{"id":2044,"date":"2025-05-23T21:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T20:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2044"},"modified":"2025-05-24T06:53:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T05:53:04","slug":"bullying-by-the-hr-elite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2044","title":{"rendered":"Bullying by the HR Elite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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UKRI<\/a> <\/strong>(UK Research and Innovation)<\/strong> is the United Kingdom\u2019s main public funding body for research and innovation. It was established in April 2018 and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All is not well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An internal staff survey<\/a> conducted in 2024 revealed that 7% of UKRI employees reported experiencing bullying or harassment. UKRI’s outgoing chief executive, Ottoline Leyser, acknowledged this as “unacceptable<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now comes news<\/a> of where the problems lie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Complaints made over the conduct of several HR staff at UK Research and Innovation have been upheld following a long investigation into bullying at the national funding agency. According to multiple sources, well over 50 UKRI employees\u2014including other HR staff\u2014came forward with evidence under an investigation launched more than a year ago.” (Research Professional News)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A major surprise… well, actually, not at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HR departments are the perfect breeding ground for bullies. HR knows exactly how to say things to not make bullying obvious, how to subtly narrow in on a victim, slowly picking at them until they crack. HR often breaks morale,\u00a0silences victims and\u00a0<\/strong>pushes out talented or compassionate people, while brashly asserting that it is others who are responsible for “the toxicity<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One source said: \u201cThe organisation is being blighted by toxic bullying. \u201cIt\u2019s gaslighting, it\u2019s aggressive, it\u2019s trying to destroy people\u2019s careers,\u201d they said, describing the bullying as \u201crelentless\u201d. People who gave evidence to the investigation said they witnessed or experienced behaviours including sexist comments, ridiculing, verbal abuse, deliberate undermining, belittling, isolation and exclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One source said: \u201cThese individuals have very much caused hostile work environments in different ways across the organisation. \u201cThis is so widespread and toxic, and so many people know about it, but it is sort of unspoken,\u201d they added. (Research Professional News)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the matter was investigated under UKRI\u2019s whistleblowing policy. This is appropriate if the matter concerned the health and safety of employees. Suspiciously, the terms of the investigation were changed in summer 2024 to become aligned with the grievance process (which in general gives less protection to complainants). Still, an independent review has concluded that serious HR bullying took place and individuals have left the organisation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us compare UKRI with Cambridge University, The first big stand-out is that UKRI conceded a bullying problem when only 7% of employees reported experiencing it. Compare that to Cambridge University, where staff surveys show that in some departments the figure is more than 40 %. A recent Guardian article<\/a> laid bare the alarming scale of the problem,.Only a quarter of staff are satisfied with how their department tackles bullying and harassment,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another big stand-out is the response of those at the top. The outgoing chair of UKRI, Ottoline Leyser, has tried to tackle the problem and has acted firmly against the bullies in HR. By contrast, those at the top of Cambridge University responded with a ho-hum “the university has introduced a new code of behaviour and updated its dignity-at-work and grievance policies<\/em>” while the Pro Vice Chancellor spent his time quibbling over trivialities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UKRI is not the only organisation in which the HR elite display a callous disregard for basic human decency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) is the United Kingdom\u2019s main public funding body for research and innovation. It was established in April 2018 and is sponsored by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. All is not well. An internal staff survey conducted in 2024 revealed that 7% of UKRI employees reported experiencing bullying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2044"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2060,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions\/2060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}