ATL

Staffroom bullies

While campaigns to stop bullying among students are well publicised, a hidden culture of bullying among staff exists in education, with the victims suffering in silence. Words by Alex Tomlin

"Without first-hand experience of workplace bullying, the real trauma of it can never really be understood; how it infiltrates all aspects of your life, eroding your confidence and self-esteem."

This is how ATL member Marie Denton* describes her experience, looking back on a time when she was the victim of bullying by colleagues at her school. "What was particularly distressing was that normally I could handle difficult people and situations effectively," she adds. "Yet I found myself in a position of inertia, feeling I was constantly being watched, judged and criticised but incapable of seeing a way out."

Marie is by no means the only one. The Teacher Support Network (TSN) received almost 200 calls from teachers in 2008/09 about staff bullying, a figure that doesn't take into account the unknown number who don't speak up about being bullied.

A 2008 TSN survey suggested almost 80 per cent of teachers had experienced bullying in some form in the previous two years. Bullying in various guises was identified, including: being given an unmanageable workload; being ignored; receiving persistent criticism; being humiliated; and being subjected to persistent monitoring.

The latter was a major factor in Lucy Farmer's* experience. Working in a school where pupil behaviour was a problem for all staff, the ATL member found herself continually monitored by her head of department, placing more pressure on an already difficult situation. Moreover, the head of department criticised her for poor behaviour management, repeatedly giving it as a reason for her not passing the pay threshold.

"He wouldn't give me any guidance on how to improve my behaviour management," Lucy relates, "and senior management offered no back-up to my attempts to discipline pupils. It was very frustrating."

One attempt to speak to the headteacher in his office resulted in him yelling "get out!" in her face, reducing Lucy to tears, while on another occasion he told her she would be monitored seven times in the next term to see if she had improved, although this never materialised. "He seemed to forget he had said it," she recalls.

Another ATL member, reception teacher Charlotte Holland*, was also shouted at by her headteacher, first in front of colleagues and then in front of a class and the teaching assistant. This was accompanied by constant criticism and querying of what she was doing, as well as seemingly talking to parents at the school gates about her.

"I was getting more wound up and distressed," she recalls. "I asked the other reception teacher: 'how do you cope with her?' She told me: 'I keep my head down, my back covered and my mouth shut - if you do that, you'll be alright.' I thought, if that's how I have to work, I don't want to be here."

Charlotte called her ATL branch secretary to explain the situation. "She asked me if I felt safe. I thought she meant was I likely to hit a child, but she meant safe in myself. It was then I realised that I was constantly scared that the headteacher would come in and shout at me and I'd cry in front of the children."

The branch secretary told her not to go into work the next day and ultimately she was signed off work by a doctor for stress and prescribed antidepressants. However, the bullying still affected her while she was away from the school. "The saddest, most awful thing when you go off with stress is there's a deathly silence. Not a bunch of flowers, not a card. The staff think, 'if I go and see the person who's off I'll be next to be picked on'."

Isolation is a common factor among those being bullied. ATL member and teaching assistant Sally Sharpe* suffered two years of aggression and bullying from one of her class teachers and the headteacher. "It was one of those situations where I couldn't tell anybody," she explains. "I didn't want anyone else to know because of the headmistress's influence on the staff. She was a bully and they all toed the line. I was worried it would go from bad to worse. Although I'm not sure how much worse it could have got."

Sally's class teacher badgered her with constant questions about what she was doing, where she was going and where she had been. She frequently ordered her to sit down and on one occasion grabbed a book out of her hands and threw it across the classroom. "The children even picked up on it, asking, 'why is she like this with you? Always telling you off?'," Sally remembers. "I just felt so weak and run down by it all. It was just like a dripping tap."

Marie echoes this: "I had let the situation continue and escalate as the drip-drip effect ground me down until I was ill. I found myself dealing with a whole host of emotions," she continues, "from fear of the perpetrator, fear of taking action, shame that I had not dealt with the matter myself, fear of how others would perceive me if I did take action, as well as the effect that it might have on my career."

Moving on from a job in which you're being bullied can be easier said than done. As Charlotte explains, she was told by her headteacher: "'You won't get a good reference from me - you'll never work in this town again.' I thought, 'she's been watching too many John Wayne films'."

There is a serious issue around references though, as Pauline Lawrence* discovered when trying to get another job to escape a bullying headteacher. She was repeatedly rejected for jobs because, as became apparent, the headteacher's reference was less than glowing, calling her awkward and difficult to work with.

"The problem of the wording of the reference is that it is his personal opinion of me," Pauline explains, "even though my colleagues are happy to work with me, and I don't feel I am difficult to work with, it is his opinion. If I directly challenge him over what he has written then in one sense I am playing into his hands by proving I am awkward. A catch-22 situation."

Beyond references, Lucy is very worried that her headteacher and head of department's opinions of her ability may jeopardise her career when the so-called teacher's MOT comes into effect to renew a teacher's licence every five years.

Rather than moving on, some decide to tackle the problem head on with the help of their union. Marie started the process by speaking to her ATL school rep, then contacting her regional official for more specialist advice. "I was extremely fortunate to have a very patient and understanding in-school ATL rep, and the regional official had the expertise to inspire confidence from the start," she explains. "She counselled, advised and guided me through my options and their consequences. She then dealt with the whole process of taking my case to the school governors.
"The hearing was extremely difficult but she presented the case expertly. When she rang to tell me that they had found my case proven unanimously, I cannot begin to describe the relief I felt, knowing that people had recognised what I had been subjected to was unacceptable and that it would now stop."

Pauline has found that both involving and getting more involved in ATL has empowered her by giving her access to information that clarifies her rights and options and gives her firmer ground from which to fight her corner.

In hindsight, Sally is frustrated that she didn't do more to stand up for herself. "I didn't want to come across as being weak at the time. I wouldn't let it happen to me again. I've pulled through it and now I'd see the warning signs. I would advise anyone not to leave it. Go to the union. Once the bullies know you're going to put up with it they'll just carry on."

Charlotte has a theory about why some headteachers bully. "They're insecure in their little ivory towers. They're jealous of teachers being good and well thought of and they miss the buzz of being in the classroom."
Increased pressure to succeed may also play a part. "Whatever initiative was going, we had to do it. This headteacher went round saying: 'There's no illness in my school. We don't do ill at my school.' If anyone was off sick she wanted to know why," Charlotte relates, illustrating this with an incident where she had phoned in sick only to be called half an hour later by the headteacher ordering her to "take some paracetamol and get into school".

Having successfully moved on from her bullying ordeal, she puts a positive spin on that time of her life. "Even though you have a bad experience you can end up in a better job. It can be an opportunity."

For anyone currently suffering bullying at work, she has several words of advice. Firstly, keep a note of all incidents as they are invaluable as evidence, while keeping any relevant emails is also useful. She also suggests taking a look at the school bullying and harassment policy, though she says: "It's probably full of stuff about how to stop bullying among the children, but not among the staff."

She also advocates taking sick leave if it is all getting too much, and to get support from your union through the rep, branch secretary or regional official. "Let ATL take the strain," she suggests. "Taking action is not an easy option," admits Marie, "but for me it was the first step on the path to regaining control of my life and re-establishing my self-respect."

You can download a free PDF of ATL's publication Bullying at work. A new, updated version of this will be available soon.

*Names have been changed.

Image (c) Alamy