Bullying, discrimination and harassment - the initial complaint that landed an entire family in a corporate psychopath’s lair

The complaint was very serious. I had tried to resolve it locally with the associate director, the one up from this manager. It was this senior executive who fobbed me off to HR without consulting with me. I knew the organisational culture had deteriorated, so I knew I was doomed regarding non-compliance, poor governance and abuse of power. I was just too naive to realise how bad and diabolical it would become. 

Had this been managed ethically according to policies and procedures (and all I really wanted were reasonable and respectful boundaries, agreed to locally), I would not reach an exasperated state to find myself writing the initial complaint of bullying, discrimination and harassment, here. Had the NTEU, SafeWork NSW and SIRA NSW and other authorities, been transparent, properly trained, cared to listen, compliant to their own policies etc, and intervened to enforce compliance and stop the perpetrators when I reported it and pleaded for safety and help, I also wouldn’t reach an exasperated state to be writing here. I’m beyond exasperated. I’m scared, I’m alone, I’m still mobbed, ostracised, a victim of self-insurer fraud (massive financial abuse) and I can’t take this torture and constant stress I’m forced to live with anymore. 

You would think SafeWork NSW would urgently stop the psychological violence and get me a support network. You would think SIRA NSW would urgently order the self-insurer to process the claim form they never had, and start paying me what I was owed from the moment I made a claim. I’ll get to this later because there’s more to that story. Perhaps posting so everyone knows what I am still being put through will speed up the “process” with my wellbeing and initial entitlements as an urgent priority. 

No one is identified for privacy. I respect the laws, including privacy. But there were agencies that did not respect my privacy, or my family’s, starting with the workplace. It needs new, compliant, experienced and ethical leaders to take over. 

The organisation’s Work, Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy states: 

“Staff are responsible for each other’s safety and wellbeing, including their own”.

I did not feel “safe” emotionally under the campus library manager anymore. It took a toll on my wellbeing and her attitude had placed the wellbeing of my immediate family at risk too. Then I was also expected to work in an open office, but never show stress or be upset with offensive comments made. I had to work under these conditions every day. This manager had a responsibility for my safety and wellbeing so that I could function and ensure the safety and wellbeing of my team. And I meant equally for all the team, not more support for one over another. I tried to work under these conditions and it doesn’t work. I had to finally remove myself for my own safety and wellbeing until the matter was resolved. 

It was never resolved. How dare I burn out and expect my family’s privacy to be respected as per laws and policies. I became a target. But what was shocking, my family were also targeted. 

1. The manager informed me that I did not want to lose the “support” of a certain Senior Librarian (SL) with whom I had now started to supervise in the new role. I didn’t understand what she meant by this comment. I was blamed for past issues regarding this individual, when I too was a Senior Librarian and not her supervisor. That manager was responsible for this librarian as her direct manager, at that time. I had supported this librarian beyond reasonable, even ending up with pneumonia in September 2016, when I pushed myself with evening information research workshops. No one offered to take my sessions (the work was already prepared) so I could stay home and get well. Let’s talk WHS regarding the pneumonia that developed, forced to push myself to give classes, a health hazard not only to me but the students I was training. When I finally stayed home, the manager called me at home when I was recovering from pneumonia because the SL made a decision to cancel a class, claiming she didn’t know anything about it. She knew as much as I did, so I said to the manager (between serious coughing and breathing difficulties) to tell her to contact the LIC and get more information and deliver the class, which was her job. My family were very upset with this lack of sensitivity and violation of personal boundaries. I was staying there for safety. I couldn’t breathe from severe coughing.

2. The Senior Library Technician (‘SLT’) asked about me to the manager, as I was looking tired. This was a literal question. While on the planning days in Melbourne, the manager called and alleged I had spoken with the SLT and disclosed personal information and issues. This call occurred on Bluetooth in the car from the moment I left home all the way to the staff car parking lot. All false allegations and the day had not even started, a good reason why I looked tired in addition to working excessive hours because we were short staffed at this time. I was tired because I was dealing with an energy vampire. 

3. The manager directed me to speak to an individual in my team about her request to take a period of sick leave from late February 2017 (yes I tolerated the serious unethical micromanagement and gaslighting since the start of 2017, and finally snapped on 2 July 2019). My team member had already informed the manager that she was on a waiting list for surgery and had further advised myself and the manager that her treating doctor had escalated this procedure which was now scheduled earlier. The manager directed me to find out what this procedure entailed and to inform the SLT that she was “letting the team down” by taking sick leave. 

I felt extremely uncomfortable. It was inappropriate. But it continued. The manager would also check how much personal leave one of my direct reports had taken. All of us have things that happen in our lives. That’s what leave entitlements are there for. It was a horrific intrusion. The manager made staff more distressed at emotionally vulnerable times. It happened to me too when my dad died by suicide. I wasn’t going to be coerced to do the same. It was completely unethical and inhumane. 

I attempted to reason with the manager, replying that my team member was taking this time off in accordance with the medical advice of her treating doctor. A medical certificate was provided in accordance with requirements. But the bullying, discrimination and harassment continued. 

The manager discussed personal information about personal finances regarding having the surgery earlier. The usual “obligation to the university” line used repeatedly by the manager, in such inappropriate times. It was far worse than inappropriate. It was discrimination and harassment. And bullying! This is what I had to contend with and HR targeted me! Especially the national manager of employment relations and SAFETY. 

I felt uncomfortable by these comments and the directive to obtain private health information and breaching confidentiality and boundaries from staff who were my direct responsibility. This was one of the first unethical things I was being coerced to do as a “manager.” I won’t put any staff at risk and I do not take kindly to a formal letter from HR making allegations of any safety risk to staff by me. Extremely serious false statements, defamation and vexatious, malicious, slanderous rumours spread intentionally by HR senior executives and the actual danger to staff WHS and Wellbeing, the national manager of employment relations and SAFETY. It’s time this individual is held accountable by WHS and other laws. Her licence to practice law needs to be cancelled to remove her from such roles, to save lives. Let’s hope SafeWork NSW have finally paid attention to my repeated complaints and are reviewing the volume of evidence I provided. 

4. As semester one approached, I was pressured by the manager to micromanage my direct reports. She would also make inappropriate comments about my reports. I felt uncomfortable by these comments. Bullies don’t realise that such conduct is bullying. I can only imagine what was said about me. Gossip is malicious and hurts people. It’s passive aggressive abuse and should not be tolerated. I disagreed with the manager regarding the comments. I wasn’t going into the role being influenced by someone else’s judgement. I took on the role to establish a team where all felt a sense of purpose, value for their contribution, job satisfaction, supported and encouraged according to their role and personality. Making my team feel this way undermined my authority and made my job even more difficult. The manager would also say repeatedly, “You knew what you signed up for.” I used the approved Position Description, the formal document that outlined what I signed up for. I did not sign up for this unethical behaviour.

5. The manager would “criticise” everything certain staff did that I “should” be aware of. Micromanagement that’s serious harassment, suffocating staff, especially me. She was bullying / micromanaging me to bully / micromanage my team. No wonder all this resulted in a hypertension diagnosis by early 2019. We are talking about monitoring tea breaks, use of the amenities, sick leave etc. That’s micromanaging not only me, but expecting me to micromanage my team. Let’s not go into the Higher Education Award salary scale I was on (and the manager for that matter). Let’s not go into the kind of academic work we were meant to be doing (and still had to do while suffocating in this toxic environment of unmanaged psychosocial hazards). IT WAS UNETHICAL. 

6. In mid-2017, I undertook my first Performance Review Process (‘PRP’) with my team. The manager micromanaged me while I was trying to prepare these. I felt under so much pressure and stressed at this time to report things her way (according to her conclusions based on subjective labels and judgement). It was unfair to me because by now, I was completely burnt out trying to keep up with everything she vaguely expected of me and ace the PRP process in the first year. I didn’t manage this team for half that period, so I could only assess them based on the first few months of 2017.

To be continued…

It’s too much trauma to relive in one post. Unfortunately there’s much more.