Bullying/Mobbing

Kindle Edition

(Excerpt from)
Chapter 2

A Faculty Member's New Horizons

[ . . . ] Even then, many business professors missed many days of classes, which were then assigned to assistants, usually because the business professor flew away to some distant European country on a consulting job that had nothing to do with school business. The administration turned so many blind eyes that everyone marveled at why administrators didn't walk the campus with dark glasses and seeing-eye dogs.

   Dr. Jacques LaPere noticed some of these entrenched attitudes. He had decided to try to persuade the faculty governing chambers to rethink the pay scale again and put everyone on equal par. Fat chance of that. He was new to the system. Eventually he would come around, or find himself pink-slipped right out the door into better opportunities and brighter horizons elsewhere with the administration's good wishes. The bottom line: be a team player, repeat the administrative line, defer at every turn, or move on. It was as simple as that. Dr. Nathaniel Simpson Mandrel (otherwise known as Nate) made it shamelessly clear when he took over the presidency of the school.

   Being a team player meant showing no dissent of any sort. Very quickly, Dr. Mandrel found himself insulated on all sides by yes-men, toadies, and minions who were about as clueless in their positions as Dr. Nate Mandrel was in his. "This school is now a business!" he once declared. The faculty who were present cringed at the declaration, and the administrators applauded and shouted, "Bravo! Bravo!" in order to safeguard their perks and future ones to come.

   Later, behind closed doors in the Administration Building, Dr. Mandrel swore to his soldiers, "Gentlemen and ladies of my administration, I know how to make incredible amounts of money from this school, and leave this school much richer than when we arrived." Dr. Mandrel looked around the conference table. The constituents at the table were ecstatic. "Follow me with your life's blood, without doubting or contesting me, and I will make you rich." Then, with a serious tone and a more dangerous look, he said, "Anything to the contrary, and I'll have my lieutenants destroy you." [ . . . ]