Here you have it: 'Beware Big Brother paranoia 1'

From the Times Higher Education Supplement. Letter to the Editors, published 25 May 2007.

'The tone of your story "Staff see red over online policing" (May 18) was alarmist and misdirected, as it gave the impression that higher education managers, administrators, personnel and marketing staff have nothing better to do than trawl through e-mails, blogs and discussion groups looking for evidence of dissent.

Anyone would think that we are run by the Staatssicherheitsdienst. On the contrary, these important workers simply do not have the time for that sort of thing, even if they wanted to.

If criticism does come to the attention of the authorities, then it has probably been reported to them by academic colleagues. The motives are not hard to fathom: envy, score-settling, career advancement, or a wish to appear compliant to power. These passions exist in all societies, so why should academe be any different?

Stoking paranoid fantasies of the omnipotent gaze of power simply encourages narcissism. Why not "out" academics who perpetuate it - as a prelude to some warm and fuzzy truth and reconciliation, of course.

Jeremy Valentine, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh'
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So there you have it... All you targets/victims of workplace bullying that dare to imply that managers and other important persons in academic hierarchies have nothing better to do than trawl through emails, do so because of 'envy, score-settling, career advancement, or a wish to appear compliant to power'. So there you go...

And if this is not enough, if you have lost your job under tragic circumstances, if you suffer from PTSD or work-related stress due to workplace bullying - and you dare to complain - oh, well, you should be 'outted' because you are perpetuating a fantasy!

My dear lovely Dr Jeremy, perhaps you should become a bit more familiar with the literature on workplace bullying, for you may discover that it is the competent, committed and efficient academics who fall victims of workplace bullying. The bullies tend to be insecure, incompetent and inefficient. It is the latter that undermine the former and not the other way around.

And while you are at it, you may also want to read a recent publication titled: 'Good Practice Guide for Higher Education Institutions on Dealing with Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace'. Why the need for this guide?

And if you are still in the mood, read the following interesting story about 'important' persons checking emails. Paranoia or ignorance?

HEFCE: People management self-assessment tool

The self-assessment tool was developed by the Universities Personnel Association and the SCOP Personnel Network, to measure progress in people management in the HE sector...

1. Remuneration and fair employment

The institution has:
a. HR staff skilled in providing advice and support on pay, rewards and employment
b. HR staff skilled in or receiving skilled support in job evaluation
c. Expertise on equal opportunities and diversity...
f. Regular reviews of equal opportunities and diversity policies and practice...
k. Schemes for recognition and reward of individual or team excellence in teaching and learning effectiveness...

The institution achieves:
b. Staff who feel motivated and satisfied in their work
c. Staff who believe the institution is a fair employer – there is a healthy psychological contract...
h. Investors in People status (in parts or for the whole institution)
i. Staff who feel there are opportunities for teaching career progression...

The institution avoids or effectively manages the risks associated with:
a. Industrial tribunal or legal cases brought by staff for unfair dismissal, unfair employment practice or discrimination (including equal pay claims)
b. Negative publicity about unfair or discriminatory employment
c. Being seen as having poor terms and conditions of employment compared with other employers (locally, nationally and/or internationally)...

2. Staff recruitment and retention

The institution undertakes/has undertaken:
a. Recruitment and selection guided by clear policies and procedures
b. Exit interviews with staff who leave
c. Skills audits of future workforce needs
d. Monitoring and evaluation of:
- the service provided on staff recruitment (e.g. managers’ views on recruitment practice) on a regular basis
- staff turnover
- staff views on employment...

4. Staff development and skills needs

The institution has:
a. Managers and staff aware of staff development processes within the institution
b. Investment in learning and staff development
c. Expertise in staff development
d. Staff skilled in job design and work organisation (or access to these skills externally) to support staff development through job re-design and enrichment...

The institution avoids or effectively manages risk associated with:
a. Staff leaving because of inadequate opportunities provided for staff development and learning
b. Poorly focused staff development that leads to no appreciable gains for the individual and the institution
c. Lack of take-up of staff development provisions available
d. Under-resourcing of staff development
e. Missed market or programme development opportunities because of lack of appropriate skills or expertise amongst staff...

5. Leadership, involvement and change management

...The institution avoids or effectively manages risk associated with:
a. Industrial relations disputes
b. Lack of commitment to change and improved performance at different levels in the institution
c. Staff perceiving a lack of effective leadership in the institution
d. Staff feeling poorly informed and not consulted about changes made in the institution...

The institution avoids or effectively manages risk associated with:
a. Legal cases brought against it on work related ill-health and breaches of health and safety practice
b. A poor accident or health risk record
c. Stress-related illness and absence
d. Staff who leave because of work pressure or an unacceptable working environment
e. Perceptions of bullying, unfair workload practice, etc. because of poor staff management practice...

7. Performance management – linking people management to organisational performance

...The institution avoids or effectively manages the risks associated with:
a. Poor performance and poorly performing staff not dealt with
b. Managers lacking the skills and confidence to manage their own and their staff’s performance effectively
c. Staff feeling unclear about roles and responsibilities
d. Staff feeling poorly informed and receiving insufficient guidance and support from their line managers
e. Poorly managed grievance and discipline cases...
---------------
From: http://www.hefce.ac.uk

Whistleblowing: Legal Question & Answer

Last month, the Daily Mail highlighted the case of a community centre employee who was victimised after she exposed a colleague as a convicted sex offender who had won her whistleblowing claim.

Q What lessons can employers learn from this case?

A The case points out the importance of having proper policies and procedures for dealing with whistleblowers. Employers need to learn how to recognise when employees gain rights under whistleblowing legislation against detriment or dismissal. In whistleblowing situations, careful management will be required, which should include thorough investigation of the issues raised by the whistleblower.

Q Are employers required to introduce whistleblowing policies?

A The UK's whistleblowing law is derived from the Public Interest Disclosure Act. This does not expressly oblige employers to introduce whistleblowing policies, but their introduction is best practice.

Some employers that operate in regulated sectors are under separate obligations regarding whistleblowing. London Stock Exchange-listed companies are subject to the requirements of the Combined Code on Corporate Governance, which requires arrangements to be in place for staff to raise concerns in confidence about financial reporting or other matters.

US-listed companies are subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and this also requires procedures for the raising of accounting concerns to be in place.

Q Why would we introduce a whistleblowing policy if we are not legally required to do so?

A There are all sorts of good practical reasons for employers to maintain whistleblowing policies. For example, by fostering a culture of openness and transparency, employers are more likely to root out any malpractice or wrongdoing and so protect themselves against reputational and financial loss.

Effective policies and procedures are also the best protection against whistleblowing claims, since they will emphasise that genuinely held concerns will be thoroughly investigated, and that those who speak up will be protected against victimisation or dismissal as a result.

Aside from the legal costs and wasted management time involved, whistleblowing claims can result in high awards of compensation. There is no limit on the compensation that employment tribunals can award. Depending on the circumstances of the case, the tribunal may be able to make an injury to feelings award, as well as financial compensation.

The majority of claims settle on confidential terms, but there have been a series of high-profile cases involving six-figure compensation. The Prison Service was ordered to pay almost £500,000 to an employee who alleged that there had been serious wrongdoing in Wakefield Prison (Mrs C P Lingard v HM Prison Service).

Q What does the legislation cover?

A Danger to the health and safety of any individual is one of the six categories of malpractice that the legislation specifically mentions. The others are criminal offences, breach of any legal obligation that has been held to include (in Parkins v Sodexho) a breach of the whistleblower's own contract of employment, miscarriages of justice, damage to the environment, and the deliberate concealing of information about any of these. Disclosures about such matters may qualify for protection.

Q Who do whistleblowing rights apply to?

A Whistleblowing rights apply more widely than many other employment rights. Workers, and not only employees, are covered by the law, while certain groups - including agency workers - are specifically protected.

Q So what should we do if a worker is victimised for raising a genuine concern?

A Those involved should be warned that the victimisation of a genuine whistleblower is potentially a serious disciplinary offence, not least because it could expose the organisation to a claim by the whistleblower. The whistleblower should be offered extra support.

Q What if unfounded allegations are made maliciously?

A The raising of untrue allegations maliciously is also a serious disciplinary offence, and this should be explained in a whistleblowing policy and/or your disciplinary procedure. If you need to discipline a worker in such circumstances, be particularly careful to check that you have a good record of a thorough investigation showing that the employee made up their allegations for improper motives. Ensure that you follow the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedure, as well as your own internal procedures.

By Andreas White, employment solicitor - 13 March 2007.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...

As bullying would appear to be rife in academia (Boynton 2005) it is to be hoped that UCU [University and College Union, UK] are selecting their first case to support...

...the first task for UCU is to engage with and actually read the documentation that members send them.

...another helpful strategy would be to ensure that members do not have to wait over six months for advice from UCU's solicitors. [Or receive the wrong legal advice.]

...another strategy would be for Sally Hunt to respond to letters from members who have lengthy and complex cases involving workplace bullying.

...the level of support I have received from UCU has been very low key... [You and some other union members - there are even allegations of collusion.]

...like... well OK we'll meet with you if we really have to... if you must keep emailing us... but don't expect us to give you much advice... because well really we're not that interested... too much like hard work really...

... I'm sure it can't be as bad as you're making out...

...gosh haven't they sorted anything out yet... haven't they had the meeting with you yet... hasn't HR responded to your emails...

...really... well yeah we'll support you... like yawn...

Aphra Behn

Harassment in the Workplace - Legislation, UK

Legislation was introduced in 1997 following a significant number of very high profile cases involving stalkers. The legislation called the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 was intended to simplify the process of prosecuting those involved in the practice of stalking.

It was never envisaged that the legislation would have any impact within the workplace, it was designed to protect victims from nuisance individuals. However, the ambit of the legislation has been widened significantly by a decision of the House of Lords in August 2006.

The facts of the case, Majrowski –v- Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust, were that Mr Majrowski contended successfully that he had been bullied and harassed by his manager whilst working for the health trust in London.

Mr Majrowski was unable to claim unfair dismissal because the bullying had not resulted in the termination of his employment. He was unable to establish that the bullying in any way amounted to discrimination on the basis of his sex, race, disability, religion or sexual orientation and was consequently unable to bring a claim for discrimination. Mr Majrowski was further unable to show that he had suffered any kind of physical or psychiatric injury which would have been necessary to support a personal injury claim, he could only establish that he had suffered anxiety and distress. However, despite the apparent weakness of Mr Majrowski’s claim the House of Lords determined that he was entitled to compensation under the 1977 Act for the anxiety and distress he had suffered due to the bullying he had experienced at work.

What is equally concerning is that an employee can bring a claim under this Act, unlike claims for discrimination, for up to six years after the harassment was supposed to have occurred. Mr Majrowski brought his claim more than four years after the harassment he had experienced had ended. To make matters worse the claim is brought in the County Court and as such the employer may be responsible for the employee’s legal costs.

Moreover, the claim can be brought regardless as to the efforts, which may have been taken by the employer to ensure that the workplace was free from harassment. An employer may actively seek to ensure that the workplace is a professional environment in which people behave properly towards one another. However, one maverick employee could result in the employer, through no fault of its own, being exposed to the risk of a claim.

It appears that a one off incident by one employee is unlikely to support a claim, but two or more incidents or one incident involving more than one employee will be sufficient. The incident does not have to take place within work, but must occur within the course of employment which would cover work parties and nights out.

It is too early to tell how actively this legislation may be used by harassed employees. However, it is clear from this case and the ever expanding coverage of discrimination law, in particular to cover age as from 1 October, that all employers have to ensure that they have the necessary training and policies in place to try and ensure that harassment and bullying simply does not occur within the workplace.

By Joe Thornhill, November 29, 2006

How performance appraisals send you GAGA

Many performance appraisal systems are helping to produce dysfunctional organisations, according to a workplace ethics expert. Michele "Micki" Kacmar, a management professor at the University of Alabama, says performance appraisals that just put ticks in boxes result in bad workplaces, bullying and high turnover.

She says most workers are motivated more by respect than money. The trouble is, most performance management systems fail to pick this up.

"You don't quit your job, you quit your supervisor," Professor Kacmar says. "But they don't say that. Instead, they say there was no flexibility, the hours were bad and the commute was too long. What they're really saying, though, is, my boss doesn't respect me, I'm not getting the treatment I deserve.

"People will take a lot of hardship if they believe people respect them. The money is great, but if you go to work every day and hate what you do and hate what's going on around you, the pay cheque will go to the doctor to fix the physical symptoms that the stress in the organisation is causing you."

Professor Kacmar, whose work focuses extensively on the "dark side" of organisations, says performance appraisals need to be conducted more often, at least quarterly, if they are to pick up black spots in an organisation. Part of the problem, she says, is that all organisations are political.

The problem is not with the performance appraisal systems, but the way these are thought through and implemented. An abusive supervisor, for example, would be allowed to continue because no one would speak up and the bullying behaviour would not be deemed relevant by the supervisor's superiors.

"In organisations, you will find fiefdoms where the people you hire and fire will do your bidding. It creates an environment that allows you to be king," she says. "In order for this supervisor to be fired, whoever does their performance appraisal would have to document their behaviour. But the problem is, the person in charge of that person doesn't see the bad behaviour because it's focused outwards, and not upwards."

In her work consulting with companies and government agencies, Professor Kacmar has developed a scale for assessing organisational dysfunction. Her scale has three indicators: behaviour, policies and systems, and the level to which people in the organisation turn a blind eye (a process that she labels Going Along to Get Ahead, or GAGA).

Professor Kacmar says there are very few organisations that would score well on all three indicators. The ones that do score well have strong ethical cultures, motivated workforces and performance management systems that focus on people's success stories, not their shortcomings.

From: http://www.theage.com.au

Academic Unions are hopeless...

This is what the University and College Union (UCU) will do to defend you at a cost of over £130 per year to join:

If you are convinced that you are being unjustly accused, and/or that the complaint is malicious, you should:

• Contact a branch/local association (LA) officer. It may be that an informal discussion between you, the person alleging ill-treatment, and a third party will solve the problem. [Imagine senior managers who manufactured evidence calling an independent external party to investigate...]
  
  
• If this does not occur, and it is clear that formal proceedings will ensue, ask for UCU representation. A branch/LA officer or official may agree to represent you. [You can ask for it, but not everyone gets it. And what of the cases where the union rep supported the bully and refused representation to the victim?]
  
  
• You should gather evidence in your defence, including witnesses. [Does this count as UCU help?]
  
  
• If the outcome of a formal hearing is to find you guilty of bullying or harassment, UCU may continue to represent you through any internal procedures for appeal. However, you should be aware that UCU may not support you further (unless the representatives are convinced that a miscarriage of justice has occurred) beyond advising you of your legal rights. [Simply impressive.]
  

There is not a single case of workplace bullying where the UCU (AUT + NATFHE) went all the way to Employment Tribunal or County Court to defend a member. Not one.

Let us not forget what the National Union of Teachers did to Tim Field.

What’s the major challenge facing your organisation in tackling bullying?

...The role of senior management in leading this change process can’t be over-emphasised. Where senior managers only give lip service to the idea of creating a culture of respect and don’t take the necessary steps to change their own inappropriate behaviours, it won’t happen. Employees quickly become cynical when faced with statements that urge them to behave in ways they don’t see reflected in their managers’ behaviour on a day-to-day basis.

Leadership competencies

A number of leadership competencies are important in building a climate of change. These leadership competencies include:
• relating to people
• personal integrity
• visibility
• commitment to excellence
• willingness to challenge the status quo.

Leaders need to be seen to be championing a culture of respect by having an ongoing conversation with employees about the organisation’s values and by providing formal and informal recognition for people’s achievements. Senior managers also need to develop and communicate the importance of engaging in teamworking, mutual respect and dignity and valuing the individual at work...

From: Bullying at work: beyond policies to a culture of respect, CIPD

DIT settles bullying case among senior staff, all allegations withdrawn - Ireland

The Irish Times, 21 May 2007

A long-running bullying case between two senior members of staff at Dublin Institute of Technology's business faculty has been resolved. This has led to the withdrawal of all allegations made against the director of the business faculty, Paul O'Sullivan, by his junior colleague, Dr James Urquhart.

Under the terms of an agreement with the college, Dr Urquhart is believed to have received a severance package worth more than €250,000. In return he has agreed to leave his post as head of DIT's graduate business school. However, it is understood that while he has vacated his post with immediate effect, he remains on the college payroll.

The case, which first commenced in January 2004, revolved around allegations of bullying and harassment levelled by Dr Urquhart against Mr O'Sullivan and which have now been withdrawn fully. An independent investigation by a rights commissioner examined 31 complaints and upheld six of the allegations in December 2005, one of which was subsequently overturned by DIT. The majority of the other complaints were not upheld by this investigation, which included interviews with a range of witnesses and DIT president Prof Brian Norton. The investigation found that Dr Urquhart had sustained a case of bullying against Mr O'Sullivan.

The findings of this report have now been set aside and all allegations withdrawn by Dr Urquhart. Mr O'Sullivan is understood to have sought to clear his name through an appeal of the findings of the report, and is believed to have been confident that this would transpire during any appeals process.

However, Dr Urquhart through his union, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), was also unhappy with DIT's interpretation of the report's findings and launched an appeal. The matter came to a head last month when the former chairman of the Labour Court, Finbarr Flood, who was appointed to handle the appeals process, succeeded in securing an agreement. Mr O'Sullivan incurred significant legal costs as a result of the long-running case. However, it remains unclear what percentage, if any, of the legal costs incurred by Mr O'Sullivan and the TUI have been met by DIT under the terms of the agreement.

The amount to be paid to Dr Urquhart is thought to include the equivalent of 18 months' salary, plus additional pension benefits and other monies. The agreement includes a commitment not to pursue any further disciplinary or other action in relation to the matter. It also includes a clause containing a commitment that no officer of DIT would be pursued legally or any further allegations about the matter made against them. Mr O'Sullivan and Dr Urquhart have agreed to a confidentiality clause and refused to comment. When contacted by The Irish Times a spokeswoman for DIT refused to comment.

Not only in America...

The story below repeats itself in many different versions and combinations in this country too (and perhaps many others). There are many (ex) academics who have suffered and continue to do so in a very similar manner to the story described below. Sadly, these things do no happen only in America...
-------------------------------
After a very successful career at a major U.S. private university, I accepted some time ago an offer from another major private university to become chair of a department that had been in trouble for years, with the mandate to bring its house in order and improve its stature both within and outside the university. With the help of a supportive dean, I was successful beyond anyone’s expectations, bringing the department to national attention and recruiting a sizable number of good graduate students in competition with the some of the best schools in my discipline. There was a widespread perception that I was one of the best department chairs in the university —one administrator described what I had done for the department and the university as a “miracle.” It wasn’t easy, since faculty in my department were often at odds with one another, and one female faculty member was antagonistic to me from the outset, trying to undermine my role behind my back by spreading false stories among the faculty. She had limited success, since, apart from one important supporter, she alienated most of the other members of the department with insults and false accusations.

Some of those who have described their mobbing experiences have characterized themselves as “outspoken,” a trait which is supposed to be protected by academic freedom, but which can unfortunately lead to the active hostility of colleagues. I was just the opposite, supporting and encouraging all faculty and staff, including my antagonist and those who were less competent or productive among the faculty, in both their professional lives and their inevitable personal difficulties. My administrative credo was based on integrity, fairness, openness, and positive support for everyone.

At one point, however, I was forced to remove one of the less competent faculty from a minor administrative role she had abused for years, not only for poor administration and repeatedly upsetting other faculty and students, but because I couldn’t believe anything she said to me. At approximately the same time, I also had to let go a part-time adjunct who, in four years, had proved herself manifestly incompetent in a vital area of the department’s activities. The latter individual was a close friend of the former, and both of them had friends in the department.

In a matter of months, this group had organized its first mobbing effort against me, and joining forces with the original antagonist and her supporter, voted that my appointment as chair not be renewed. The dean was taken aback, interviewed most of the faculty individually, and declared himself “sickened,” by their conduct. Nevertheless, he believed I had lost too much support to continue as chair, insisted on my resignation, and admitted in the process that the same group of faculty, if they got their way in this matter, would probably cause further trouble in the future. I am reminded of a story circulated at my previous university about its president admonishing a faculty member about to take a dean’s position at another institution, “Never fire anybody. No matter how bad he or she may be, everyone has friends, and those friends will be after your blood.”

That president’s attitude had seemed to me an inappropriate way to run a university (there were some rather poor officers in his administration), but both his words and those of my own dean proved prophetic, for not only did I lose my chairmanship, but for the next couple of years I was subjected to a series of public slanders from the mob that had ousted me and their male supporter, to the point of where I complained in writing to one of them—my long-term antagonist. What happened afterward was a wholly unexpected shock. A few months later I received a letter from what was by that time a new, interim dean (who was being vetted as the permanent dean), saying that a group of women in my department had accused me of sexual harassment and other offenses, a committee had been appointed to oversee an investigation, and an outside attorney had been hired to do the investigating and report to the committee and the dean. The process was very secretive, in violation of every aspect and safeguard of the university’s own policy (which had never been published and was kept hidden from me and my attorney) as well as in violation of every safeguard for handling such matters published and recommended by the U.S. Department of Education. Nevertheless, the investigator made it clear through numerous comments to me and to several other witnesses, that she not only found no fault with me, but also found my accusers so outrageous that at one point she blurted out, “How can you work with such people?” She also declared that she planned to recommend that the university hire a psychiatrist to assist the department. Her judgment concurred in detail with the more general assessment of the university’s highest personnel officer (also a woman), who declared the ringleaders “crazy and hysterical.”

The report of the investigator was not what the dean wanted, since he couldn’t afford a group of women complaining that he was insensitive to their grievances while he was still under consideration as the permanent dean. He has therefore kept the report under wraps ever since and refused under any circumstances to release it. Meanwhile, from friendly departmental witnesses I learned that the mobbers had been meeting secretly for several months, intimidating and threatening students and staff, and acting in general like a typical lynch mob obsessed with groupthink. I also learned that the investigator had uncovered numerous instances of outright fabrication on the part of the mobbers, in addition to false statements, radical distortion, and pettiness in all their other allegations. Nevertheless, the two faculty committees eventually involved in the investigation were easily misled by the dean and the university’s legal office, documents were withheld from them by university officials, they did not interview witnesses themselves, nor was I given adequate opportunity to respond to either committee. At the end of the investigation, the dean tried to get me to resign my tenure in return for a couple of years’ salary and the threat of dire consequences if I didn’t. I refused, since senior positions in my field are scarce as hen’s teeth and my discipline isn’t marketable outside the academy.

Without my ever seeing the written complaint the mobbers had submitted and without a hearing, the dean then banned me from my department, my salary and benefits were cut, and I was suspended from teaching for a period of time. I do not fault the faculty committees for ill-will, or even overweening arrogance, but for naiveté in being unprepared to believe that there wasn’t anything to the hundreds of accusations the mobbers had thrown at me (their meetings had generated some truly wild stories and hysteria), and for incompetence in running a complete and fair investigation. Sometimes where there is smoke there is no fire, but only purveyors of smoke.

In reaction to what had been done to me, I attempted, at great expense, to sue the university, but without success—my suit was dismissed on a technicality. Private universities can get away with vastly more misconduct than the courts allow public universities. However, I did obtain detailed information about the dishonesty that attended this matter from beginning to end, not only on the part of the complainants, but on the part of the dean and the university’s legal office. The information, to me, was worth the price of the lawsuit. The subsequent decade has been difficult, in part because of the detailed information about injustice that I uncovered and have been unable to use to any effect. Even though I have interviewed elsewhere as a finalist for several administrative positions, the necessary disclosure of my difficulties with my present university terminated each of those possibilities. Openings for senior professors in my field have been rare, and although I’ve been a finalist for both positions I’ve applied for, in each case I lost out to younger candidates. In recent years, in response to my formal complaint about the dean to the Board of Trustees, my annual salary increases have been reduced to a pittance in relation to everyone else’s. So much for academic freeedom.

My professional life at my university is now filled with ironies. My teaching has been restricted to an introductory course for non majors that others in my field don’t want to teach, nor am I allowed to do any interdisciplinary teaching or teaching in other departments, even though in the past I had taught highly successful interdisciplinary courses and courses in two departments other than my own. Fortunately, the students who register for my present course are mostly quite good, and I receive some of the best student evaluations in the university despite the deadening effect of teaching the same thing year in and year out. But I have no opportunity to work with majors in my field, and I am deprived of being part of the life of the university, which I always enjoyed. On the other hand, since I am not included in or asked to do anything other than teach my course, I have far more time for my own research and publications than ever before.

Outside the university I have an international reputation for my scholarship, integrity and personality, and I am treated with great friendship and respect by colleagues elsewhere. I am frequently invited to international conferences and asked to speak and give workshops on endowed series at other institutions. I’ve served on doctoral committees at other universities and on review committees for departments in my field, including the Ivy league. I’m constantly asked by younger colleagues for fellowship recommendations, and by department chairs for tenure and promotion evaluations, including some from the most prestigious departments and universities in the country. I am regularly asked to do peer reviews for the most important journals in my field.

No one either inside or outside the university who knows me believes any of the allegations of the mobbers, and the effect of my being disciplined and rusticated has been to bring disapprobation from colleagues all across the country on my university, my former department and the colleagues who mobbed me. In the past decade the department has been mostly ruled by the mobbers and their supporters, and each in a series of chairs has ruined a specific aspect of the department. The once thriving graduate programs have either disappeared or are hanging on by a thread; no longer are there applicants from important undergraduate departments in our field. Recruiting of new faculty has also been problematic because of the widespread negative reputation of the department. These chairs have further fouled their own nest by retaliation against faculty and staff who supported me or who even insisted on remaining neutral. Firings of faculty and staff over the past decade have been legion, including non-tenured faculty who were outstanding in their subject areas. Even the university administration is fed up with a department that is the source of constant problems. Nevertheless, the dean not only overlooks this kind of behavior, the university has refused to investigate numerous thoroughly documented grievances of serious retaliation, despite piously advertising each year that it does not permit retaliation of any sort. Many current faculty stay away from the department, only showing up for their classes and avoiding as much contact with its ruling clique as possible.

All this has happened in the decade in which I have been gone from the department and had no influence over it whatsoever, so I clearly was not the problem. Almost all faculty and all of the staff are afraid of the current chair, who was the leader of the mobbers (this appointment alone illustrates the irresponsibility and cynicism of the dean). The department is now in almost as bad shape as it was before I arrived. Recently the university has instituted a code of conduct, emphasizing professional integrity, which all faculty are required to sign, but whose standards none of the department chairs who followed me, nor the dean himself, who is widely criticized throughout the university for dishonesty, could ever meet. But of course, they will never be held to account.

How have I coped with all this over the past decade? It hasn’t been easy. On the one hand I have very few duties and still receive a full-time salary and benefits, even if somewhat reduced, and can continue to do so as long as I wish. This is comforting financial security. As an academic cousin of mine put it, “You’re in academic Heaven—you just had to go through academic Hell to get there.” When I talk to colleagues at other universities about my situation, they sometimes jokingly ask, “How can I get such a deal?” But I hardly view it as heavenly. In my innermost being I’m a teacher—at my previous university I won all the major teaching awards—and it’s very frustrating not to be able to expand my teaching into new and interesting areas or to be able to engage majors and graduate students in my field. It’s difficult not to be able to share in the life of the institution through committees and interactions with colleagues—something which I always found interesting and rewarding, even if sometimes overly time consuming. I had for decades been an active and forceful supporter of women’s role and rights in the academy, but I now find myself uncomfortably suspicious of women in a way I never was. I now wonder what someone to whom I’ve been pleasant, supportive, and helpful might be plotting behind my back.

Perhaps most difficult of all, however, has been the shattering of my belief in the societal role of universities as committed to truth and as bastions of justice and ethical conduct. I’ve seen plenty of bad behavior by both individual faculty and administrators over my long career at four different private institutions, but I had never before encountered or even heard of a systematic, sustained Orwellian environment, not only within a department, but at the central core of a university. The very foundation of why I became an academic in the first place has been dislodged, and I find myself in that otherworld of big brother who officially declares that black is white and who defines reality, not according to facts and objective judgment, but according to what is expedient for the pursuit of authoritarian power and control. I feel like an alien in my own country, a refugee with no place to flee. I’m sure that most other “mobbees” are in far worse circumstances, though probably are not any more angry, than I.

Name and institution withheld at writer’s request for fear of further retaliation.