Carnegie Mellon University
January 14, 2019

On the Road to Workplace Bullying Prevention

By Stephanie Laughton, VP of Campus Affairs AY18-19

When I think about bullying, I normally think of being teased for being a “nerd” in grade school. Fortunately for me, that is an aspect of my identity that I have learned to take pride in. However, bullying is not something that has disappeared with age, it has only transformed into what may be most appropriately named “workplace bullying.”

As a graduate student, day-to-day interactions with the university appear more like a job than an education. We pick (or are assigned) an advisor, who then acts like a manager or supervisor. We work with other graduate students or post-docs on projects, our co-workers. We share on-campus spaces, offices and labs, with others, our form of “corporate HQ”. This probably rings true for both doctoral and research-based master’s students. In order to most efficiently accomplish our project tasks, on behalf of both our research supervisor and our education, we need an environment that supports this endeavor. In order to create a climate at CMU which supports the graduate student community, GSA has undertaken a number of tasks to try and analyze what works and what does not in order to better inform the university administration and propose changes. We began this work last academic year with the GSA Advising Survey and expanded this year into investigation of “workplace bullying”. While we are only half-way through the year, we have some points of interest on the topic to share. You can read the full progress report here or continue reading below to get a summary.

What is workplace bullying?

We dove into the literature (like any good research student) to develop our definition. We leaned on the work of Einarsen et al. which said that workplace bullying is “repeated and persistent aggressive behaviors in the workplace that involve intimidation and humiliation.”1

This definition is inclusive of a wide range of bullying behaviors that could occur among the graduate student population including the joking and teasing I experienced as a child, but also more “adult” behaviors of overworking someone, creating exclusive groups, or even sabotaging someone’s work. It is important to note that these behaviors may be an expression of the aggressor's underlying biases, such as sexism or racism, but we did not want to limit our definition to just those actions that can have legal ramifications. Whatever the motivation, these actions can have negative effects on the emotional wellbeing, sense of community, and academic progress of a graduate student.

How widespread is workplace bullying at CMU?

We hoped to run a campus wide survey, but we were unable to. However, the data we were able to gather is alarming. The results of the 2016 Discriminatory and Sexual Harassment (DASH) Survey report that approximately a third of the graduate student population is affected by discriminatory harassment (a subset of bullying behaviors) and a self-run survey of GSA representatives conducted in December 2018 suggests that that number may be at least doubled when expanded to more general bullying behaviors.

What is there at CMU to stop this from occurring?

Given how pervasive workplace bullying is at CMU, we hoped to find a procedure that clearly stated where to go to report a situation, how it would be handled, and what policies we were protected under, however such a procedure does not exist. Potentially even worse, GSA has been told that, at the department-level, contradictory advice is often given to students, leading them to give up instead of trying to find recourse. CMU is not alone in lacking a policy or procedure about workplace bullying among in higher education, but we feel this is a place where CMU should step forward and set the standard.

As it stands, there are several offices who can be approached if you find yourself the victim of bullying including:

  • Office of Title IX Initiatives

  • Center for Diversity and Inclusion

  • Disability Resources

  • CMU Police Department

However, most of these offices will only be able to take a report and investigate when there is some sort of discriminatory, bias motivated form of bullying occurring given the policies that a case could be managed under:

  • Disorderly Conduct Policy2

  • Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/ADA Policy3

  • Policy Against Retaliation4

  • Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Policy5

  • Workplace Threats and Violence Policy6

The more general “Community Standards”7 and “Student’s Rights”8 policies set forward aspirations for the campus climate, however they appear difficult to apply.

Another route that could be pursued to to have the case heard and handled at the department or college level. However, in that case, you would have to figure out who to contact on your own (though we suggest the department head or someone in the dean’s office) and there may or may not be clear policies within those units to handle a situation.

What does GSA hope to see from this?

Our progress report is just that, a report on progress, not a final product. In Spring 2019, we aim to work with the university administration, particularly the CMU Taskforce on Campus Climate, to inform them of the lived student experience at CMU and how workplace bullying is widespread and has real, tangible, negative effects for the whole campus community. Ideally by Summer 2019 we would like to have a draft of a “Policy Against Workplace Bullying” which would provide a unified directive to manage and mitigate bullying on campus. In addition to the policy creation, GSA hopes to create resources to better inform graduate students of their rights and what routes of recourse are available to them.

Workplace bullying likely will never fully disappear, however by creating a culture of inclusion, establishing consequences, and enabling people to identify and speak out when bullying occurs, we feel CMU will truly begin to have a climate where graduate students can thrive.

Footnotes

  1. Einarsen, Stale, Helge Hoel, and Cary Cooper, eds. Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice. CRC Press, 2003.

  2. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/safety-and-security/disorderly-conduct.html

  3. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/administrative-and-governance/equal-opportunity-affirmative-action-ada. html

  4. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/administrative-and-governance/whistleblower.html

  5. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/administrative-and-governance/sexual-harassment-and-sexual-assault. html

  6. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/safety-and-security/workplace-threats.html

  7. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/student-and-student-life/community-standards.html

  8. https://www.cmu.edu/policies/student-and-student-life/students-rights.html