Once Upon a Time: A Tale of Faculty Bullying

In light of the recent faculty satisfaction survey and the lack of an accompanying staff satisfaction survey, I wanted to paint a picture of some of the things that staff experience while working here at UNCG. It is unfortunate, but bullying is not confined to the upper administration and if we are looking to recreate UNCG as a positive working environment we can neither assume inherent and homogenous benevolence on the part of one part of our community nor complete and unanimous wrong doing on another.

Too many people assumed that by removing Linda Brady, all that had gone wrong at UNCG would disappear. However, there has still been absolutely no acknowledgement by either those who have managed to cling to power or by those who have come to assume it of the wrongs that were done. The absence of any such profession of truth has left some of these bullies with the feeling that their particular brand of abuse is sanctioned and that they enjoy absolute immunity to continue unchecked.

Let me tell you a story:

Once upon a time, in a department not far away there was an administrative assistant named Cordelia*. Cordelia had graciously served the department and was a dedicated and hard working member of the community known as Uncglandia. She made phone calls, scheduled appointments, supervised a band of student workers, and generally made herself most useful. She was pleasant and polite and her value was obvious to all. Well, to nearly all...

You see, in this otherwise idyllic department in Uncglandia there was a creature who could only raise herself up by pushing others down. On the outside, this creature looked very much like any one else, but all those who had come into contact with her over the years had found themselves in a desperate struggle to maintain their sanity in the face of her unpredictable and irrational assaults. Unfortunately, this creature had imbibed of the potion known as 'tenure' and it had caused her become nearly invincible and to further swell with pride.

Innocent Cordelia had come to this department unsuspecting of the nature of this creature. Many of those who had been given this same potion had used its protective power to fight valiantly, to explore bravely, or to create beauty. And so, Cordelia was surprised to find herself the object of its wrath. She began to be ever more fearful as the slightest wind could blow the creature in to breathe fire down her throat, leaving her in tears and the recipient of sympathy from kind, but equally powerless, graduate students.

Whenever Cordelia tried to answer the creature's questions or respond to its baseless accusations, the creature put out her hand and silenced her with a gesture born of her power. The vile words and unreasonable demands could be heard echoing through the hallways, infecting everyone with their poison. It was clear that no matter where this creature resided, it would bring naught but terror, trial, and confusion.

One day, after a particularly bad bout of burning had been visited on Cordelia, a young and noble graduate student dared to comfort Cordelia in her sorrow.

"Is there nothing that can be done to stop these outrages? This abuse of your goodness surely cannot go unchecked!" The graduate student declared.

"Alas," sighed Cordelia, "I believe I must resign myself to my lot as the creature has imbibed from the fountain of tenure. Sadly, there is nothing to be done except for me to contemplate my escape to somewhere more peaceful."

Turning away, she remembered all of the others who had been lost in this same way. Uncglandia was growing weaker as vibrant and vital members of its community were driven to flee from the onslaught of this creature and others like her. Some had appealed to the grand high Vice Chancellor's for help but it had been discovered that they were nothing if not the very source of the corruption in the land. They sanctioned evil actions and punished those who dared cry out and they remained afoot, despite the mysterious disappearances that had troubled their ranks.

I ask you, dear reader, what is to be done? Is Cordelia to be allowed to suffer? Is there no power that can rise and speak the magic incantation that will either banish or cure these terrible creatures?

To be continued...

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*names have been changed to protect the innocent.

What Is a Bully?

A bully, according to the dictionary, is:

One who uses superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force him or her to do what one wants.

Consider the power relationship that exists between Sophie and members of the upper administration at UNCG. What power does she hold? Then, I ask you to think about the relationship between members of the upper administration and their employees.

Where does the power lie? Who is doing the bullying? How can a nobody ‘bully’ the powerful? If I have power, it lies in speaking the truth.

The accusation of injury is a typical tactic when the powerful get called out; to turn the tables and play the victim.

It means this is working.

I am sorry if these people find their own actions to be cruel and insulting. I am sorry if they are experiencing any small measure of the discomfort that they have doled out so glibly to others over the years. I am sorry that this filth had to exist in order for it to come to light.

If there had been other means to address these issues; If it had been possible to deal with these problems via civilized discourse; If they weren’t bullies accustomed to the use of intimidation…but that’s not the world we live in. My mother always used to say: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

If the executives find it horrifying, they must know that they are responsible. Sophie has held a mirror to their faces and they do not like it when others see their twisted reflection.

If the folks in the upper administration at UNCG are truly concerned with the creation of a positive work environment, then I applaud them. Admitting they have a problem is a first step, but unfortunately, I have seen no indication that such an admission is forthcoming. 

Instead they will play the part of the injured innocent and make bizarre and melodramatic claims that the words I write could incite violence. They may as well claim that I will summon unicorns and the wrath of Horus. Dana Dunn plays the part of a horrified damsel asking if anyone would really like to come work on our campus where such behavior (writing about the truth) is acceptable.

Were they supposed to be more enticed by a place that has its employees arrested? That spends 91 million dollars on a Rec center while claiming a dearth of funds? Where screaming at your employees is considered an executive privilege? Where students are assaulted for exercising free speech?  I could go on, but it isn’t necessary. We’re national news.

The truth hurts. 

It’s time to clean up.

The Top 9 Least Wanted, Or, Why It's Not Yet Time to Move On

Paul Mason is gone, relegated to the ‘better opportunity’ given to him by staying at home and off of UNCG campus. The Chancellor is leaving in July, albeit to a year with full pay and no work expected and, after that, the possibility of (heaven forbid) returning to walk among the faculty. Imogene Cathey has been demoted, although for some reason that doesn’t mean that she gets paid any less…and she surely wasn’t demoted for excellence of service, so you’d think it would.

But there are still bullies at UNCG and we need to smoke them out before the work here is done. The culture that Brady created will take years of hard work to undo and given the makeup and bent of the search committee as well as the type of downward pressure exerted by the Board of Governor’s, it doesn’t bode well. If our next chancellor is any of the things that we have requested, it will be due to the dedicated work of a few members of the search committee or a complete accident.

I guess that means that our biggest hope is that the incompetence this Board of Trustees has shown so far extends to an inability to select the candidate they want, thereby inadvertently choosing someone good for what UNCG has always stood for: community in scholarship.

We are a microcosm of what is happening in the North Carolina system as a whole, which makes our demons a bit more difficult to exorcise. But it will be done. So, here, I give the UNCG Top 9 Least Wanted List:

1. Bonita Brown**

2. Jan Zink

3. Bryan Terry

4. Kim Record

5. Edna Chun*

6. Benita Peace

7. Imogene Cathey

8. Linda Brady

9. Paul Mason

So, we’ve made some progress, but there is work to be done. Let these people be on notice – their behavior will be under the microscope so they’d better shape up or ship out. Nobody loves a reformed sinner more than we do, so apologies and a sincere (and successful) effort to abandon their bullying ways might put them on the road to make amends.

No more yelling at staff, treating them with disdain, or using condescension as a default tone of voice.

No more driving our staff to tears, to therapy, to drink, to divorce, or despair.

No more being technically correct while at the same time being ethically bankrupt.

No more superiority, swagger, or immunity from consequences.

The owl will be watching.

*Updated as of 4/16/15 to reflect her dismissal
**Updated as of 9/14/15 to reflect her resignation

Learning from Australia

Call me a cock-eyed-optimist, but I hold onto this desperate hope that it is possible for people to learn from the past and thereby change their approach to present versions of not-new situations.

I am currently reading a book about the founding of Australia called The Fatal Shore and for the first 300 or so pages, I was simply enjoying the story and Hughes engaging style of writing. Australia was founded as a convict colony and as it developed into a more permanent settlement, the governing body was in a position in which society was divided into two quite distinct classes: the free and powerful who were living side by side with the prisoners who were there to be punished and provide labor. On page 378 Hughes describes the system that kept the prisoners ‘in place’:

“The more capricious the convict-overseer system was, the better it ‘worked’, since it demoralized the convicts as a group and made them weaker.”

Keeping the prisoners divided internally was official policy and one of the tools used was the continual reorganization of the convicts’ working groups. The officers sewed distrust among the convicts as a method to further ensure the security of the ruling class. The system was perfected under the leadership of George Arthur who, “never lost sight of the fact that to control a state’s labor supply is to control its political life.”

In order to maintain this type of strict division, Arthur knew that more than anything he needed people he could trust: loyalty was an acceptable substitute for imagination and he lived by the principle: “Never apologize. Never explain.” He was also incredibly vain and could not stand the least criticism of any kind and made every effort he could to demolish free press. It was the only voice that could make itself heard since any participation in the everyday mechanisms of government were denied to the convicts and anyone speaking in their support was ignored entirely.

End flashback.

What is there to learn here? Well, clearly that Brady and her style of administration is nothing new. At UNCG employees are now treated as second-class citizens in a land being divided up to benefit those who see themselves as unstained by having ever been like us. Reorganization, transfer, RIF, and the pressured exit are the tools used to shake up the bonds we form and keep us from recognizing the same shared grievances. Internal discord prevents the unity needed to speak as effective participants in our university’s governance while the capricious and unpredictable nature of our ‘leadership’ has caused such demoralization that we lose our will to struggle.

Do we have to sit through this again?

Enough. It is time to come together in support of openness and transparency at UNCG.

Bottom line to all those who engage in and perpetuate the anti-social, bullying behaviors that have become the norm in upper administration (you know exactly who you are): 

Apologize, Explain, and Demonstrate.

I know it hurts your pride, but it is time to humble yourself.

You may not believe you owe an explanation, but you do.

No more secrets, obfuscation, and outright lies.

Nothing heals like the light: let the sun shine in.

Paul Mason is Leaving UNCG but We Aren’t Done with Him Yet

Free at last, free at last.

Paul Mason has not yet announced it, but will be leaving UNCG on February 6^th to pursue better opportunities. Who wouldn’t these days? After all, he only cleared out nearly a century’s worth of accumulated knowledge distributed among those who were once employed in the now ravaged university relations department. He’s been hired to swing the axe somewhere else, that’s for sure. Anyway, he’d done what he came here to do and so why would he stay?

It probably would be hard for him to come back to work the day after the public hearing that will be held as part of Lyda Carpen’s grievance process.

There’s also not that many people left for him to intimidate, fire, or have arrested.

His protector, Linda Brady, will be leaving at the end of the year.

This is a man who never holds a job for very long anyway.

Here’s the thing though. He doesn’t get to walk away from this as quietly as he’s walked away from the other places where his devastating personality has been allowed to roam freely. Now, if you type “paul mason uncg” into the Google search engine, the top hits are almost all about the damage he has done and the brazen stupidity of his actions at UNCG.

The people who hired him no doubt know who and what he is, and my heart goes out to those who will fall under his dominion. However, no longer will they have to search and scrape to find out why this is happening – it’s well documented that this is what he does. If you find out you’ll be working for Paul Mason, you’d better get your running shoes on, but you won’t be alone. Eventually, his name will stand for the pure toxicity that his personality leaks.

We’ll follow you Paul.

This isn’t over.