{"id":2016,"date":"2025-05-17T04:35:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T03:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2025-05-17T08:17:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T07:17:36","slug":"careers-are-fragile-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2016","title":{"rendered":"“Careers are Fragile Things”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Appointment committees are a common arena in which bullying can occur in academic life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In hiring, scholarly excellence competes with baser emotions like: \u201cHe\u2019s my collaborator,\u201d or \u201cShe laughed at my conference talk in 2019.\u201d or “He has never cited my influential papers”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many universities, the Head of Department plays a key role in hiring. Often the Head controls membership of the appointments committee. In any case, they wield a lot of power over the members of the committee, which can be used to threaten or cajole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I’m a young lecturer in a department at a university in the UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lectureship was advertised. I was asked to serve on the appointments committee. Over a 100 people applied. We drew up a strong shortlist of 6 for final interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the shortlist was a long-standing collaborator of my Head of Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day before the appointment committee was due to make the decision, my Head of Department came into my office<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He shut the door behind him, unsmilingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I want to be sure that you’ll vote the right way on the appointments committee tomorrow”, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had placed himself between me and the door. I took a step back, but there was nowhere to go.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Sit down,”<\/em> he said. “This won\u2019t take long.<\/em> Your promotion case is coming up. As your Head of Department, I’m presenting the case to the Senior Promotions Committee”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began to feel sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I want to be able to support your promotion”, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he turned to go, he said, \u201cCareers are fragile things, I’d really hate to see yours end over a misunderstanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He paused at the door. Before opening it, he said “Remember. If you say anything about this conversation, I’ll deny it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I broke down on the appointments committee the next day, trying to explain what had happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were all shocked and horrified. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mostly at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only one member of the committee supported me. He said we had to stop the appointment process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Head of Department reported me to Human Resources. Human Resources reported me to the Head of School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Head of School said that I had broken protocol and I had unilaterally failed the search. I was given a warning.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It’s an exceptionally shocking case, but the 21 Group has satisfied itself that the account is trustworthy and accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This case is unusual in the thuggish way the Head of Department tried to carry out his threat. However, the HR cover-up is standard in UK universities, as is the victim-blaming and gas-lighting by university management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21 Group are always pleased to receive the testimony of the victims of bullies in academia. Their voices should be heard. If you have been bullied, please use contact@21percent.org to tell us your story.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Appointment committees are a common arena in which bullying can occur in academic life. In hiring, scholarly excellence competes with baser emotions like: \u201cHe\u2019s my collaborator,\u201d or \u201cShe laughed at my conference talk in 2019.\u201d or “He has never cited my influential\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t