In last month’s ADVICE post on Workplace Bullying, I mentioned that there are many ways for a bully to bully. Here is an incomplete list of bullying tactics adapted from Wikipedia and modified for the astronomical community. Your bully may employ one of more of these tactics or he/she may have invented others. Unfortunately, there is no check list for workplace bullying in astronomy. You cannot study this list, check 5 or 10 items, and then link to recipe XYZ to solve the problem. Advice really does need to be tailored to the details of a specific situation.

If you are the victim of workplace bullying, look over the list and identify the tactics of your bully. Then (Please! Please! Please!) talk to someone you trust. You and the people closest to you can begin to develop a strategy to extricate you from the bully’s influence. Don’t be afraid to pull in the professionals, a counselor or an ombudsperson, but always check up front if they can keep your conversations confidential.

—  Threat to professional status

—  belittling opinions

—  public professional humiliation

—  accusations regarding lack of effort

—  intimidating use of discipline or competence procedures

—  Threat to personal standing

—  undermining personal integrity

—  destructive innuendo and sarcasm

—  making inappropriate jokes

—  persistent teasing, name calling, insults

—  intimidation

—  Isolation

—  preventing access to opportunities

—  physical or social isolation

—  withholding necessary information

—  keeping the target out of the loop

—  ignoring or excluding

—  Overwork

—  undue pressure

—  impossible deadlines

—  unnecessary disruptions

—  Destabilization

—  failure to acknowledge good work

—  allocation of meaningless tasks

—  removal of responsibility

—  repeated reminders of blunders

—  setting target up to fail

—  shifting goal posts without telling the target 

Here are some specific examples. The bully:

—  Falsely accused you of "errors"

—  Stared, glared, or nonverbally intimidated you and was clearly showing hostility

—  Discounted your thoughts or feelings (“that’s a stupid idea") in meetings

—  Used the "silent treatment" to "ice out" and separate you from others in the group

—  Exhibited presumably uncontrollable mood swings in front of the group

—  Made up his/her own rules on the fly that even he/she did not follow

—  Disregarded satisfactory or exemplary quality of your work

—  Harshly and constantly criticized you; has a different standard for you

—  Started, or failed to stop, destructive rumors or gossip about you

—  Encouraged people to turn against you

—  Stole credit for your work (plagiarism)

—  Abused the evaluation process by lying about your performance

—  Retaliated against you after you filed a complaint

—  Created unrealistic demands on you (workload, deadlines, duties)  

For information on this and other topics, please see CSWA's advice page.