Bullying of teachers

As I promised in a previous blog, I've been doing some research into this area and found lots of information.  Importantly, there is evidence to suggest that half the working population is/has been bullied in one way or another by a serial bully (see Bully Online) - and by that I mean bullied by colleagues, not by pupils.  Furthermore, most victims only realise that they are bullied when they read up about it.

As a result, I intend to investigate this area and publish some of my findings on this blog in an effort to help those who are unfortunate enough to suffer bullying behaviour from school colleagues. Why? Two reasons.  I would not want anyone to suffer the kind of experience described in a previous blog about the defeat of a good teacher brought about by the bullying behaviour of a colleague and ignoring of it by those in a position to do something about it.  Secondly, the evidence proves that bullying causes ill health and makes people ill with consequent negative effects on the learning of pupils and teachers in schools, something I am deeply committed to.  Please contact me or comment if you wish to add your thoughts to this blog!

There is far too much information about bullying in schools to present it in one blog so I intend to break it down into small, manageable chunks. I'll make a start with looking at some definitions of bullying!

Unite, the union, define it as "Persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating or insulting behaviour, abuse of power or unfair penal sanctions which makes the recipient feel upset, threatened, humiliated or vulnerable, which undermines their self-confidence and which may cause them to suffer stress".

Tim Field, founder of Bully Online describes bullying as "... a compulsive need to displace aggression and is achieved by the expression of inadequacy (social, personal, interpersonal, behavioural, professional) by projection of that inadequacy onto others through control and subjugation (criticism, exclusion, isolation etc).  He uses a memorable phrase to summarise this view "Those who can, do, those who can't, bully."

So what  does bullying look like in practice.  It is persistent, unwelcome behaviour which can take the form of any one, or combination, of all of the following:

• constant nit-picking, fault-finding and criticism of a trivial nature - the triviality, regularity and frequency betray bullying; often there is a grain of truth (but only a grain) in the criticism to fool you into believing the criticism has validity, which it does not; often, the criticism is based on distortion, misrepresentation or fabrication
• simultaneous with the criticism, a constant refusal to acknowledge you and your contributions and achievements or to recognise your existence and value
• constant attempts to undermine you and your position, status, worth, value and potential
• where you are in a group (eg at work), being singled out and treated differently; for instance, everyone else can get away with murder but the moment you put a foot wrong - however trivial - action is taken against you
• being isolated and separated from colleagues, excluded from what's going on, marginalized, overruled, ignored, sidelined, frozen out, sent to Coventry
• being belittled, demeaned and patronised, especially in front of others
• being humiliated, shouted at and threatened, often in front of others
• being overloaded with work, or having all your work taken away and replaced with either menial tasks (filing, photocopying, minute taking) or with no work at all
• finding that your work - and the credit for it - is stolen and plagiarised
• having your responsibility increased but your authority taken away
• having annual leave, sickness leave, and - especially - compassionate leave refused
• being denied training necessary for you to fulfil your duties
• having unrealistic goals set, which change as you approach them
• having deadlines which are changed at short notice - or no notice - and without you being informed until it's too late
• finding that everything you say and do is twisted, distorted and misrepresented
• being subjected to disciplinary procedures with verbal or written warnings imposed for trivial or fabricated reasons and without proper investigation
• being coerced into leaving through no fault of your own, constructive dismissal, early or ill-health retirement, etc

Furthermore, and what is particularly worrying is that bullying is sustained by the abdication of responsibility by those in a position to do something about it and "... perpetuated by a climate of fear, ignorance, indifference, silence, denial, disbelief, deception, evasion of accountability, tolerance and reward (eg promotion) for the bully."  (Tim Field, 1999)

Does any of this sound familiar?  Let me know and keep an eye on the blog for the next instalment.