In mid-2023, the Australian Universities Accord interim report was released. Recommended were five immediate priority actions. My focus in this post will be on Priority Action 5, given my own experience:
“Through National Cabinet, immediately engage with state and territory governments and universities to improve university governance, particularly focusing on:
• universities being good employers
• student and staff safety
• membership of governing bodies, including ensuring additional involvement of people with expertise in the business of universities.
Australian governments should work together to strengthen university governing boards by rebalancing their composition to put greater emphasis on higher education expertise. Governing bodies must as a priority do more to improve student and staff wellbeing and become exemplary employers”. (p.13 Universities Accord interim report).
I emphasise the priority of strengthening institutional governance. These reforms of the higher education sector are long overdue. Now it’s playing catch up, but at least this government has recognised the need for reform. “We must ensure all Australian universities are exemplary employers”. To further quote from the report:
“The sector’s success in delivering skills, knowledge and equity is underpinned by enduring and stable funding and governance architecture. Governing bodies, notably university councils, proactively foster positive institutional cultures that are transparent and able to deliver strategically, whilst retaining a strong commitment to staff satisfaction and student experience, safety, and wellbeing. Councils comprise members with business expertise, but also those who know and appreciate the unique characteristics of higher education.” (p. 26 Universities Accord interim report).
Australian Universities Accord Interim Report
I can only comment on one institution’s poor governance practices and leadership, multiple breaches of safety and institutional abuse and abuse of power. I do believe, however, that it’s systemic. No government regulator has truly enforced laws and regulations on the university sector, for too long. No institution truly self-regulates once dark triad personality types are appointed. The tentacles spread far and wide, in a “network” of power abusers across the system. I will elaborate on examples of these “strategic alliances” and undisclosed conflicts of interest, in later posts.
Given the state of harm my health had reached, it left me with no choice but to raise the WHS issues with the “one up” from my manager, an associate director on an executive salary. Her incompetence and disgraceful and dismissive attitude, especially passing the matter on to HR without any consultation with me, my and my family’s privacy were about to be violated and exploited to cause harm to me in the most diabolical and immoral adverse action. There was no attempt to manage the psychosocial hazards. On the contrary, HR and upper management were the greatest examples of reckless and unlawful behaviour.
When I first made this complaint to the associate director, her poor decisions lead to mismanagement, negligence and ultimately poor conduct from executive staff. HR then proceeded to take extensive adverse action against me, abusing power, including committing the crime of fraud by withholding worker’s compensation benefits. Initiated by the national manager of employment relations and safety, all my leave entitlements were stolen unlawfully, while continuing the harassment, to deny me my right to return and recover in my job. They breached a second contract: the injury management plan agreement.
Here’s how it all started. Keep the Universities Accord priority in mind, as you read:
Restructure and implementation
The restructure was planned by my unit’s executive group in 2016. It was very secretive and we were all presented with the plan at the same time. Not even the local campus managers were given this information prior, to prepare for the reaction of staff it would impact in a negative way. I submitted an EOI for the Senior Library Co-ordinator role based on the Position Description. The biggest issue was that the former Associate Director of the part of the Library being restructured, retired at the end of 2016, once the plan was formally approved and all staff were placed in their upcoming roles.
For the first six months of 2017, there was no permanent Associate Director appointed to implement the new structure, provide information, support, resources, etc. A local manager at one of the campuses acted in the role, but it was all still quite vague. The new structure changed the dynamics of my relationship with the manager on my campus, as I now had my own team to lead and manage. At first, we were short staffed leading up to semester one, so it was a case of reacting to requests from Schools and Faculties and just staying afloat. The pressure and covert bullying I was experiencing from the very start of this role resulted in all three points listed by the World Health Organisation as burnout, by end of May 2017. My body was telling me this was not normal or healthy.
When I returned from my spontaneously organised trip to Italy, a new Associate Director had been employed. I first met this individual at an internal conference. Unfortunately, that same Friday afternoon (late July 2017), something serious occurred in my personal life that caused me to release all the suppressed grief and trauma relating to my dad’s suicide, that had happened seven years before. In society, there seems to be an expectation to never show vulnerability or express human emotion. I was to return to work and be stoic. I felt I had no support network from the church community I grew up in at the time of my dad’s suicide (I had added trauma as I felt the stigma, judgement, labels and gossip in full force) and I relived this again in 2017, after attempting compassionate dialogue to educate a community about mental health, suicide and the serious effects of stigma. I walked away completely traumatised and bullied, and finally got the grief and trauma counselling I never had.
The way I was being treated at work didn’t help. I was overworked due to unclear expectations, received constant unconstructive criticism, experienced micromanagement to manage my team the manager’s way, and I was gaslit and emotionally abused so much, I was then “judged” from the start as a poor manager (only according to my manager). I was set up to fail. This manager judged and labeled staff and seemed to have convinced this new “executive” manager that she was right. Covert narcissists manipulate information regarding private and personal matters of certain staff as a form of disturbing proof that their opinions are correct. She had distressed staff at already emotionally vulnerable times in their lives, including my own. Sometimes things happen in life we have no control over. That’s why things like personal leave policies and entitlements exist. This manager unethically violated my personal boundaries many times and that of some of my team and other staff. That is harassment. I am suffering the consequences of this behaviour, labelling and judgement, on top of management’s poor implementation of a restructure.
I tried raising my concerns directly with this manager, as mentioned in a previous post, but she had a habit of becoming defensive, cutting me off and starting a monologue of her own, that usually violated personal boundaries. She was judgemental, insulting and deflected the issue raised to something irrelevant and inappropriate. It was emotionally draining behaviour. I finally snapped one morning (2 July 2019) because, although I loved my job, and I am very capable in my job, as many know, I was on my last legs from constant harassment and covert bullying. My health, wellbeing and productivity had been compromised by this manager. I was very angry and distressed. I was so scared. I had told the new associate director that I had been thrown into an ocean and left to drown. I needed an opportunity to be heard. But I still found no one was listening or supporting me in the transition in the role or taking seriously what I had to tolerate on my own.
Becoming aware of covert bullying
It was in mid-2018, when this manager finally bullied me with an insulting label, that I gave up trying to communicate with her and said, “That’s it, take the job back. Management isn’t for everyone. It’s not worth the money.” I was made to feel, and coerced to believe, I wasn’t good at this job. I was labelled self-absorbed repeatedly when I was extremely burnt out trying to keep up with all her unrealistic demands, vague expectations, constant criticism and supporting my team to the best of my ability with all of this pressure. I temporarily stepped down in mid-2018 when this manager kept repeating “self-absorbed” in her office. I’d had enough. The associate director had been in the role for a year by then. I expected that she would now have a good idea how each campus library, across three states and one territory, functioned, and the sub-cultures created by each manager. However, by this stage, I had been put through too much already.
It was when I was sent to North Sydney in April and May 2019 as a “secondment”, that I realised what I was being put through. I was being singled out and treated differently by this new associate director, when I had given so much, more than most other library staff, because they had managers that didn’t bully or harass them. The expectations placed on me were massively unrealistic and unfair. Why had this associate director not noticed this? Why didn’t she ask or become more informed, beyond fortnightly visits to my campus to have lengthy meetings with my manager, where she’d listen to malicious rumours and gossip that influenced her opinion of the truth? It was humiliating and demeaning based on a manipulative manager’s covert bullying, judgement and influencing the new associate director, of her own subjective opinions about me. I knew what management entailed and I wanted to have the autonomy I needed to apply what I had learnt in courses. I needed the harassment to stop, so I could do my job and apply and learn strategies in practice, not just theory. I now had another campus to compare my experience with and I realised I had suffered trauma because I was being bullied. No other SLC was going through this experience. I was treated differently despite my work ethic and output.
I realised that a) my colleagues in the same role were not treated unfairly or put through what I had been, and b) finally I’m told by the associate director, if I’m not happy with the outcome after raising concerns with my direct manager, I can take the issue further up. Therefore, I raised the issue with the associate director. I told her I felt emotionally unsafe under that manager’s constant bullying and needed to finally remove myself for my wellbeing until the issue was resolved. As the associate director was going on leave until end of July 2019, I took sick leave until she returned. I was hoping to calm down and take care of myself. By this stage, I felt completely broken and burnt out.
How Library Executive managed the issue
When the associate director returned, I spent 2.5 hours informing her exactly what I was put through, since January 2017. It was a shock when I finished reporting my complaint to her and she already had a solution pre-prepared. Did she listen to anything I said in that meeting? The interim solution was demeaning and humiliating again, so this time, I declined to be put through any more of this treatment, having my skills and intelligence insulted repeatedly, by such poor management practices. It is here this incompetent associate director, contacted the “relationships manager” (?) in HR to intervene. I honestly felt like a ping pong ball being thrown around. I chose to continue sick leave until this was resolved (thinking it would be resolved quickly).
At the start of August 2019, this associate director took a week carer’s leave, and referred me to the Director of Libraries if I had questions. I wasn’t sure if I needed to wait for HR to contact me or if I needed to wait for guidance from the library executive. I asked the library director my question, and received an email that seemed quite stock standard. There was a link to a HR form. I thought this was guidance to proceed. The link was broken. I tried to find a live one on the website and it was broken there too. I interpreted this to mean HR don’t care. I was going around in circles. In frustration, I finally emailed this “relationships manager”, to ask for the live link. She just gave me the link without guidance (what was the process, how do I complete the form etc). I had no clear communication, support, instructions, whatsoever. I was about to submit a formal complaint and I had no idea what that meant. It was a plain and primitive form with three fields. I could not return until the issue was resolved. I had hypertension from all the stress. I really needed to focus on my health and eliminate the need for such medication. I needed to remove myself from the stressor as per the very WHS policy! The Library executive managed this poorly and now HR would continue doing the same. The diabolical adverse action would begin.
How HR managed the issue which is still ongoing
I finally enquired with the relationship manager how long before I get a reply as I was submitting sick leave week by week, waiting for advice for a resolution. Now I learn a formal complaint required a response from the Director of HR. At this point I could feel that this wasn’t going to be useful but typical legal jargon, and, if anything, detrimental, complicating things further (and yet the associate director said, in that 2.5 hour meeting, it wasn’t brain surgery. It shouldn’t have been this complicated to the complete destruction of my safety, health and wellbeing). Why were they complicating this grievance to the point of threatening me on a personal level (I had an expectation and a right to do my job with dignity and respect in a safe work environment), rather than discuss how to resolve the workplace issue?
The email from the HR director on 23rd August finally had me in tears and completely frustrated. I was so upset by the isolation and lack of communication, guidance and support I needed to resolve this. The legal jargon and indifference to my complaint frustrated me. I was advised to resolve the issue locally with my manager and her manager. That’s what I had done, and it was the associate director who had forwarded the matter to HR in the first place! I, indeed, was a ping pong ball being hit back and forth. I emailed the “relationships manager” and asked what this means. All I wanted was someone to contact me to have a meeting in person to start resolving this issue.
She told me to call at 1pm and when I did, she was with her manager, the HR associate director, a seriously creepy covert narcissist. In this phone call, I was a broken record for one hour telling them I was fine, what I needed was to resolve this issue, starting with a meeting and for these people to finally listen. They didn’t listen again. Established policies and procedures were not followed at all.
After a distressing formal letter sent to me by that creepy HR associate director, I called to tell her I was angry because nothing I told her was in the letter and what she wrote was completely inaccurate and dangerous. I find it frightening and confronting that organisations deliberately use triggers to target staff in adverse action. The letter alleged I had threatened self-harm to a number of staff (a disgusting false accusation, knowing it would distress me having lost my own father to suicide). This letter sent alarm bells as to the real motive behind HR’s action which was further bullying and victimisation. I showed the letter to my GP. We were in agreement that such false accusations were very serious and could have been a risk to one’s safety and wellbeing, had a person truly been that vulnerable. I was not at-risk and my GP had informed an OT. Why did she not inform HR?
I told HR I needed to be informed why policies weren’t being followed. Through the OT, an email was sent to the GP (bypassing me, they wouldn’t care to send it to me directly, but they were advised by the OT to send it directly to my GP for “support”), threatening disciplinary action with seriously scary coercion tactics, even though I’d finally sent the detailed complaint to all key parties, regarding what I went through, so everyone could be on the same page.
All I wanted to do was resolve a workplace bullying issue. It took some time to realise this wasn’t normal behaviour. I was judged and harassed from the beginning. The GP informed the OT that I could return to work immediately once the issue was resolved. I experienced even more bullying, harassment and victimisation from HR at an entirely new and frightening level. It was because of all this delay and abusive treatment from HR that I needed to use so much sick leave (I was coerced to use it all as my records show), and then all my annual and long service leave. HR harassed me through ALL MY ACCRUED LEAVE ENTITLEMENTS - COMPLETE THEFT AND MASSIVE WHS VIOLATIONS. That is the repayment for two decades of excellent service. They tore my dignity to shreds (so much for a commitment to the dignity of the human person as per organisational mission), attempted to destroy my professional reputation (mud does NOT stick to integrity) and completely isolated me from my respected colleagues. This has been going on for so long because of the NTEU, SAFEWORK NSW AND SIRA NSW. I could not remain healthy and safe working in a toxic dysfunctional environment where I was overworked and bullied constantly.
I was under the impression that an organisation had a legal obligation to take a complaint seriously and a duty of care for the safety and wellbeing of staff. Initially, when I first raised the complaint, the bullying had already caused emotional stress and impeded my motivation, cognitive functioning and wellbeing. In addition, the university had no right to violate my family’s privacy and implicate them in a workplace matter I had always wanted resolved reasonably and fairly. I just wanted a way forward to resolve the issue, to be able to go to work without being bullied. The slander I’ve experienced has been traumatic. I have been deliberately isolated, marginalised and stripped of my dignity, just for enforcing my employee right to a safe work environment. I suffer severe trauma from the violation of my privacy and being the target of malicious lies. My human rights, to have a voice in my own complaint, were constantly denied.
The harassment deliberately continued, even when I demanded for HR to stop, because I had a certificate of capacity and attempted to follow the advice of my health professionals and put my health first. My demand was ignored. The negligence of the self-insurer and lack of communication from the RTW coordinator was deliberate to disadvantage me. I did not receive a claim form until I complained to WIRO nearly five months later. No one informed me about a claim form. The NTEU and WHS staff were coerced to withhold information from me (more to come on that). Whose responsibility was it to provide me with a claim form from the beginning of my compensation claim and why did they neglect to do so?
Now I do need to truly put my wellbeing and safety first. But SafeWork NSW and SIRA NSW are STILL grossly negligent. I’m still begging for my legal entitlements (the fraud to stop, to finally enforce compliance on CCI to process the claim form that should have happened in mid-2020)! What about SafeWork NSW continuing to be grossly negligent, when I’ve begged them to stop the psychological violence and harm for years! More of that to come, but no one should be forced to prove resilience like this. How many people have been subjected to such creepy torture, with regulators doing NOTHING to stop the workplace abuse, resulting in death by suicide? Would the leaders of SafeWork and SIRA regulators, then, also be guilty of industrial manslaughter due to their gross negligence? When are these SafeWork regulators planning on taking such deliberate psychological harm, directed by corporate leaders in organisations, seriously and take action to save the lives of hardworking people? How much longer SafeWork NSW, SIRA NSW, IRO and the Personal Injury Commission? How much longer NSW government department of customer service? How much longer Chris Minns?
I worked hard in my loyalty to the organisation and earned the role through my skills and service excellence to all my clients and colleagues. I expected, in return, the organisation would also look after me. The outcome I attempted to achieve, was a safe environment, to be able to work with dignity. I expect my right to a voice in my recovery, to safely recover from all this work-related trauma, being eased gradually into my role with a legitimate return to work plan (something never communicated to me by the RTW coordinator either), aligned to the injury management plan agreement an ethical case manager succeeded in providing myself and my NTD, before she was removed and never replaced. I sent multiple emails for cooperation and communication to the unethical CCI claims manager, and via IRO, who proved to be nothing more than a middleman with no problem solving and common sense. Banging your head on a brick wall would have more positive impact.
Unfortunately, the organisation has revealed, with evidence, their negligence in duty of care, disloyalty and their breach in the employment contract. I used all my personal leave, annual leave and long service leave in attempts to resolve this issue reasonably and fairly for everyone. I need a truly positive outcome for my dignity, safety and wellbeing. That includes returning to work in due time, as per injury management plan, SIRA NSW, after making my health a priority. Stop the slander, bullying and threats to my career and reputation immediately, SafeWork NSW. I’ve suffered enough.
Fair and Dignified Work Conditions - Justice and Peace office
Catholic Social Teaching on Work - Justice and Peace office
Rowlands, J. and Boden, R. (2020, 2 December). ‘How Australian vice-chancellors’ pay came to average $1 million and why it’s a problem.’ The Conversation. Online: https://theconversation.com/how-australian-vice-chancellors-pay-came-to-average-1-million-and- why-its-a-problem-150829
Sheehy, B. (2021, 16 March). ‘Psychopaths at work: How to protect yourself from the hidden cost’. ABC News. Online https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-16/psychopaths-at-work-protecting-your- workplace/13249972
Williams, R. (2023, 7 January). ‘How Narcissistic Leaders Make Their Organizations Unethical’. [Blog] : http://raywilliams.ca/how-narcissistic-leaders-make-their-organizations-unethical/
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