all, I am willing to wager, suffered immeasurably for it.<BR/><BR/>Rosa LuxembourgAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post-19859413168467464002009-02-02T11:28:00.000+00:002009-02-02T11:28:00.000+00:00Collective action is crucial... and yet just becau...Collective action is crucial... and yet just because we believe that we have been the targets of workplace bullying it does not mean that we will agree easily...<BR/><BR/>Five years after first raising issues in my university about workplace bullying I now understand much more about the tactics used by the management of the university and UCU.<BR/><BR/>I understand the impossibility of making progress.. in all that time I have met two people with integrity... one a senior manager in my university - the other a senior UCU member who had submitted his resignation from UCU - his behaviour towards me changed at that point and he helped me to move my case forward.... <BR/><BR/>I support the actions that anyone takes to combat workplace bullying... they do not need us to distract attention from wpb... in whose interests in that....<BR/><BR/>Progress is being made... but we are tackling something that is so toxic... so endemic in institutions that are self regulating... that it will be a long long struggle...<BR/><BR/>In solidarity<BR/><BR/>Aphra BehnAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post-37134326493917503302009-02-01T23:27:00.000+00:002009-02-01T23:27:00.000+00:00With all respect, how am I moaning simply by expre...With all respect, how am I moaning simply by expressing an opinion? Are you saying we should all be bringing our cases to the THE? I am certainly not the only one on here who has not had the wherewithal to do that--in fact, I have been discouraged from doing so because I have been told that THE is not supportive of lone academics standing up to the behemoth of senior management and one never can be sure of how THE will 'spin' the story. We have spoken in the past about the need for strength in numbers, as we are all too easily written off as malcontents. <BR/><BR/>Perhaps I am oversensitive in this particular case because I am aware of the potential for female academic staff in particular to be bullied and harassed, as well as disrespected, by PhD students in ways that would be considered rude and insubordinate by male academic staff. I have seen at first hand how PhD students can be and have often been used as pawns in the hands of senior management in their campaigns to eliminate targetted academic staff, so I am perhaps more skeptical than some others. <BR/><BR/>Also, students are in a very different situation from academic staff who are employees and have different remedies than do academic staff do not. Finally, as we have already seen above, people have a tendency automatically to rush to the defense of students, not matter what, whereas similar stories of egregious exploitation and abuse of academic staff tend to be viewed with considerably more hands off, 'blame the victim' type skepticism.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post-40894447665249836282009-02-01T18:36:00.000+00:002009-02-01T18:36:00.000+00:00Rosa - then speak out - don't moan about the publi...Rosa - then speak out - don't moan about the publicity given to SFJ. He is right to bring this case to the THE, and has support from us on here!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28080901.post-36686713602431294852009-02-01T13:24:00.000+00:002009-02-01T13:24:00.000+00:00With all respect for bullied academics everywhere,...With all respect for bullied academics everywhere, and without wishing to prejudge this PG student's situation, I must say that it does not hold a candle to the kinds of Orwellian elimination rituals and other harassment nightmares many of us academic staff on here have lived through for multiple years in utter silence and, very often, bankrupting ourselves with legal fees, and losing our jobs and careers in the process. It is fascinating that THES is publicising such a story when there are so, so many working academics throughout the UK whose situations are far more egregious. Would that we were all to find the collective strength and wherewithal to go public with our (in many cases almost unbelievable) stories of systematic intimidation, victimisation, and abuse of power at the hands of VCs and senior management at some of the UK's leading universities . . .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com