The bullying of academics follows a pattern of horrendous, Orwellian elimination rituals, often hidden from the public. Despite the anti-bullying policies (often token), bullying is rife across campuses, and the victims (targets) often pay a heavy price. “Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence.” Leonardo da Vinci – “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men [or good women] do nothing.” Winston Churchill. – http://www.bulliedacademics.blogspot.com/

I believe if we did a survey in most workplaces we could also get strong “yes” answers to questions like these:
“Do you know someone who often blames others for their own failures?”
“Do you know someone who seems to look for reasons to get his or her feelings hurt?”
“Have you ever been accused of bullying, when you critiqued someone’s work appropriately?”

In the training I do, I emphasize being very specific about behaviors and the impact they have, rather than name-calling and labeling. When someone throws out terms like “bully”, “toxic”, “poisonous” and “harassing” I ask them to state the behavior, not just use a term they read on the internet that allows them to make themselves a completely innocent victim of a vicious ogre.

When terms like “bullying” are misused, it lessens the value of complaints that really ARE about bullying.

Your post was well done, and I appreciated our conversation. Tina Lewis Rowe