
Nursing Scholar Sheds Light on Bullying in Academia - codelion
http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/news/nursing-scholar-sheds-light-bullying-academia
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yogo
I can only give them the same advice you would give to an 8 year old being
bullied on the playground: fight the bullies. I don't get that whole awareness
_thing_. Do you want someone else to step in and fight your battle? I realize
that sometimes people think they have their hands tied when in a professional
environment but fighting them yourselves will give you the quickest results.

~~~
JamesLeonis
I hope you don't mean physically fighting, because we adults can earn an
assault charge real quick. Likewise, the bully wants the victim to respond
over the top because it cements their power over them.

Even the 8 year old in the playground is at a disadvantage. The mentality of
the bully is to quietly dominate the weaker out of authority and regulatory
sight. They want the victim to blow your top publicly, because all the trouble
falls upon said victim.

The alternative is reporting behavior problems to the proper authorities,
which depends greatly on how serious they treat the problem. If they are lax
or ineffective, then there isn't any recourse for the victim except to remove
themselves from the entire organization or field.

This becomes greatly compounded when the bully is in a position of power over
the victim. Reporting the behavior might put the victim's job in jeopardy.

Raising awareness of the problem allows other victims, and their allies, to
realize they aren't alone in their struggle. It also allows organizations to
evaluate their reporting mechanisms to see if they are effective in responding
to intimidating behavior. Is awareness effective? Unfortunately not always.
However we should encourage strong reporting mechanisms in our institutions to
allow the victims some recourse.

~~~
yogo
No, I mean fight in the generic sense. Whether it's a lawsuit, from a boss,
etc. it's all really the same. Someone does something and they get away with
it, and naturally that pattern continues (it's probably human nature at that
point). The main reason for my "nip it in the bud" philosophy is because I
fear that when it gets bad victims might react in an extreme way.

~~~
mandelbulb
Did you even read, let alone understand JamesLeonis' post?

Bullying, by definition, arises from a powerful position onto a weaker victim.
However, reversed situations exist as well. Power in this case doesn't have to
be social power, like a higher job position or higher popularity. It can also
be a more powerful personality e.g., due to better eloquence or more
aggressive attitude. That is why in so many if not most case gaining your own
allies who are aware of the issue is the only solution beside ignoring or
fleeing.

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pmiller2
This isn't news to anyone who's read the Chronicle of Education in the past 5
or 10 years, unfortunately.

Academia is probably the perfect environment for this sort of thing to take
place because you have people so entrenched they literally can't be fired for
much short of gross incompetence or going to prison.

Since the tenure process takes 6 years, waiting it out isn't exactly a
solution. What tends to happen is that the bullied party moves on, and a lot
of times, the next person to come in is bullied as well.

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mrcactu5
I have never seen the term _bullying_ applied this way. It is everywhere
people have been murmuring about this for years, but I have never seen anyone
be outspoken about this outside of elementary or middle school.

It is everywhere - it has altered peoples lives and careers. As an adult we
are quietly doing these "microagressions" to each other constantly.

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moron4hire
One person's bullying in the workplace is another person's not putting up with
excuses for substandard work.

