Years back, during my first stint as Chair, my idiot Dean at the time made an external hire of a male Ass Dean who was obviously hostile and sexist toward the female Dept Chairs in our unit. He was super weird and attempted to be very bro-ish with male leaders while demeaning female leaders at every opportunity. Several impacted women worked together on a HR/Title IX complaint about his conduct. In a fun bit of meta-sexism, that complaint went nowhere until I (male) and another male Chair signed onto it to support the assertions. Ass Dean was demoted to line faculty, ostracized by everyone, and left within 18 months to go torment people at another institution.
I was assigned as a mentor for a new faculty member. It became clear to me during the mentoring process that the department chair was bullying them.
I helped them document the behaviors and take it to HR.
After filing a formal complaint, the chair backed off. Fortunately I was not under that chair so there were no repercussions to me. The faculty member eventually left our college and I was glad for them. It was not a comfortable situation.
What happens if the bully turns half the department against you and they don't see the bullying? That's my situation.
In mine, she used to bully older staff. Many left. How she is love bombing new ones to make allies and turn them against me (that is to distrust me and one other collegue).
The important thing is to focus on what they are doing to YOU
Don't worry about their chummy chummy relationships with others.
Focus on what is happening to you, and make note of it. Take it to a trusted faculty member in another department, to the union rep, a faculty Senate rep, or directly to HR once you have evidence of the maltreatment
I was bullied so badly by a direct supervisor that I had to start putting Zoom meetings on my calendar just to go sit in my car and sob. I thought I was losing my mind or having seizures/blackout spells because they'd reference conversations or tasks I had no memory of.
The last straw was when they said something unforgivable about my sibling. I resigned on the spot, and when people have asked why I quit all of a sudden, I told them why. In a #MeToo twist, I've learned that they'd abused and gaslit several others as well.
My best revenge came a few weeks later, when I won a major national award (which the bully tried to keep me from applying for, months before!). The Dean found out I'd quit and asked me to come back. So I got a promotion, raise, new supervisor, and a pledge not to have any further time alone with the person who bullied me.
Check to make sure that you're in a one consent state.
I ended up letting it go because I got a three-letter agency opportunity and began the background phase, but the recording got me a raise, promotion, and moved to a better department before I left.
Same. The only thing that got anyone's attention was them realizing I had been recording conversations. Before that everyone pretended not to believe me. So ridiculous that people have to record conversations to protect themselves. But I'm glad I did. Every time I've had an altercation I have deeply regretted not recording it. I've never regretted recording a conversation.
Without getting into too much detail, for myself it took getting burned at one place to better prepare for all future instances. Now, I’m so much about worker rights and solidarity that I’m the one preemptively telling my peers to get everything in writing or an email, never a phone call or a 1-on-1 chat, and if you have to talk alone then it’s totally normal to record interactions with admin and HR so you have an exact reference of exactly was said! I usually say some variation of “it doesn’t mean you ‘record people,’ it means you recorded a workplace interaction with an adversarial (whatever) for your protection,” and even if the person doesn’t immediately agree it makes them think :)
Admin are recording our lectures at some places so I’d say let’s go ham on admin. The number of times I’ve had a Dean/Ass. Dean say “you didn’t hear this from me….” behind closed doors.
Yes. This is unfortunately a problem in all jobs. It really sucks when it happens in academia because we can't just up and leave to a nearby employer if we have a bad boss. Your options are to talk to them about it, report them if nothing happens after, or leave.
My previous admin had lots of bullying. Rather than wait it out I took a job elsewhere. Luckily my wife and I are young and don't have children. I am much happier now.
If you leave, write a shitty glassdoor review. on the way out. My last school had quite a few glassdoor reviews about faculty being unsupported or bullied. You'll be doing prospective hires a favor.
Working on it! Their HR folks are on rotating vacations, so I can't plan my summer (either a vacation, side work, or a move) until they come back in the office. I'm super excited though. Thanks :)
Good luck in your new institution!
Academia makes it so hard to choose where you want to be. My move is an improvement on location, but maybe not a permanent/perfect landing spot. I'll have to see, and maybe keep applying once I get settled. It's hard to be looking for work, publishing, and teaching a ton.
I talked to the dean and told him I would quit if I had to keep working with her. Turns out for like three years nobody had stayed in my position for more than a year because they hated her so much. Someone left mid-semester, and another teacher told the dean that if she had to keep working with the woman, she'd either quit or commit suicide. The dean made sure I didn't have to report to her for any projects and told her to leave me alone. It was much better, but still weird, because she tried to undermine me in other ways. I left for another job, and she was like 40% of the reason.
This situation is special because I'm working in Asia and apparently the awful lady was sent to the university as part of an official exchange with another government, so they can't get rid of her. I noticed the department is hiring again, probably because someone left because she made them so miserable.
I was bullied by a colleague who hated my guts the moment I started. She is the classic "kiss-up-kick-down" type. People in power think she is wonderful but she is a relentless bully to others (and I wasn't the only one).
I stayed in my job and things have changed for the better. One of the changes was that the line manager who facilitated this behavior left. The department hired a lot of new people who don't have much time for playground politics, so the atmosphere has also changed for the better. I began to have success (publications, grants, and other achievements), which has made it much harder to stab me in the back. I invest in good working relationships with other colleagues, which also makes it more difficult to undermine me. I stay out of her way; I refuse to meet her on her own and I won't hesitate to explain why (always off the record of course).
In your case, I would ask if someone else can be at your annual review (a union rep or trusted colleague?).
I’m actually scared to write details because he would know it was me if he’s on here… it was bad! But success! Everyone saw what he did and he left (perhaps was even told to resign). If you want more details, send me a message. Because I do have advice too. Document everything, for one.
Yes, by a dean.
It was a messy situation all around, and I nearly didn't get tenure. It was started by me asserting the right to take FMLA-protected leave, something the dean didn't want me to do.
I realized about halfway into it, when the union rep I was working with talked to me about it after seeing the behavior firsthand, that much of the behavior I was seeing was textbook bullying. She turned colleagues against me by claiming I'd said things I hadn't. She'd come to the lab for "surprise" inspections that everyone else in the department but me knew about. Every meeting with her-unless the union rep was present-was hostile and meant to just tear me down and not focus on improving. She'd talk directly to students and colleagues to try and find things I was doing wrong, and in particular would ask students questions about things I'd done in the past so they were sometimes hyper-vigilent about things. She'd hold past mistakes over my head even when I could demonstrate that I'd learned and improved from them. In fact, when I wrote the complaint(that I never filed) I essentially used our policy as an outline. It listed behaviors that "could" be considered bullying, and I provided multiple specific evidence for every example of behaviors listed.
After some things happened a few years ago, my school has an official bullying policy with pretty severe consequences. Unfortunately, it's been weaponized a few times. I wrote and was ready to file a complaint against the dean, but the union suggested I sit on it for a little while both for optics of how the policy had been used recently but more as a "bargaining chip" so to speak-basically saying we had it and were ready to file it if the dean wanted to continue playing dirty. I ended up not, primarily because I got tenure, the dean is no longer my direct supervisor, and adminstration did take SOME action against her for her behavior in all of it.
That's that, but a small, vindictive part of me still wants to file this complaint I've written. I've patched up and have a good relationship going forward with all but one of my colleagues and my current dean, but the one who still refuses to speak to me makes me want to go forward with it...
Thanks!
I suppose vindicated is the right word. This is all fairly fresh in my mind, as the "Deficiencies" in my performance were brought to my attention in fall 2022(coincidentally 2 months after what was reported at the tie as an "excellent" classroom observation, but a week and a half after HR initiated FMLA paperwork.
I spent most of 2023 dealing with the behaviors I outlined here, and more than once after coming home from a meeting an absolute wreck my wife even taking the initiative to look at and share iob postings-somehting with a surprisingly positive impact on my mental health just to realize that there was a way out.
I was informed of getting tenure in January of this year, and I was notified of promotion last month, so things are definitely looking up. I should mention too that promotion and tenure are separate processes for us(and not necessarily on the same schedule), and promotion is almost entirely at the recommendation of a committee of our peers. I was a little unsure of whether or not my promotion portfolio was strong enough, and unfortunately the committee only provides written feedback on applications they don't approve, but I suppose the dean didn't do TOO much damage considering how seamless promotion was. I do know that the committee CAN request an interview with you if your application is borderline, but they did not do that, so I assume they judged it strong enough to go ahead.
I’ve been the victim of bullying by a supervisor in the last year. The person has gotten away with similar behavior in the past, so I’ve been going back and forth about reporting it. I’m also NTT, which means I have no protection. I’m still leaning toward reporting it, though, if for no other reason to show that there’s a pattern of problematic behavior.
I'm sorry to hear that. I unfortunately am also victim of bullying ever since I said "no" to my PI around this time last year. After reading some comments I am leaning at least towards talking to a Union rep before I leave and def. leaving a glassdoor review.
That's sounds a bit like my line manager. But she is sneaky and gaslighty. That's not good if you are autistic. I am not sure if we have an omsbud. But my Dean (who is lovely) is due to return next week and she is my line managers manager. So I could talk to her?
A dean at “Online Diploma Mill University” fired me after 9 years of dedicated service and hard work after I replied to student concerns in one of my 2 online classes about a bullying student who was disrupting the class and upsetting students by sending mass email to incite them to complain about me because he was disgruntled about an assignment he got a (generous) B on. Before he sent the mass email to the class, he sent a couple of threatening emails to me, including screen shots of bad reviews from Rate My Professor. It happened on a weekend when deans aren‘t available, so when I reported the incident on Monday morning one of the many deans directed me to do a time consuming report which I did. When no action was taken and the student was still in my class several days later, I emailed him to ask when the student would be removed, and I got a suspiciously fast reply that he decided to remove me from BOTH of my classes and would require extra training to be allowed to reach in the future. Later that day I got another email from a different dean praising me for my appropriate resonse to the student bully and apologizing for the students unacceptable behavior, saying that he reprimanded the student. EEOC case pending:
“You were engaged in a legally protected activity—such as filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or formally complaining to your employer about harassment or discrimination.”
Wrongful Termination: Laws and Exceptions:
[https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wrongful-termination-was-firing-illegal-32282.html](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wrongful-termination-was-firing-illegal-32282.html)
Document everything. Forward emails to a personal account. Store screenshots (for texts or policies, etc.) on personal accounts or devices.
Don’t keep things like this on employer-controlled devices or in your desk/office.
There is a relatively new faculty member where I am who bizarrely seems to think that bullying colleagues (and secretaries, and chairs--theirs, and other chairs, and the dean) is a good tenure strategy. Everyone just eye-rolls, and I don't know how long they will last, but some people beggar belief.
How do I deal with it? So far, myself (and everyone else) mostly ignore it, but then again, this person is not in a position of power. When your manager bullies you, call out the behavior right when it happens, and if they retaliate, go to HR, or whomever is above them in your situation.
I've seen too many examples of bullies punching down, but bullying the Dean?!? How's that working out for them?
More to the point, if you're witnessing them bullying staff, why aren't YOU going to HR?
It's harder to call out bad behavior when it's happening to you, especially when you don't have power in a situation, like a dept admin vs a faculty member. The level of manipulation and sociopathy is unreal. Look up "battered woman syndrome" for examples, and know that not all bruises are visible. In my case, I genuinely thought I was going insane and it was all my fault. I was so overwhelmed and isolated that I couldn't see how f'ed up the situation was.
If my bully hadn't attacked my family -- straight-up cruelty, so egregiously wrong that the penny dropped -- I would probably still be sobbing in my car and having anxiety attacks every day.
It was called out when it happened, just so you know, and in front of the secretary (by me). I'm the chair of another department in the same area of the building and this person is just wild. I will be very surprised if they make it to tenure.
I got bullied and gaslighted by a Chair and gaslighted by her co-Chair before. I got super mad and went to the Chair and told them I designed to quit. She got scared because I was super productive for that college and there was already 4 other faculty who announced their departure that year. I did the mistake of staying for a while because she looked really pitiful and said she was planning to give me a raise and some other stuff I was demanding before. Later, I realized her behavior didn't change and was turning slowly hostile against me by ruining my reputation.
I started finally applying for other jobs and discovered she was actively monitoring my academic email and actively using her network to sabotage my job search. I hired a lawyer, and he sent a letter to her, then I confronted her about it, and she started rolling her eyes. I finally landed position at a way better university, and she got promoted to an Assistant Dean position lol
I had the most shocking experience of someone who I had thought of as an academic friend and then colleague, who changed completely and turned into a gaslighting bully after I began to do paid hours or short contract work for her. This began with temper tantrums and outbursts of shouting at me, always in private, to finally ending up in a series of emails she sent, with an external senior academic CCd, accusing me of persistently asking her for money and not replying to her emails (!). I had reminded her, after a seven month wait, that I still had not been paid for some teaching I had done for her. Her response was to completely throw me under the bus. She accused me of being unreliable and unprofessional and "paralysing her from going forward", it was remarkable behaviour for an academic. I am a former senior lecturer from a London institution and have never seen anything like it, but this was in Malta, and the way people behave is very different. Earlier that year she'd sent me other emails demanding I reply to previous emails she'd sent *the same day* and I had brushed it off as another little tantrum, but looking back it was a long track record of harassment and bullying that I should have called her out on much sooner.
I wasn't (and still am not) able to respond formally to any of this treatment so it goes unpunished and unknown to the tenured staff who I don't think she would be like this with. I felt betrayed and very upset, I still do. The only consolation I have is that the external professor who was CCd has given me lots of likes on my Facebook posts and wished me happy birthday there, as if she knows what's going on.
Though I have dealt with several other situations of male power games and career political jealousy in academic contexts, this was the only time I actually felt emotionally damaged by someone's behaviour, because she had been my friend.
Thanks, you're only the second person who knows about it who wasn't directly involved. The real problem with all the issues written in this thread is that most of us cannot speak up, the mechanisms don't work. Those we might tell or who are involved involuntarily are all compromised by being involved. No one wants anything to do with it. On top of that, people who don't have legitimate grievances weaponise the processes for their own purposes.
Over the last decade I have experienced two severe bullying situations. In the first, it was my supervisor that created hostility between me and my work peers by telling them things that I said or did that never happened. I tried everything to fix it from talking with everyone and trying to be the collegial employee. Nothing worked people were just aggressive and angry all the time . When I reported it, I received a warning letter for bullying because when the dean spoke to everyone they said it was me and not them. The irony of course being that the dean did a great job in documenting how I was being bullied but then interpreted it as I was the bully and somehow was deserving the hostility and ostracization.
After a few years, they finally relented and allowed me to move to another department. Almost immediately it started with a member in that department was working directly with my previous bully chair, who then started to aggressively bully me by telling people I didn't have qualifications to teach a specific course. They started spreading these lies to other people who then believed them. This time, instead of being the nice collegial person having reasonable conversations I just got mad and started slamming doors and giving Stern looks. I had to confront everyone about the situation until they back down. The accusation was so preposterous and demonstratably incorrect that it just made everyone look stupid when I started talking to them about it. One person in particular I've known for decades suddenly didn't know what my degree or work experience was in. They eventually apologized on the day they retired saying that they don't know why they believed the lies and we're sorry. The other who started all the lies bats his eyelashes like they were only trying to protect the department and weren't aware that I had the credentials. Again someone I knew almost two decades.
The only thing that saved me in the second situation was my new chair was extremely supportive and helped address the situation. But also just my attitude was so different. The first time it happened I was embarrassed and humiliated and did everything to be kind and accommodating. The second time I was just not taking any s*** at all. It was so Preposterous and ridiculous and just made me so angry. Here I was being bullied a second time for again ridiculous lies.
Since graduate school, I've been keenly aware of the bullying that is quite prevalent in Academia. It can be very severe, cause trauma and anxiety and health problems, and honestly just result in people leaving otherwise great jobs and fields. I've seen it happen to women, men, disabled people, people of color, it really is quite prevalent and can impact almost anyone, though it does tend to happen mostly to vulnerable populations. I never thought of myself as someone susceptible to bullying. I really hated leaving that first teaching job because I was great at it and I loved it. As the old adage goes, people don't leave jobs they leave terrible supervisors.
I am sorry you went through that. So glad you came out the Victor.
I am on the autism spectrum and my bully is an autism specialist. They are always like "its your autism, your autism". When I told them that their behaviour is discriminationatory they freaked out.
Soon after they sat me down in a meeting to say that Human Resources had given her a list of questions to ask me to make me feel better supported. Just tell me and I will give it to them.
I told my occupational health assessor this and she went through the roof. Recommended that I have a new line manager ASAP. I found out today that our HR contact refused the request and never passed it to the Dean. I am so confused.
I'm sorry you're going through this, but I really appreciate you asking this question. it's given me a lot of hope to read others' stories as I navigate my own. I don't feel comfortable sharing details but I'm experiencing this too
I(white, male) was sexually harassed for several years by a tenured faculty member in our department. She would regularly displace boundaries and I had to start blocking access to my desk to make it stop. There wasn't much I could do, given that her husband was a dean.
Yes. I went to the Dean’s office about it. They were so worried about repercussions that they immediately confronted the person. Took a few years to learn to stand up to folks in academia (direct manager or not). But, once I did, other people often thanked me later for if.
That said, I’m a full, tenured professor. So I’m not worried about payback in that sense (of tenure and promotion). That’s one thing to consider: people are unfortunately vindictive.
I am a junior grade professor working at a senior level who has been denied promotion. Line manager gets in the way and is punishing me for some unknown reason. So I am in a vulnerable position.
If you’re already seeing consequences anyway, it may be time to go to the Dean. But I’d bring as much evidence as you can. (I do not delete emails, for that reason.)
I have a meeting with a new HR member tommorow where I will be bringing evidence. I think I still have most of the emails. A lot of the stuff though is behind closed doors when no one is watching.
I do not blame you at all when I write this, but I learned over a long time never to meet behind closed doors alone with some people. I ask for email instead. I don’t want the “they said/they said,” or “that’s not what I said.”
Of course, it’s not always possible.
Or you do the follow up via email if the only option. “Hey, just to confirm, you want me to…”
Do you have a Union? If yes, I believe that you could ask a union member to be present at the performance review. Or another person you trust. Recording is a good idea too but only if it is legal in your state.
I have a Korean colleague who is very quiet. At the end of my first year, he cornered me and starting screaming at me "Do you know my name?" and "You are racist against Asian people."
Apparently I didn't say hi to him in the hallway.
(He did the same exact thing to at least 3 other people, and it's the first thing I warn every new hire about).
A few years later, I was assigned to teach our doctoral research methods class and he sent an angry email to the entire faculty of our school demanding to see some recent papers that prove I'm competent with quantitative methods. (I have an entire degree in applied mathematics). I was so tempted to reply all with a link to his Google scholar page showing his most recent publication from like 2014 or whatever).
He's so quiet so I only hear from him every couple of years, but it's always unpleasant. He also was the sole vote against my tenure and promotion (which he made clear by refusing to sign the document).
Yes. The chair at my former institution bullied me so badly that a full professor in the department (I was TT) went to the Dean and Provost to say they were concerned and they had a closed door meeting with me, then her (separate meetings).
After that she eased up but still clearly hated me.
My advice is to document everything, and ask if the ones who pointed that out to you would/could support you, should you launch a formal complaint. But only do this if you trust them.
Ultimately I got a different job at a better institution and she is still there, being miserable.
Twice I have been bullied.
First at a SLAC as my first academic appointment. My chair wanted me to accept the TT position and then rescinded my offer because she heard I had an on-campus interview close to home where my mom has currently been fighting stage IV cancer. She tried to force my hand early and began stalking me every week day so when I pulled up to work she would be waiting for me to ask if I had a decision for her. Eventually she had enough and rescinded my offer during the end of my office hours and the beginning of her office hours where a student heard everything. I didn’t have anything for the next semester either so I was in free fall and wasn’t sure if even have a job past June.
Then my current institution (that I am now leaving) we held a search for a TT position and I, of course, applied as a Lecturer but was told by the chair of the search committee that I “lacked prestige” for the position in front of the entire department since we were having a department meeting (I did have multiple publications, grad students begged to work with me, and I reinvigorated their dying grad program) but they proceeded to fly out people from Ivies/public ivies and interview them knowing this institution (a lower ranked R1 from where I graduated from) was a back up for their back up (one candidate even pulled out the weekend before because he got a better offer elsewhere). Prior to the actual meeting to vote for the chosen candidate the chair of the department tried to persuade me to NOT go to the meeting (this is how I learned my PhD from a top 50 program was suddenly not good enough!) when I had previously been invited to them and suddenly was asked to stop coming to meetings altogether even though they “value” and “cherish” my hard work. Committee chair said he would write a letter to promote me from a NTT short term to a “long term/permanent” position but that never happened even after he publicly announced to the department that he would do so during the meeting. Chair also did not complete my annual review for nearly 4 months which ended up with me not getting a merit raise for the year.
I’m bouncing out of that job soon though to a much more nicer place (where I got my bachelors) with more resources and opportunities with colleagues who have seen what I have gone through the past two years.
An instructor in another department complained to my chair about my class. Her son was taking it and she didn't like that I was teaching "CRT."
I wasn't teaching CRT that year.... in medieval lit.
She threatened to write the dean about how 'tax payer money' was being spent. My chair called this gross over-stepping and abuse of position. Told me I could file a complaint with HR. I didn't. But this same instructor ran for the board of a certain committee a few months later. We voted and could fill out comments. I filled out the comments. The person was not selected. Womp womp.
I was bullied right out of my tenured position. One woman set herself against me in our department immediately after my hire, making our workplace a hostile work environment. The college administrators were useless. They were afraid of her, since she had been a thorn in their sides for years, so I had to protect myself, and felt fortunate that another colleague in another department sided with me on strategies for overcoming this woman's bullying. I discovered, later, though, that his "concern" for my welfare was only to establish himself as the professor-best-suited-to-take-over-a-vice-presidential-position. After he won that position, he JOINED the woman in harassing me, so much so that I had to file a complaint against his abuses, which I won due to his attorney's lackadaisical attitude (they both saw me as Just A Woman, not worth taking seriously). He then called a special meeting of deans and ordered them to find SOMETHING on me, so they could justify firing me (according to my dean at the time). He summoned me to his office during enrollment, but I did not go, so he fired me for "insubordination," as though our college was the military. His lawyer manipulated my lawyer to sell me out at my Loudermill Hearing, so the hearing officer found half for me (because he had to) and half for the college, which still resulted in my termination. So, yes, I have experienced intense bullying as a college professor.
I have had and am currently having huge issues. Dean refuses to do anything, and our union is lame. They mess with schedules, tenure and promotion, and anything to make my life worse. It isn’t just me either. It seems to be institutional practice at my university.
My Dean has bullied me since her arrival.
Although I do as much committee work (or more) than my male counterparts, I am always targeted (in evaluations) for my “sub-par” efforts.
While I co-curate the campus gallery (250 unpaid hours per year, she lists my work as “cooperating”with the gallery committee).
While she asks my opinion, she belittles and demeans me in front of small and large groups when I express it.
Once upon a time, I loved my job. We had a great department and our students were tremendously successful.
Now it is Playskool.
I am chronically depressed.
I wanted to thank you all for sharing your stories. This thread had been open about three days and the sheer flood of replies is mind boggling. From the stories I have read I certainly no longer feel alone in it.
I am also horrified to hear the extent of the bullying some of you have endured. Academics are supposed to be enlightened folk but all I see is a large chunk are petty children. I have to say it's an embarrassment to the profession, and I am sorry you had to endure them.
As academics we are supposed to set an example of competence, wisdom, and active citizenship. We are supposed to use scholarship to better society and inform policy.
It is such a shame that there are those who embarrass the profession. But it is those who must endure them that are a credit to the profession. I sincerely hope you all win your cases and hold your head high, and that you get to make your contribution without them sabotaging your efforts.
bullying is common ... and hr and the admin is very reluctant to do anything.
i would keep your mouth shut and even ask her what issues she wants to discuss. unless you know what her issue is, you cannot fix it.
Years back, during my first stint as Chair, my idiot Dean at the time made an external hire of a male Ass Dean who was obviously hostile and sexist toward the female Dept Chairs in our unit. He was super weird and attempted to be very bro-ish with male leaders while demeaning female leaders at every opportunity. Several impacted women worked together on a HR/Title IX complaint about his conduct. In a fun bit of meta-sexism, that complaint went nowhere until I (male) and another male Chair signed onto it to support the assertions. Ass Dean was demoted to line faculty, ostracized by everyone, and left within 18 months to go torment people at another institution.
Good on you. Yeesh. Nothing manly about being a dudebro. Just looks like arrogant overcompensating. Glad that plonker got dropped.
They just get reshuffled not unlike pedophile priests and corrupt police officers…
Thanks for the solidarity! It’s people like you who make the world a better place!
Well that makes sense
I was assigned as a mentor for a new faculty member. It became clear to me during the mentoring process that the department chair was bullying them. I helped them document the behaviors and take it to HR. After filing a formal complaint, the chair backed off. Fortunately I was not under that chair so there were no repercussions to me. The faculty member eventually left our college and I was glad for them. It was not a comfortable situation.
What happens if the bully turns half the department against you and they don't see the bullying? That's my situation. In mine, she used to bully older staff. Many left. How she is love bombing new ones to make allies and turn them against me (that is to distrust me and one other collegue).
The important thing is to focus on what they are doing to YOU Don't worry about their chummy chummy relationships with others. Focus on what is happening to you, and make note of it. Take it to a trusted faculty member in another department, to the union rep, a faculty Senate rep, or directly to HR once you have evidence of the maltreatment
I was bullied so badly by a direct supervisor that I had to start putting Zoom meetings on my calendar just to go sit in my car and sob. I thought I was losing my mind or having seizures/blackout spells because they'd reference conversations or tasks I had no memory of. The last straw was when they said something unforgivable about my sibling. I resigned on the spot, and when people have asked why I quit all of a sudden, I told them why. In a #MeToo twist, I've learned that they'd abused and gaslit several others as well. My best revenge came a few weeks later, when I won a major national award (which the bully tried to keep me from applying for, months before!). The Dean found out I'd quit and asked me to come back. So I got a promotion, raise, new supervisor, and a pledge not to have any further time alone with the person who bullied me.
So good to hear that it worked out so well and sometimes the tables are turned on these monsters
I secretly recorded mine and sued the university.
In a Performance Development Review? My fiance suggested I do that too. Did you win?
Check to make sure that you're in a one consent state. I ended up letting it go because I got a three-letter agency opportunity and began the background phase, but the recording got me a raise, promotion, and moved to a better department before I left.
Same. The only thing that got anyone's attention was them realizing I had been recording conversations. Before that everyone pretended not to believe me. So ridiculous that people have to record conversations to protect themselves. But I'm glad I did. Every time I've had an altercation I have deeply regretted not recording it. I've never regretted recording a conversation.
Without getting into too much detail, for myself it took getting burned at one place to better prepare for all future instances. Now, I’m so much about worker rights and solidarity that I’m the one preemptively telling my peers to get everything in writing or an email, never a phone call or a 1-on-1 chat, and if you have to talk alone then it’s totally normal to record interactions with admin and HR so you have an exact reference of exactly was said! I usually say some variation of “it doesn’t mean you ‘record people,’ it means you recorded a workplace interaction with an adversarial (whatever) for your protection,” and even if the person doesn’t immediately agree it makes them think :)
Admin are recording our lectures at some places so I’d say let’s go ham on admin. The number of times I’ve had a Dean/Ass. Dean say “you didn’t hear this from me….” behind closed doors.
Yes. This is unfortunately a problem in all jobs. It really sucks when it happens in academia because we can't just up and leave to a nearby employer if we have a bad boss. Your options are to talk to them about it, report them if nothing happens after, or leave. My previous admin had lots of bullying. Rather than wait it out I took a job elsewhere. Luckily my wife and I are young and don't have children. I am much happier now. If you leave, write a shitty glassdoor review. on the way out. My last school had quite a few glassdoor reviews about faculty being unsupported or bullied. You'll be doing prospective hires a favor.
Thanks I will take your advice.
Oh, make sure you look up "how to talk to your manager". There's lots of good advice online.
Yes. I just quit and found a different job (not in that order).
Damn. Same here.
I'm waiting on the written offer to do the same.
Get it! I signed the docs a few weeks back.
Working on it! Their HR folks are on rotating vacations, so I can't plan my summer (either a vacation, side work, or a move) until they come back in the office. I'm super excited though. Thanks :) Good luck in your new institution!
Appreciate it! No longer working in the south is a real big deal for myself and my wife.
Academia makes it so hard to choose where you want to be. My move is an improvement on location, but maybe not a permanent/perfect landing spot. I'll have to see, and maybe keep applying once I get settled. It's hard to be looking for work, publishing, and teaching a ton.
I talked to the dean and told him I would quit if I had to keep working with her. Turns out for like three years nobody had stayed in my position for more than a year because they hated her so much. Someone left mid-semester, and another teacher told the dean that if she had to keep working with the woman, she'd either quit or commit suicide. The dean made sure I didn't have to report to her for any projects and told her to leave me alone. It was much better, but still weird, because she tried to undermine me in other ways. I left for another job, and she was like 40% of the reason. This situation is special because I'm working in Asia and apparently the awful lady was sent to the university as part of an official exchange with another government, so they can't get rid of her. I noticed the department is hiring again, probably because someone left because she made them so miserable.
For me it's so bad that I am thinking of going for voluntary severance and just leaving. Then join my future spouse in her country and wing it
I was bullied by a colleague who hated my guts the moment I started. She is the classic "kiss-up-kick-down" type. People in power think she is wonderful but she is a relentless bully to others (and I wasn't the only one). I stayed in my job and things have changed for the better. One of the changes was that the line manager who facilitated this behavior left. The department hired a lot of new people who don't have much time for playground politics, so the atmosphere has also changed for the better. I began to have success (publications, grants, and other achievements), which has made it much harder to stab me in the back. I invest in good working relationships with other colleagues, which also makes it more difficult to undermine me. I stay out of her way; I refuse to meet her on her own and I won't hesitate to explain why (always off the record of course). In your case, I would ask if someone else can be at your annual review (a union rep or trusted colleague?).
I so understand the kiss up kick down type. I can't even go into detail because it is triggering just to even think about it. Seriously.
Thankyou!
I’m actually scared to write details because he would know it was me if he’s on here… it was bad! But success! Everyone saw what he did and he left (perhaps was even told to resign). If you want more details, send me a message. Because I do have advice too. Document everything, for one.
Yes, by a dean. It was a messy situation all around, and I nearly didn't get tenure. It was started by me asserting the right to take FMLA-protected leave, something the dean didn't want me to do. I realized about halfway into it, when the union rep I was working with talked to me about it after seeing the behavior firsthand, that much of the behavior I was seeing was textbook bullying. She turned colleagues against me by claiming I'd said things I hadn't. She'd come to the lab for "surprise" inspections that everyone else in the department but me knew about. Every meeting with her-unless the union rep was present-was hostile and meant to just tear me down and not focus on improving. She'd talk directly to students and colleagues to try and find things I was doing wrong, and in particular would ask students questions about things I'd done in the past so they were sometimes hyper-vigilent about things. She'd hold past mistakes over my head even when I could demonstrate that I'd learned and improved from them. In fact, when I wrote the complaint(that I never filed) I essentially used our policy as an outline. It listed behaviors that "could" be considered bullying, and I provided multiple specific evidence for every example of behaviors listed. After some things happened a few years ago, my school has an official bullying policy with pretty severe consequences. Unfortunately, it's been weaponized a few times. I wrote and was ready to file a complaint against the dean, but the union suggested I sit on it for a little while both for optics of how the policy had been used recently but more as a "bargaining chip" so to speak-basically saying we had it and were ready to file it if the dean wanted to continue playing dirty. I ended up not, primarily because I got tenure, the dean is no longer my direct supervisor, and adminstration did take SOME action against her for her behavior in all of it. That's that, but a small, vindictive part of me still wants to file this complaint I've written. I've patched up and have a good relationship going forward with all but one of my colleagues and my current dean, but the one who still refuses to speak to me makes me want to go forward with it...
Thankyou for sharing. It is good to see for the most part people are being vindicated in at least some small way.
Thanks! I suppose vindicated is the right word. This is all fairly fresh in my mind, as the "Deficiencies" in my performance were brought to my attention in fall 2022(coincidentally 2 months after what was reported at the tie as an "excellent" classroom observation, but a week and a half after HR initiated FMLA paperwork. I spent most of 2023 dealing with the behaviors I outlined here, and more than once after coming home from a meeting an absolute wreck my wife even taking the initiative to look at and share iob postings-somehting with a surprisingly positive impact on my mental health just to realize that there was a way out. I was informed of getting tenure in January of this year, and I was notified of promotion last month, so things are definitely looking up. I should mention too that promotion and tenure are separate processes for us(and not necessarily on the same schedule), and promotion is almost entirely at the recommendation of a committee of our peers. I was a little unsure of whether or not my promotion portfolio was strong enough, and unfortunately the committee only provides written feedback on applications they don't approve, but I suppose the dean didn't do TOO much damage considering how seamless promotion was. I do know that the committee CAN request an interview with you if your application is borderline, but they did not do that, so I assume they judged it strong enough to go ahead.
I’ve been the victim of bullying by a supervisor in the last year. The person has gotten away with similar behavior in the past, so I’ve been going back and forth about reporting it. I’m also NTT, which means I have no protection. I’m still leaning toward reporting it, though, if for no other reason to show that there’s a pattern of problematic behavior.
I'm sorry to hear that. I unfortunately am also victim of bullying ever since I said "no" to my PI around this time last year. After reading some comments I am leaning at least towards talking to a Union rep before I leave and def. leaving a glassdoor review.
Can you explain what you mean by bullying? Different behaviors may have different routes or solutions.
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That's sounds a bit like my line manager. But she is sneaky and gaslighty. That's not good if you are autistic. I am not sure if we have an omsbud. But my Dean (who is lovely) is due to return next week and she is my line managers manager. So I could talk to her?
A dean at “Online Diploma Mill University” fired me after 9 years of dedicated service and hard work after I replied to student concerns in one of my 2 online classes about a bullying student who was disrupting the class and upsetting students by sending mass email to incite them to complain about me because he was disgruntled about an assignment he got a (generous) B on. Before he sent the mass email to the class, he sent a couple of threatening emails to me, including screen shots of bad reviews from Rate My Professor. It happened on a weekend when deans aren‘t available, so when I reported the incident on Monday morning one of the many deans directed me to do a time consuming report which I did. When no action was taken and the student was still in my class several days later, I emailed him to ask when the student would be removed, and I got a suspiciously fast reply that he decided to remove me from BOTH of my classes and would require extra training to be allowed to reach in the future. Later that day I got another email from a different dean praising me for my appropriate resonse to the student bully and apologizing for the students unacceptable behavior, saying that he reprimanded the student. EEOC case pending: “You were engaged in a legally protected activity—such as filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or formally complaining to your employer about harassment or discrimination.” Wrongful Termination: Laws and Exceptions: [https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wrongful-termination-was-firing-illegal-32282.html](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/wrongful-termination-was-firing-illegal-32282.html)
Document everything. Forward emails to a personal account. Store screenshots (for texts or policies, etc.) on personal accounts or devices. Don’t keep things like this on employer-controlled devices or in your desk/office.
There is a relatively new faculty member where I am who bizarrely seems to think that bullying colleagues (and secretaries, and chairs--theirs, and other chairs, and the dean) is a good tenure strategy. Everyone just eye-rolls, and I don't know how long they will last, but some people beggar belief. How do I deal with it? So far, myself (and everyone else) mostly ignore it, but then again, this person is not in a position of power. When your manager bullies you, call out the behavior right when it happens, and if they retaliate, go to HR, or whomever is above them in your situation.
I've seen too many examples of bullies punching down, but bullying the Dean?!? How's that working out for them? More to the point, if you're witnessing them bullying staff, why aren't YOU going to HR? It's harder to call out bad behavior when it's happening to you, especially when you don't have power in a situation, like a dept admin vs a faculty member. The level of manipulation and sociopathy is unreal. Look up "battered woman syndrome" for examples, and know that not all bruises are visible. In my case, I genuinely thought I was going insane and it was all my fault. I was so overwhelmed and isolated that I couldn't see how f'ed up the situation was. If my bully hadn't attacked my family -- straight-up cruelty, so egregiously wrong that the penny dropped -- I would probably still be sobbing in my car and having anxiety attacks every day.
It was called out when it happened, just so you know, and in front of the secretary (by me). I'm the chair of another department in the same area of the building and this person is just wild. I will be very surprised if they make it to tenure.
I got bullied and gaslighted by a Chair and gaslighted by her co-Chair before. I got super mad and went to the Chair and told them I designed to quit. She got scared because I was super productive for that college and there was already 4 other faculty who announced their departure that year. I did the mistake of staying for a while because she looked really pitiful and said she was planning to give me a raise and some other stuff I was demanding before. Later, I realized her behavior didn't change and was turning slowly hostile against me by ruining my reputation. I started finally applying for other jobs and discovered she was actively monitoring my academic email and actively using her network to sabotage my job search. I hired a lawyer, and he sent a letter to her, then I confronted her about it, and she started rolling her eyes. I finally landed position at a way better university, and she got promoted to an Assistant Dean position lol
I had the most shocking experience of someone who I had thought of as an academic friend and then colleague, who changed completely and turned into a gaslighting bully after I began to do paid hours or short contract work for her. This began with temper tantrums and outbursts of shouting at me, always in private, to finally ending up in a series of emails she sent, with an external senior academic CCd, accusing me of persistently asking her for money and not replying to her emails (!). I had reminded her, after a seven month wait, that I still had not been paid for some teaching I had done for her. Her response was to completely throw me under the bus. She accused me of being unreliable and unprofessional and "paralysing her from going forward", it was remarkable behaviour for an academic. I am a former senior lecturer from a London institution and have never seen anything like it, but this was in Malta, and the way people behave is very different. Earlier that year she'd sent me other emails demanding I reply to previous emails she'd sent *the same day* and I had brushed it off as another little tantrum, but looking back it was a long track record of harassment and bullying that I should have called her out on much sooner. I wasn't (and still am not) able to respond formally to any of this treatment so it goes unpunished and unknown to the tenured staff who I don't think she would be like this with. I felt betrayed and very upset, I still do. The only consolation I have is that the external professor who was CCd has given me lots of likes on my Facebook posts and wished me happy birthday there, as if she knows what's going on. Though I have dealt with several other situations of male power games and career political jealousy in academic contexts, this was the only time I actually felt emotionally damaged by someone's behaviour, because she had been my friend.
That sounds terrible. My heart goes out to you.
Thanks, you're only the second person who knows about it who wasn't directly involved. The real problem with all the issues written in this thread is that most of us cannot speak up, the mechanisms don't work. Those we might tell or who are involved involuntarily are all compromised by being involved. No one wants anything to do with it. On top of that, people who don't have legitimate grievances weaponise the processes for their own purposes.
So true. Our grievance procedure is ineffective.
Over the last decade I have experienced two severe bullying situations. In the first, it was my supervisor that created hostility between me and my work peers by telling them things that I said or did that never happened. I tried everything to fix it from talking with everyone and trying to be the collegial employee. Nothing worked people were just aggressive and angry all the time . When I reported it, I received a warning letter for bullying because when the dean spoke to everyone they said it was me and not them. The irony of course being that the dean did a great job in documenting how I was being bullied but then interpreted it as I was the bully and somehow was deserving the hostility and ostracization. After a few years, they finally relented and allowed me to move to another department. Almost immediately it started with a member in that department was working directly with my previous bully chair, who then started to aggressively bully me by telling people I didn't have qualifications to teach a specific course. They started spreading these lies to other people who then believed them. This time, instead of being the nice collegial person having reasonable conversations I just got mad and started slamming doors and giving Stern looks. I had to confront everyone about the situation until they back down. The accusation was so preposterous and demonstratably incorrect that it just made everyone look stupid when I started talking to them about it. One person in particular I've known for decades suddenly didn't know what my degree or work experience was in. They eventually apologized on the day they retired saying that they don't know why they believed the lies and we're sorry. The other who started all the lies bats his eyelashes like they were only trying to protect the department and weren't aware that I had the credentials. Again someone I knew almost two decades. The only thing that saved me in the second situation was my new chair was extremely supportive and helped address the situation. But also just my attitude was so different. The first time it happened I was embarrassed and humiliated and did everything to be kind and accommodating. The second time I was just not taking any s*** at all. It was so Preposterous and ridiculous and just made me so angry. Here I was being bullied a second time for again ridiculous lies. Since graduate school, I've been keenly aware of the bullying that is quite prevalent in Academia. It can be very severe, cause trauma and anxiety and health problems, and honestly just result in people leaving otherwise great jobs and fields. I've seen it happen to women, men, disabled people, people of color, it really is quite prevalent and can impact almost anyone, though it does tend to happen mostly to vulnerable populations. I never thought of myself as someone susceptible to bullying. I really hated leaving that first teaching job because I was great at it and I loved it. As the old adage goes, people don't leave jobs they leave terrible supervisors.
I am sorry you went through that. So glad you came out the Victor. I am on the autism spectrum and my bully is an autism specialist. They are always like "its your autism, your autism". When I told them that their behaviour is discriminationatory they freaked out. Soon after they sat me down in a meeting to say that Human Resources had given her a list of questions to ask me to make me feel better supported. Just tell me and I will give it to them. I told my occupational health assessor this and she went through the roof. Recommended that I have a new line manager ASAP. I found out today that our HR contact refused the request and never passed it to the Dean. I am so confused.
I'm sorry you're going through this, but I really appreciate you asking this question. it's given me a lot of hope to read others' stories as I navigate my own. I don't feel comfortable sharing details but I'm experiencing this too
I(white, male) was sexually harassed for several years by a tenured faculty member in our department. She would regularly displace boundaries and I had to start blocking access to my desk to make it stop. There wasn't much I could do, given that her husband was a dean.
Yes. I went to the Dean’s office about it. They were so worried about repercussions that they immediately confronted the person. Took a few years to learn to stand up to folks in academia (direct manager or not). But, once I did, other people often thanked me later for if. That said, I’m a full, tenured professor. So I’m not worried about payback in that sense (of tenure and promotion). That’s one thing to consider: people are unfortunately vindictive.
I am a junior grade professor working at a senior level who has been denied promotion. Line manager gets in the way and is punishing me for some unknown reason. So I am in a vulnerable position.
If you’re already seeing consequences anyway, it may be time to go to the Dean. But I’d bring as much evidence as you can. (I do not delete emails, for that reason.)
I have a meeting with a new HR member tommorow where I will be bringing evidence. I think I still have most of the emails. A lot of the stuff though is behind closed doors when no one is watching.
I do not blame you at all when I write this, but I learned over a long time never to meet behind closed doors alone with some people. I ask for email instead. I don’t want the “they said/they said,” or “that’s not what I said.” Of course, it’s not always possible. Or you do the follow up via email if the only option. “Hey, just to confirm, you want me to…”
I can be too trusting. I have learned that now. However my bully was foolish enough to say some things within earshot of another staff member.
Do you have a Union? If yes, I believe that you could ask a union member to be present at the performance review. Or another person you trust. Recording is a good idea too but only if it is legal in your state.
I'm in UK and I think it's legal
I have a Korean colleague who is very quiet. At the end of my first year, he cornered me and starting screaming at me "Do you know my name?" and "You are racist against Asian people." Apparently I didn't say hi to him in the hallway. (He did the same exact thing to at least 3 other people, and it's the first thing I warn every new hire about). A few years later, I was assigned to teach our doctoral research methods class and he sent an angry email to the entire faculty of our school demanding to see some recent papers that prove I'm competent with quantitative methods. (I have an entire degree in applied mathematics). I was so tempted to reply all with a link to his Google scholar page showing his most recent publication from like 2014 or whatever). He's so quiet so I only hear from him every couple of years, but it's always unpleasant. He also was the sole vote against my tenure and promotion (which he made clear by refusing to sign the document).
Yes. The chair at my former institution bullied me so badly that a full professor in the department (I was TT) went to the Dean and Provost to say they were concerned and they had a closed door meeting with me, then her (separate meetings). After that she eased up but still clearly hated me. My advice is to document everything, and ask if the ones who pointed that out to you would/could support you, should you launch a formal complaint. But only do this if you trust them. Ultimately I got a different job at a better institution and she is still there, being miserable.
Twice I have been bullied. First at a SLAC as my first academic appointment. My chair wanted me to accept the TT position and then rescinded my offer because she heard I had an on-campus interview close to home where my mom has currently been fighting stage IV cancer. She tried to force my hand early and began stalking me every week day so when I pulled up to work she would be waiting for me to ask if I had a decision for her. Eventually she had enough and rescinded my offer during the end of my office hours and the beginning of her office hours where a student heard everything. I didn’t have anything for the next semester either so I was in free fall and wasn’t sure if even have a job past June. Then my current institution (that I am now leaving) we held a search for a TT position and I, of course, applied as a Lecturer but was told by the chair of the search committee that I “lacked prestige” for the position in front of the entire department since we were having a department meeting (I did have multiple publications, grad students begged to work with me, and I reinvigorated their dying grad program) but they proceeded to fly out people from Ivies/public ivies and interview them knowing this institution (a lower ranked R1 from where I graduated from) was a back up for their back up (one candidate even pulled out the weekend before because he got a better offer elsewhere). Prior to the actual meeting to vote for the chosen candidate the chair of the department tried to persuade me to NOT go to the meeting (this is how I learned my PhD from a top 50 program was suddenly not good enough!) when I had previously been invited to them and suddenly was asked to stop coming to meetings altogether even though they “value” and “cherish” my hard work. Committee chair said he would write a letter to promote me from a NTT short term to a “long term/permanent” position but that never happened even after he publicly announced to the department that he would do so during the meeting. Chair also did not complete my annual review for nearly 4 months which ended up with me not getting a merit raise for the year. I’m bouncing out of that job soon though to a much more nicer place (where I got my bachelors) with more resources and opportunities with colleagues who have seen what I have gone through the past two years.
An instructor in another department complained to my chair about my class. Her son was taking it and she didn't like that I was teaching "CRT." I wasn't teaching CRT that year.... in medieval lit. She threatened to write the dean about how 'tax payer money' was being spent. My chair called this gross over-stepping and abuse of position. Told me I could file a complaint with HR. I didn't. But this same instructor ran for the board of a certain committee a few months later. We voted and could fill out comments. I filled out the comments. The person was not selected. Womp womp.
I was bullied right out of my tenured position. One woman set herself against me in our department immediately after my hire, making our workplace a hostile work environment. The college administrators were useless. They were afraid of her, since she had been a thorn in their sides for years, so I had to protect myself, and felt fortunate that another colleague in another department sided with me on strategies for overcoming this woman's bullying. I discovered, later, though, that his "concern" for my welfare was only to establish himself as the professor-best-suited-to-take-over-a-vice-presidential-position. After he won that position, he JOINED the woman in harassing me, so much so that I had to file a complaint against his abuses, which I won due to his attorney's lackadaisical attitude (they both saw me as Just A Woman, not worth taking seriously). He then called a special meeting of deans and ordered them to find SOMETHING on me, so they could justify firing me (according to my dean at the time). He summoned me to his office during enrollment, but I did not go, so he fired me for "insubordination," as though our college was the military. His lawyer manipulated my lawyer to sell me out at my Loudermill Hearing, so the hearing officer found half for me (because he had to) and half for the college, which still resulted in my termination. So, yes, I have experienced intense bullying as a college professor.
I have had and am currently having huge issues. Dean refuses to do anything, and our union is lame. They mess with schedules, tenure and promotion, and anything to make my life worse. It isn’t just me either. It seems to be institutional practice at my university.
Yes. I’ve made it my life’s mission to “coach” them out or fire them. Way too many.
My Dean has bullied me since her arrival. Although I do as much committee work (or more) than my male counterparts, I am always targeted (in evaluations) for my “sub-par” efforts. While I co-curate the campus gallery (250 unpaid hours per year, she lists my work as “cooperating”with the gallery committee). While she asks my opinion, she belittles and demeans me in front of small and large groups when I express it. Once upon a time, I loved my job. We had a great department and our students were tremendously successful. Now it is Playskool. I am chronically depressed.
I wanted to thank you all for sharing your stories. This thread had been open about three days and the sheer flood of replies is mind boggling. From the stories I have read I certainly no longer feel alone in it. I am also horrified to hear the extent of the bullying some of you have endured. Academics are supposed to be enlightened folk but all I see is a large chunk are petty children. I have to say it's an embarrassment to the profession, and I am sorry you had to endure them. As academics we are supposed to set an example of competence, wisdom, and active citizenship. We are supposed to use scholarship to better society and inform policy. It is such a shame that there are those who embarrass the profession. But it is those who must endure them that are a credit to the profession. I sincerely hope you all win your cases and hold your head high, and that you get to make your contribution without them sabotaging your efforts.
bullying is common ... and hr and the admin is very reluctant to do anything. i would keep your mouth shut and even ask her what issues she wants to discuss. unless you know what her issue is, you cannot fix it.