Bullying

What is bullying ?

The following types of behavior are identified as negative acts related to bullying in the literature and astronomical organizations (AURA, ESO, The negative acts questionnaire (the reference for bullying in the literature; Table 1, see the figure below) by Einharsen & Notelaers 2009, Mahmoudi 2018, 2019 and their questionnaire on Nature):

a) Verbal & Written Bullying: slandering, ridiculing, or maligning a person; persistent name-calling which is hurtful, insulting, intimidating or humiliating; using a person as a target of jokes; abusive and offensive remarks. Some examples of verbal bullying-related behaviors: a person ridicules a colleague, tells them that their thoughts or feelings are stupid, tells them that they are incompetent, expresses anger when they are mad for another reason, makes negative comments about a colleague with others, puts down a colleague in front of others, blames a colleague to save themself from embarrassment, gives a colleague the silence treatment, threatens a colleague, spreads gossip and rumors about a colleague, repeats reminders or persistent criticism of a colleague's errors and mistakes, has allegations made against a colleague, shouts at a colleague or makes them the target of excessive anger.

b) Physical Bullying: pushing, shoving, kicking, poking, tripping, assault, or threat of assault or damage to a person’s work area or property, threats of violence and physical abuse, actual abuse.

c) Gesture Bullying: non-verbal threatening gestures; facial expressions or body postures that can convey threatening messages, finger pointing, blocking your way.

d) Exclusion: socially, physically, or professionally excluding, or disregarding a person in work-related activities. Some examples of exclusion: a person does not allow a colleague to interact with co-workers, ignores or excludes a colleague, hints or signals from others that a colleague should quit their job, ignores or faces a hostile reaction when they approach, is the subject of excessive teasing or sarcasm.

e) Sabotaging an individual’s work: Some examples of sabotaging: a person withholds information which affects a colleague's performance, ignores opinions, gives tasks with unreasonable deadlines, does not give credit to a colleague for her/his work and for work requiring a lot of effort, encourages others to mistreat a colleague, cancels or threatens to cancel a colleague's appointment, has key responsibilities removed or replaced with more trivial or unpleasant tasks, exposes a colleague to unmanageable workload.

Other behaviors in the negative acts questionnaire:

• Pressure not to claim something to which by right you are entitled

• Being ordered to do work below your level of competence

• Excessive monitoring of your work

• Practical jokes carried out by people you don't get along with

Other behaviors connected to bullying cited in the references that are primarily an ethical issue: a person invades a colleague's privacy, lies to colleagues, violation of authorship guidelines, violation of intellectual propriety rights.

Institutions and legal frames adopt very different approaches towards bullying in different countries. In the AURA Standards of workplace conduct, bullying and harassment are “most often pervasive, persistent and part of a pattern, but they can also occur as a single egregious incident.” In the legal context of several countries, bad behavior is considered as bullying and harassment, and persecuted by law only if it occurs repeatedly and regularly (e.g. weekly) and over a period of time (e.g. about six months).