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Part 1: My MoveOn Petition Against Workplace Bullying Has Run Out of Gas. Start Another?

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The anniversary of the infamous November 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol got me to thinking about writing this column.

Note that the date says 2023. That’s about the time it was beginning to wither on the vine. Years earlier, it had a lot of oomph!
Above – Sample Screenshot of Some Signers

I started the petition about that time way back when there was reasonable anticipation that workplace legislation to end bullying was possible not only in New York State but several contiguous East Coast states.

There were favorable stories showing up in mainstream corporate news media, including the New York Times and CBS to name a few — as well as alternate and community news media. I did several interviews and online radio talk shows. However, elected Albany thugs like former Speaker of the House Sheldon Silver (thankfully deceased) manipulatively gutted purposed legislation.

I also started it because of of the racism and bigotry and workplace bullying, AKA academic bulling, amuck in Hunter’s Department of Film and Media Studies. [The careers of Black staff and teachers have been under constant attack for awhile, according to a former Hunter College Provost– Valeda Dent.]

Several Hunter listervs, espescially one of the main ones known as Hunter-L, bristled with heated postings and jousting. Starting the petition and signing up as a volunteer lobbier for the New York State Healthy Workplace Advocates were attempts to get as much leverage as possible to deal with a hostile workplace that became more hostile when former Hunter College Jeniffer Rabb was appointed president. I made several lobbying visits to Albany, and visited the offices of The Legislative Gazette where several of my former j-students served as news interns.

New York Healthy Workplace Advocates? NYHWA: “We are current and former employees of companies who have experienced workplace bullying and want to do something about it. Since 2006, hundreds of people have come to Albany to speak about their experiences, written personal accounts for legislators to understand the impact and health effects of it and lobbied for the Healthy Workplace Bill. You can become an advocate too! Contact us and volunteer to tell your story, write a personal account and get involved.”

That’s me speaking about the bullying and harassment at Hunter College where it was pretty much sanctioned by the offices of the President, Provost and the Hunter College Chapter of the Professional Staff Congress. The Hunter Ombuds Office released a report one semester that bullying and mobbing were significantly on the rise. Department of Film and Media Studies was one of the worst if not the worst. CUNY administrators, of course, denied — and sneered — that bullying and mobbing and other forms of harassment existed. There also were denials by various Hunter honchos. For example, I was at a meeting when a Hunter PSC Chapter Chair and members of the Hunter Faculty Delegate Assembly (FDA) stated that not one scintilla, not one iota of bullying and mobbing and microaggression existed at the Hunter Campus. There comments were tape recorded for posterity.

{A note about mobbing: Mobbing at work is just as it sounds: a group bullying effort. “Mobbing is bullying by your coworkers to either have the co-worker come into compliance with other workers or in hopes of having the co-worker quit” — Here’s the link.}

Workplace Bullying Institute is an excellent source of information.

At the Corner of 68th & Lexington with act.tv. If you see something, “say something” too often not enough. Better to shout from the ramparts.

Background Readings For Now

More in the Works

A picture worth thousands and thousands of words. Lot’s in the works, such as, recalling damning allegations by former Provost Valeda Dent about racial discord in the Department of Film and Media Studies, and also recalling how then Hunter Prez Jennifer Raab, a Giuliani mentee, said at a public ceremony that the Department of Film and Media Studies was “schizophrenic.” The Department Chair at the time didn’t even blink at the insult.

Gregg W. Morris can be reached at gregghc@comcast.net, profgreggwmorris@gmail.com