Deakin University gags staff over harassment case

[Mr Elkadi... and even more on Mr Elkadi]

A "culture of silence" allows academics who display unacceptable behaviour to move between universities without their new employers being aware of their history, a whistleblower says.

Dr Melanie Thomson said her former employer, Deakin University, imposed a gag order on staff preventing them from talking about complaints against a scientist who has since moved on to a more senior position at another university.

At one stage, a female colleague who complained about the scientist resorted to placing a line of tape on the floor around her desk, and telling him to stay behind it.

Dr Thomson, a former lecturer in the school of medicine at Deakin University, said the scientist admitted to her that a complaint had also been made about him at his previous workplace.

She said the gag order imposed by Deakin forced her into a "morally bankrupt" position and prevented her from telling any future employer about the complaints.

"It put me in an awkward position of basically having to lie, or omit the truth," Dr Thomson said.

Dr Thomson has now decided to go public with her concerns, because she holds fears for the "mental health of all the staff" at his new place of work, and believes this kind of gag order is "unethical" in the way that it prevents future employers being warned about unacceptable behaviour.

"He may have become a model citizen," said Dr Thomson, but he "may be a serial perpetrator of bullying and harassment".

The gag order was part of a settlement reached between Deakin University and the scientist last year, which saw him leave the university after an investigation into bullying and harassment complaints.

In a statement sent to Background Briefing, the vice chancellor of Deakin, Professor Jane den Hollander, said that the university did not comment on "individual staffing matters ... and internal decisions and outcomes are not within the public domain".

Troubling behaviour

Deakin University was forced to deal with mounting complaints about the scientist during his time at the institution.

Two female colleagues within his department filed formal complaints. These scientists declined to speak to Background Briefing for this story.

Even as an investigation into the formal complaints was being set up, a new concern was brought to the attention of the head of the school of medicine, Jon Watson.

In an email to the human resources division of Deakin last year, Professor Watson noted he had just received yet another complaint about the scientist's behaviour, in addition to "the multiple previous complaints we have dealt with over the last year, and the two complaints [the HR division] are currently dealing with".

Concerns were raised not only by colleagues from his own department, but also by "various different departments of the university", according to Dr Thomson.

The two female colleagues who complained about the scientist were relocated away from him during the investigation.

Following the conclusion of the formal investigation, staff were told that the scientist had been suspended without pay from the university with immediate effect.

Striking a bargain

Just days later, Dr Thomson was told that the university had reached a settlement with the scientist.

She was warned in an email from the HR division that "one of the terms of the settlement is that the university take reasonable steps to ensure its employees do not disparage or comment negatively" about the scientist.

It is unclear why the university agreed to this deal, but Dr Thomson said the scientist had threatened legal action against the university.

Dr Thomson believed the university wanted to avoid bad publicity.

"The university is always interested in protecting their own reputation, and so if there is an incident of this type that is going on, they want to achieve an outcome which removes the perpetrator but does not affect and tarnish their reputation," she said.

Professor den Hollander rejected this.

"We strongly object to any suggestion that Deakin University has in any way 'contributed to a "culture of silence" around perpetrators of harassment and bullying' and/or that the university prioritises its own reputation over the safety and well-being of its staff," she said.
Speaking out

Dr Thomson has long been outspoken about the barriers facing women in science.

Much earlier in her career, she said she herself was a victim of sexual harassment.

"I, frankly, am sick of it. I'm sick of seeing it, and I've experienced it ... pretty much everywhere I've been as an observer and also directly as a victim myself," she said.

"I've seen that time and time again, people that are well known to be harassers and bullies get ahead and maintain their publication record, whereas the people they have affected end up leaving research.

"The taboo is so strong not to speak. But if not me, who? And if not now, when?"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-22/deakin-university-gags-staff-over-harassment-case/8043152

A living nightmare - 'Prof' Platon Alexiou...

This man presents himself as a real 'Professor' - In fact he has not written a single scientific paper... This man presents himself as knowledgeable about curriculum evaluation matters - In fact he has no clue... But worse is to come... He bullies and blackmails his faculty repetitively, he lies, distorts facts and threatens his faculty on a regular basis and with the complete tolerance of his senior managers... Dr Platon Alexiou is a living nightmare.

None of the above claimed outputs appear in Google Scholar. Not surprisingly, no titles and dates are provided for the selected publications.

http://www.platonalexiou.gr/

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The serial bully displays behaviour congruent with many of the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Characterised by a pervasive pattern of grandiosity and self-importance, need for admiration, and lack of empathy, people with narcissistic personality disorder overestimate their abilities and inflate their accomplishments, often appearing boastful and pretentious, whilst correspondingly underestimating and devaluing the achievements and accomplishments of others.

Often the narcissist will fraudulently claim to have qualifications or experience or affiliations or associations which they don't have or aren't entitled to. Belief in superiority, inflating their self-esteem to match that of senior or important people with whom they associate or identify, insisting on having the "top" professionals or being affiliated with the "best" institutions, but criticising the same people who disappoint them are also common features of narcissistic personality disorder.

Narcissists react angrily to criticism and when rejected, the narcissist will often denounce the profession which has rejected them (usually for lack of competence or misdeed) but simultaneously and paradoxically represent themselves as belonging to the profession they are vilifying.

Fragile self-esteem, a need for constant attention and admiration, fishing for compliments (often with great charm), an expectation of superior entitlement, expecting others to defer to them, and a lack of sensitivity especially when others do not react in the expected manner, are also hallmarks of the disorder. Greed, expecting to receive before and above the needs of others, overworking those around them, and forming romantic (sic) or sexual relationships for the purpose of advancing their purpose or career, abusing special privileges and squandering extra resources also feature.

People with narcissistic personality disorder also have difficulty recognizing the needs and feelings of others, and are dismissive, contemptuous and impatient when others share or discuss their concerns or problems. They are also oblivious to the hurtfulness of their behaviour or remarks, show an emotional coldness and a lack of reciprocal interest, exhibit envy (especially when others are accorded recognition), have an arrogant, disdainful and patronizing attitude, and are quick to blame and criticise others when their needs and expectations are not met.

http://bullyonline.org/old/workbully/npd.htm

Mr Elkadi...

"...As someone with an inherent knowledge of Elkadi, having had him as a head of school I can confirm his management practices can be described as nothing less that Machiavellian. Elkadi is a psychopathic narcissist who has only his own interest at stake. Typically narcissists cover up a deep underlying guilt of shame and humiliation stemming from an early life. 

Elkadi's father was I believe the VC at an Egyptian University and has and is still living in the shadow of his father. This is part of the shame and humiliation he has, as he has not met the expectation of achieving such status. Narcissists typically attempt to stamp their authority on unsuspecting employees by venting there frustrations of having been bullied at school in a prior life and thus ventilate revenge as a form of pay back. 

His strategy is a five year plan at any University. The first two years is about divide and conquer, and implementing plans that only serve to satisfy his own personal KPI's. At about the third year mark he has taken complete control away from those that threaten him and micro managers all and sundry before him. Sound familiar so far at Selford, even though he has been there only two years?. By the forth year cracks in his management begin to open up...

Personal KPI's not being met and being held accountable by senior management. At this juncture Elkadi becomes more aggressive and defensive. By about the fifth year his past catches up and he eventually leaves to find a new University to prey on and cause collateral damage to. This is the same pattern of behaviors exhibited at Ulster and Deakin Universities. 

I feel sorry for all those dedicated and hardworking staff at Salford. Poor bastards. You can't beat a narcissist, generally the only thing you can do is "suck it up" or leave..."

Anonymous

Bullying at Deakin Staff Survey October 2014 - 02

Are you satisfied with Deakin's approach to workplace bullying and other inappropriate behaviours? What can Deakin do to deal with this issue? Can you comment on the workplace culture in your area?

• Deakin treat these problems as too hard to deal with.

• No comment because I am afraid I will lose my job.

• Not at all. The investigation was tainted, biased and resulted in an effective cover up of the core problems. Deakin needs to address this issue as an OHS issue.

• The workplace culture in my area is quite toxic we seem to have a great divide in managerial skills and leadership ability and pockets of staff who have been picked on or bullied in some instances has led to prolonged stress leave or illness. Management say they are doing a better job but this has to be questioned when you hear of exclusion and character assassination still prevails.

• Workplace culture is toxic. My school has been oppressed for years to to strong bullying leadership. Now it has been released but no controls have been put in place.

• Not at all satisfied. None of my concerns were acknowledged, even when I proved no wrong doing on my part. No apology or acknowledgement of unfair treatment and I am still micro-managed and hen pecked on a daily basis. My work mates have been horrified about what has occurred, my direct manager has been excluded from these ambush meetings...

• Deakin requires a change of management at the senior levels. Workplace culture has been reduced to survivalism. There is a total lack of leadership and academic staff are demeaned and not respected or appreciated. This needs to be exposed...

Bullying at Deakin Staff Survey October 2014 - 01

What is going on at Deakin University?

What has been going on, and what is still going on?

We stand with Martin Hirst...

They have sacked another Marxist. This time it is Deakin University, and the academic is Martin Hirst, an old friend and comrade (even though we are in different groups.)

Martin posted some twitter comments and a photo which, to put it frankly, I would not have.
According to Amanda Meade in the Guardian:

‘Deakin found that content posted to Hirst’s private Twitter account @ethicalmartini was “offensive and/or disrespectful and/or threatening and had the potential to damage the reputation of the university”.’

The irony of course is that overreacting by sacking staff for what are in my view stupid but not offensive let alone threatening comments itself damages the reputation of the University. So what had Hirst done and said? The Guardian again:

‘The university received a complaint about an exchange on 20 March 2016 in which Hirst said “so are you happy to fail commerce?” to a Deakin University student, Lachlan McDougall, who had insulted his teaching.’

The claim was that Martin was threatening the student with failure. Martin said he didn’t know McDougall was a student at Deakin and it wasn’t a threat. It was a comment on his intelligence. It is also unclear to me how an academic in one School (the School of Communication and Creative Arts) who is not actually teaching the student can threaten the academic progress of that student when they are apparently in another School and Faculty (Commerce or some such.)

Martin also posted a photo on Twitter with the words “fuck it” on a beanie he was wearing. He wrote underneath “Back to work after the Easter break? You need this beanie. I’ve got mine on today, it’s a subtle hint to your boss.”

Martin’s other ‘crime’ was to re-tweet a post from Mark Colvin from the ABC about the very very small size of Andrew Bolt’s audience on the Sky News channel.  Martin wrote: ‘reassuring, masturbating chimps.’

Hirst was already on thin ice. In 2014 The Murdoch Press began attacking him. They used a a photo of Hirst standing beside Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery. Martin engaged on twitter about the photo with a troll and, as Melissa Davey in 2014 in the Guardian put it:

‘Hirst adopted a tweet by US actress Kirstie Alley: “… dear stupid as fuck people who just like to be stupid, go be stupid with other stupid people. #stupidfuckcity”.’

Bolt complained to the University and Hirst was suspended without pay for 3 months.

Now he has been sacked. The University took into account his previous 2014 exchanges.

It appears that the University has reacted, again, to not just publicity but a campaign from the most right wing mainstream media organisation in Australia, the Murdoch media. This has implications for all left wing academics. It means that if Murdoch hacks (what more appropriate word to describe the sort of institutional journalism that hacks the phone of a dead girl or lies about the Hillsborough tragedy?) trawl through the personal public accounts (or even blogs) of left wing academics and find some offensive comments those academics can be sacked under the McCarthyite moniker of offensive, or disrespectful,  or threatening, or even the catch all of ‘having the potential to damage the reputation of the University.

As to the latter, the lawyer in me thinks that frankly every action has the potential to damage the reputation of a University, especially if the judge and jury are reactionaries form the Murdoch stable and their cheer squad of right wing nut jobs.

There is a pattern developing here. The Murdoch Press revealed Roz Ward’s Facebook post about the racist Australian flag and La Trobe suspended her before backing down in the face of a strong union and community campaign.

Frist they came for Roz, because of their desire to smash one of the drivers and defenders of the Safe Schools program. We beat them back. Then they came for Martin, and Deakin University has sacked Hirst. Which academic will be next?

We appear to be on the verge of an outbreak of McCarthyism.

I am pretty certain the Murdoch ghouls have been and will be trawling through the Facebook and twitter accounts of other Marxists and leftists to expose them for calling trolls fuckwits or for other ‘crimes.’ These will then be used to call for the employer (University or otherwise) to sack these people for bringing the employer into disrepute. Some leftists jobs will Í think be at stake.

One problem for Universities is that if Hirst’s comments are a sackable offence, what will they do to all the other academics who have posted angry responses in a private capacity and perhaps even a work capacity to right wing nut jobs and others attacking them? I suspect Hirst is not alone in making this type of comment. If so, how does Deakin University propose to enforce its interpretation of its standards and its expectations of appropriate behaviour?

Will some prominent right-wing figure at the University be investigated for his or her non-work comments? Will the University perhaps set up an in-house Un-University Activities Committee to investigate all words and actions that have the potential to damage the reputation of the University? Will it not only rely on Murdoch and other informants but actively investigate the personal lives and views, as captured on public outlets like Facebook and twitter, of its staff? After all if it good enough for Martin, why not apply the same standards to all staff? Having set that standard is it not beholden on Deakin to now begin policing it, with, one can imagine, Orwellian consequences that the University may itself have set in train through sacking Hirst?

I am not for a moment suggesting this happen, just pointing out the dangers that arise from sacking Martin for his comments.  Coming on top of the suspension of Roz Ward at La Trobe for stating what to me is a self-evident truth, that the Australian flag is a symbol of racism, it seems to me that a dark environment is developing at universities.

This dark environment is the consequence of the ongoing and deepening commodification of higher education, a process both major parties have been deeply involved in. When your Grundnorm is profit, ideas which challenge that, however expressed, are a threat to the very essence of the machine that is now the University sector. That machine is destroying the University as the seeming bastion of difference and the dissemination of often currently unconventional and unpopular ideas.


To defend academic freedom we must defend Hirst. His union, the National Tertiary Education Union, has released a statement in support. This must be the first step in building a campaign to stop Deakin University sacking him.

More info at: http://enpassant.com.au/2016/06/11/we-stand-with-martin-hirst/

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Settlement of the Deakin Twitter matter
July 13, 2016

I have resigned from my role as Associate Professor at Deakin University. I am no longer employed by the University.

I will not be making any further public comment.

Martin Hirst

Fight the forced redundancy of Joe Kerr

We the students and peers of Joe Kerr believe that he is being wrongfully threatened with redundancy. He is a valued member of the RCA staff and, at present, the only active UCU representative at the college. Joe is an inspirational and thought-provoking lecturer who has also tirelessly worked to support colleagues faced with redundancy time and time again.

Joe has been employed by the RCA since 1998. His role as Head of Critical and Historical Studies is being phased out due to the restructuring of the Programme. Although we are unhappy about the restructuring at the very least we feel that Joe should be able to continue his teaching as a Senior Lecturer. We believe his present teaching hours should not be advertised to others and he should keep this post as a right. We believe if the college do not do this then they are not fully considering alternatives to redundancy, a procedure employers must take before making employees redundant.

Although he is a qualified Architectural Historian Joe also continues to work as a London Bus Driver; a job he has had for 12 years. His commitment to social inclusion is one that can be seen in his teaching, his camaraderie, and his support for the union.

The School of Humanities at the RCA is a fantastic place to learn. Its direction and employees are truly visionary. However if Joe Kerr goes, this will be a major dent to the School. As an ethical employer, who often recruits on its reputation, the RCA cannot allow this to happen.

More info at: https://www.change.org/p/royal-college-of-art-fight-the-forced-redundancy-of-joe-kerr

Fear and loathing on campus: bullying at Irish universities

Is bullying and harassment rife at Irish universities? These institutions are spending millions of euro on legal fees to deal with allegations by staff of bullying, harassment and discrimination, particularly on gender grounds.

A series of high-profile legal cases in recent years has highlighted tension bubbling up across a number of campuses – and many more are in the pipeline.

All of this comes at a time when the seven university presidents are urging greater state investment and the introduction of an income-contingent student-loan scheme.

So what’s going on behind the walls of our higher education institutions? Records released under the Freedom of Information Act show that dozens of lecturers and other staff members have made complaints about bullying, harassment and discrimination across Ireland’s seven universities in recent years.

There is a heavy financial toll. Ireland’s universities paid out more than €3.3 million in legal fees involving staff between 2010 and 2015, a threefold increase in the space of five years.

A significant amount of this money was spent on allegations of bullying, harassment and discrimination, particularly on gender grounds. Colleges often hire external investigators to deal with such complaints.

The Teachers’ Union of Ireland, which represents lecturers at institutes of technology, conducted a survey of more than 1,100 members in recent times to help measure scale of the problem. The results surprised some seasoned union officials: almost 30 per cent of respondents said they are always, often or sometimes bullied at work.

A further 69 per cent said there is always, often or sometimes friction between colleagues at work.

Managers lacking training

Joan Donegan, of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, says it is dealing with fresh allegations of bullying and harassment every month of the year.


“If management are not trained on how to deal with bullying and harassment cases, they can – without realising it – cause more harm. In-house training for HR and support staff is essential and more cost- effective,” she says. “Investment in a qualified external mediator, although expensive, is worthwhile if staff are not trained. Spending money on consultants to conduct investigations is very expensive, and the outcome from such processes is rarely helpful in healing the hurt between the parties.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/fear-and-loathing-on-campus-bullying-at-irish-universities-1.2817956

Bullying concerns - Prof Hisham Elkadi - University of Salford

Staff at School of Built Environment, University of Salford are increasingly concerned by bullying and controlling behaviour of Dean SOBE, Hisham Elkadi. Staff morale is very low since he joined the school in August 2014, after being fired from Deakin University on bullying accusations (see stories in National press below)(. There is dire need of a third party audit of staff grievances and introduction of remedial measures to ensure staff well-being. Concerns about Dean Prof Hisham Elkadi’s attitude are wide ranging including:

•     Bullying and harassment of staff,
•     Humiliating staff in meetings,
•     Discrimination and noticeably favoring staff over others,
•     Long absences from office without informing staff,
•     Lack of transparency in use of school funds,
•     Harassment of individuals who raise any objection to his plans or those who he perceives as threat,
  
•  Micro management and total control of school affairs without due consultation
  

SOBE staff perceive prevailing school culture to be demoralising and demotivating, with record numbers having left the school or considering leaving. Need for independent review to assess scale of dissatisfaction is particularly required given Professor Hisham has faced serious allegations of bullying, at his previous workplace, as reported widely in the international media. At Deakin University, he faced bullying allegations and subsequently brought Federal Court Action against his previous employer. 

It would seem that the Prof. has a certain history:

http://geelongindy.com.au/indy/2015-05-29/deakin-turmoil-deepens-with-new-bully-claims/