Bullying in the British Council

Hi Bloggers,

I used to be involved with BC for some of their examinations.  As part of it, I remember once doing an online Child Protection Awareness course, which was very commendable.  As it happened, it wasn't particularly relevant to me personally, as I no longer taught children, nor were there any Kids classes where I was working. 

However, what interested me about the course was that there were several threads that almost exactly corresponded with bullying in the workplace, which was something I myself experienced during my time with the British Council.  It's a pity the British Council don't do a similar course for that.  I suppose it's not as high profile and is also purely internal.  Nevertheless, they do need to have some kind of program in place.

At present, they try to deal with it informally first, and then you have the option to make a grievance if all this fails.  What they don't have is an independent person or body to look at the situation.  What this means is that one has to complain first to one's immediate supervisors.  But what if they are they very ones you feel you are being bullied by?

Generally, managers within the BC close ranks if one of their own is criticized.  They're extremely hypocritical in this respect.  Trying to get anyone to take you seriously is almost impossible. Basically, they will fob you off with banal generalisations, like it's good to listen to feedback and criticism, or I don't know enough about the background or simply pass the buck to someone else.  In fact, this is exactly what the regional head, Andrew Spells, did to me.  No one will take up your cause.  They will do everything they can to block you.  Your only hope may be the Teachers' Rep, but, in reality, he has almost no power, as he is basically just another teacher.

Another thing is that bullying is often vague and ill-defined, and usually difficult to prove.  Often it's just a sustained attitude of treating someone as being of no value.  It can often be an accumulation of small incidents. It's also difficult to report because you may feel fazed by the bully and fear further reprisal.   I remember I tried to bring it up with the deputy centre manager where I was working (Ian Shears) because I felt I was getting unfair treatment from my line manager, but incredibly he just ignored me, not even calling me in for a chat.  Instead, in the end he wrote me this amazing email, in which he had come to the conclusion that no bullying was taking place, since he had observed my interaction with the alleged bully, my line manager.  But obviously a bully is going to behave correctly when he knows he's being observed.  What happens behind closed doors may be completely different.  Another thing the manager did was to copy the bully in on my original email, which he did out of "courtesy" to the latter, with absolutely no regard for my right to confidentiality.  There was certainly no courtesy towards me.  Needless to say, my relationship with the bully worsened significantly, the final result being a career damning end of year report.

So my suggestion is that they have an unbiased independent officer or body, similar to that prescribed for Child Protection, to look at any grievance of this nature.  This is important because it will remove the possibility of managers closing ranks and put them under some pressure to live up to British Council standards.  They need to be accountable just like anyone else.