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The question from students about what courses I'm teaching in the fall when I have no response. This year's better than some--good backup plans--but it's also absurd and sad that I can teach online effectively (finally!) but won't get a chance to do so. #precarity
So since I'm in a mood, a quick thread on how workplace bullying feeds academic precarity. It's the chapter I'm working on, and it's a tough one, because I have to avoid referring to things I have agreements not to refer to while figuring out which things I can say.
I left a job after reporting misconduct. To say the official response was underwhelming would be to give them far too much credit. Delay, deny, delay . . . The misconduct was ongoing, systemic, and affected everything from hiring and promotion to the conduct of an entire program.
The thing about complaint processes is you can only complain about the way you were treated (which makes it tough to address systemic issues, or the conduct of coworkers who were treated abusively). And academia has layers on layers of confidentiality re. hiring/promotion.
Also, there's really nothing you can do to a tenured professor. Seriously: nothing. Unless, say, they start their own offshore university while collecting a full salary, as one of my undergrad profs did, and even that was not a slam-dunk firing. (He was "entrepreneurial.")
Because the effort to address the misconduct of tenured faculty is so exhausting, it's much easier to get them to retire early or bribe them to take a job elsewhere with glowing recommendations. Or just live with them forever, no matter how much harm they cause. It's contagious.
So in my research I've found that departments with a lot of bullying and discrimination also tend to have a lot of sexual harassment: issues cluster. And they connect to the poor treatment of precarious faculty and vulnerable staff, and grad student labour exploitation.
But most of the time, bad behaviour is a quiet open secret. This is the really puzzling part: virtually every time misconduct is report, it's driven by the activism and doggedness of undergrad students. Surely not their responsibility.
Final thought: I have former colleagues on here, and I've received much appreciated support. And I'm all good, or I wouldn't do this. But I keep hearing nothing has, or will, ever change. So people leave, or go on medical leave, or burnout, but don't go on leave. Not solutions.
What if this year could be a kind of reset? Having all meetings be virtual creates opportunities for documentation; if anyone wants advice on navigating EQHR, I have a handout on what different terms and processes involve. Happy to help.
