There will be no resignations at Imperial over the passing of Prof Grimm
and his managers are so tied into the system that they will not, I can
assure you, even at this moment, be feeling any personal guilt.
These
creatures are so committed to the processes which they managed, and so
utterly lacking in any personal principles or self-respect they simply
regard us, sniping from the outside, as the deviants.
I refer to
two recent high profile suicides at Ulster- Prof Stephen Livingstone, a
brilliant lawyer at QUB who was bullied over grant income- and Prof Jim
Bell, a superb business teacher at UU- tortured by management during a
long sick-leave with clinical depression.
In Jim's case, Jim had
shared an office with President Dicky when they were both junior
staff... which shows how little Dicky cares even about his own buddies.
No-one officially from the university even attended Jim's funeral and
his wife was further annoyed by UU a week later to clear out Jim's
office...
This managerial cadre does not have a heart... more
staff suicides will come...
Academics are a high risk group as there
are so many good people in the academic community who take it too
seriously.
Anonymous
2 comments:
The Guardian did an interesting article last year on academic staff suicides
http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2014/mar/06/mental-health-academics-growing-problem-pressure-university
I don't believe the stress surveys conducted by UCU and other unions even scratch the surface on the issue of vulnerability among staff in universities in colleges.
It is past time for a public inquiry into the circumstances which have been created in our F/HE institutions which contribute to suicide idealization and in a thankfully small number of cases, realization.
For one thing, whereas our student health services have greatly improved, our staff health services are generally paltry and apt to be in conflict with human resources over such matters as staff sick leave.
It's a toxic mix!
I would encourage anyone feeling down to seek all possible help, take sick leave, and for heaven's sake don't let managers destroy your life!
I'm glad I quit my teaching position when I did. Had I stayed on for much longer, I'm sure I might have become an alcoholic.
Oh, we had an "employee assistance program", but you can bet that they were acting on behalf of either the personnel office or the administrators. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the "counsellors" spilled the beans on anyone who sought their assistance.
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