November 08, 2014

Again...

During one of the many times I was bullied by my last department head while I was teaching, I suggested that we go to mediation. I thought that since we couldn't arrive at a resolution that we both could agree to by ourselves, perhaps a third party could help. Maybe there was something at least one of us were missing.

Did it help? Of course not. I only succeeded in making him mad. He pounded his fist on the table, said he wanted nothing to do with that "mediation BS" (or words to that effect) and added: "I will deal with you as your supervisor!" The fact that I suggested mediation, which he refused, meant nothing to the dean. He himself was only to glad to be rid of me and I'm sure my telling him that only made him more determined.

One word of advice. NEVER rely on your staff association or union. It may be working with the management as collaborators and, yes, it happened to me. My department head put all sorts of defamatory material in my personnel file without my knowledge. This was contrary to regulations as not only was I to receive copies of such submissions, I had the right to offer a rebuttal. The president of our staff association at the time received copies of that material, as did the dean. For some mysterious reason, not only was my name left off the circulation list, I had no knowledge of it.

Anonymous

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I have a similar experience at Hunter College where I teach. I had been filing complaints (prevailing in almost all of them) and writing memos and posting frequently on the College listserv about the bulling in my department for years. I eventually met with the Provost who said that the administration was concerned that my publishings and writings about the war in my department could harm the image of the department and perhaps even reflect on the school. She told me to contact the Dean of Diversity and Compliance and that he and I were to contact The City University of New York Dispute Resolution Center to get a mediator involved in the problem.

The Dean of Diversity and Compliance refused. I subsequently was hit with a Violence in the Workplace Complaint and the Diversity Dean conducted the investigation and found me "guilty" and sent menacing letters. Fortunately, I was able to gather evidence that the allegations were false and that the investigation was not only very sloppy but very bias and was mean to stop me from filing complaints. I write about all this at http://blog.hunterword.com. I also joined New York Healthy Workplace Advocates in its lobbying efforts for a NYS law against workplace bullying.

So far, I'm holding my own.