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Job-Mobbing in Academia: An Article by Ken Westhues
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by dontaxe | April 2, 2007 at 10:47 am
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As Westhues explains, "job mobbing" is common in academia. For example, a department controlled by mediocrities may attempt to shun, isolate, and ridicule its single outstanding scholar. Often these attacks are covert or indirect. The goal is to wear down "the target" emotionally. Some targets surrender to the collective will. Some retire early. Others flee to jobs elsewhere - an unfortunate outcome for the reputation of the university involved.
The German word for this is Todschweigen, or death by silence.
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at 10:21 on April 5th, 2007
"'To calculate the odds of your being mobbed," Mr. Westhues writes in his most comprehensive book on mobbing, The Envy of Excellence: Administrative Mobbing of High-Achieving Professors, 'count the ways you show your workmates up:
fame, publications, teaching scores, connections, eloquence, wit,
writing skills, athletic ability, computer skills, salary, family
money, age, class, pedigree, looks, house, clothes, spouse, children,
sex appeal. Any one of these will do.'" -
--from the Chronicle of Higher Education:
http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i32/32a01001.htm
and quoted at http://beyondrivalry.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/04/25/mobbing.html