Bad Apple Bullies
Tips For Queensland teachers: How to deal with workplace bullies.
Dealing with Bad Apple Bullies: Feedback from individual Queensland teachers and from groups dealing with workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, discrimination and victimisation, etc.
If you would like to discuss your own experience of workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, discrimination, stalking, victimisation or "payback" etc. , you are very welcome to email dealingwiththemob@badapplebullies.com
Please indicate if you want your story to be published in whole or part on the Teachers' Stories page.
If you do not want to publish your story, no problem. Whatever is best for you. If you want to have a confidential "chat" by phone, this can be arranged. You are not alone. 99.8% of Australian teachers reported in 2007 that they had been bullied at work.
Education Queensland officers lost letters and documents that I emailed to them.
They lost letters and documents that I handed in at the District Office.
They had to receive registered envelopes - but my letter was not in the envelope!
Vanished!
There was simply no way that I could communicate my concerns to Education Queensland that Queensland public servants could not "lose".
And I had to spend months of my life making Freedom of Information applications over and over again to find out which of my letters and documents had been-
- "lost",
- "misunderstood",
- "not known about"
- ignored,
- falsified (a 29 page document might be falsified down to three pages, split into two parts and filed in two different files, or only every second page might be copied, so that my document would be reduced to gibberish),
- deleted. All - all - all - of my emails to and from the Department over a period of several months in 2004 - were deleted in a "computer malfunction",
- "filed appropriately"- which seems to be Queensland public service-speak for "we Ministers and senior public servants have instructed all junior public servants that your documents should be automatically filed and not read by anybody, so that nobody can be held responsible for "knowing" what you are telling us",
- "noted" - which seems to be Queensland public service-speak for "filed and ignored",
- etc.
by Queensland public servants.
The Bad Apple Bullies website was established in an attempt to communicate effectively with the person / body responsible for dealing with workplace bullying in Queensland schools.
But Dealing With The Mob has not actually managed to identify that Minister / public servant / Queensland government department to this date, 10 February 2010!
Anna Bligh -
Ken Smith -
Geoff Wilson -
Julie Grantham -
Surely one of you must know who is responsible for dealing with the workplace abuse in Queensland schools?
Friday 5 February, 2010
More than 73,000 pages of the Bad Apple Bullies website have now been read.
During the period 19 January 2010 - 5 February 2010, 1000 pages of the website were read -
Teacher Stories was by far the most popular page of the website.
and
and
were also very popular.
82.13% of visitors to the website were from Australia.
7.34% were from the United States.
29 people spent more than an hour looking at the website.
15 people made more than 10 visits to the website.
The Bad Apple Bullies Webmaster comments -
I really like to see the Bullyproof Yourself page being read, because then I know that Queensland classroom teachers are finding the Bad Apple Bullies website and are finding it useful.
When I see that somebody in Australia has been reading the Bullyproof Yourself page in the early hours of the morning, I remember the hours that I spent searching the internet for information when I was first Bad-Apple-Bully-Mob-attacked.
My heart goes out to them in their distress.
Saturday 18 July, 2009
"Dealing With The Mob" went over to Bali during June, so the stats are all over the place at the moment.
But more than 62,000 pages of the website have now been read.
Most people who contact Dealing With The Mob do not want their emails published, but I asked permission to publish one interesting email that I received today:
Bring on the Nuts - Email from "Interested Listener" - an Australian teacher who has been driven out of work.
" I liked the NO MORE BAD APPLES : BLIGH headlines in the Courier-Mail, but I am sticking to nuts today.
Things are certainly heating up there in Queensland with the Gordon Nuttall case.
The formula seems to be to "cover up for as long as you can" in order to keep the trees alive and the nuts thriving.
However, if there is a problem inside the shell that is destroying the nut, the integrity of the trees might be the real problem.
Mr Nuttall's tragedy does not only rest with him.
It is the soul-less political system, the loss of the life-giving sap that spreads such destructive energy.
The nut shell appears to be robust.
But eventually it is split open to reveal its terrible contents."
"Who is really to blame?
Who will take responsibility for a system that has lost its soul?"
"I am trying to organise my papers."
(The documentation of the bullying)
"It seems like a never-ending journey.
The "nuts" hide inside their shells while we are continually given the wrong answers or no answer at all.
Some nuts are very hard to crack!
But it does happen, thankfully, and now we will wait for other nuts to fall.
Horror, if it is a whole tree! Or many trees!
Mr Nuttall might write a book about nutology while he is in prison.
If he really has no remorse, he may find it easy to speak out with lots of flavour about what he knows."
"My life seems to be all about paperwork at the moment."
This is how the public service bullies win.
They drown you in paperwork.
And with demands that you apply over and over and over again for the same document.
"When I was working I had so little time to reflect on what has true value.
Such separation from one's true self is a real danger.
Your well-being can be harmed just to uphold a system of work.
It does take time to digest the painful truth.
Is it all just about showcasing how wonderful schools and principals are, even if many do not deserve such accolades - or even if they should be ashamed to receive such false recognition?"
"It comes back to what people value the most - the truth - or a sham."
Thursday 10 April, 2008
More than 30,000 pages of the Bad Apple Bullies website have now been read.
Wednesday 12 March, 2008
During the past few days I have been contacted by three women teachers, all so obviously literate and highly intelligent, and all being bullied.
You have to wonder if intelligent women teachers are at particular risk of being bullied.
One teacher sent me the transcript of her court case.
It was really interesting to read the questions that the barristers asked.
If you have a transcript of a court case that you would be willing to share, I would appreciate a copy.
I may be able to develop a page on the sort of questions that barristers ask bullied teachers and their doctors, etc.
It will give other teachers the opportunity to prepare for those types of questions.
And an idea of their legal position.
Thursday 23 August 2007
More than 20,000 pages of the Bad Apple Bullies website have now been read for the first time.
Saturday 21 July 2007
"Dear Whomever you are...
I wish I'd found your site 12 months ago....
It chilled me to the bone as almost everything on it is now happening me ...
Do you know of anyone in the ... region who is "trustworthy" and can help?
Many thanks for any info you can provide."
There is a real need for a state-wide network of retired teachers who are willing to support teachers who are being bullied.
Teachers who can work tape recorders and attend meetings and make sure that bullied and distressed teachers get "natural justice".
If anybody can help, please contact dealingwiththemob@badapplebullies.com
Friday 29 June 2007
Message for: Young teacher I recently heard asking for advice on how to deal with a bullying situation:
The person you were asking for advice became a bit hysterical when they realised that I was listening.
They were worried that I would tell you that some years ago they had put the phone down on me when I asked for advice in similar circumstances.
I hope that you found this website.
Bad Apple Bullies was listed as a reference in -
Casali, Gian Luca (2006) Towards Healthier Decision Making: A call for a multi criteria approach.
In Cohen, Stephen, Eds. Proceedings 13th Conference Australian Association for Professional & Applied Ethics (AAPAE), University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia).
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00005362/01/5362.pdf
6 February 2007
Stop Bullying SA is a "collaborative effort of the Interagency Roundtable on Workplace Bullying".
Bad Apple Bullies is listed as a resource on this interesting new South Australian website.
19 January 2007
The Bad Apple Bullies Story was published in the January 2007 edition of The Whistle, the newsletter of Whistleblowers Australia. (scroll down to page 7).
5 August 2006
10,000 pages of the Bad Apple Bullies website have been read for the first time.
A bullied academic drew our attention to http://bulliedacademics.blogspot.com/ a few weeks ago.
19 February 2006
Most feedback to date has been from teachers in other states of Australia, researchers and other activists.
Individual Queensland teachers have told Dealing With The Mob that they are afraid to use a school computer to look at the website because their use of the internet is monitored.
Queensland teachers are afraid of being victimised.
Dealing With The Mob is also concerned that older women teachers, a group at particular risk of workplace harassment, may not have access to a computer at home and they may not feel comfortable in the anonymity of an internet cafe.
This suggests that a book may be easier for teachers to access than a website.
Some activists are irritable because Dealing With The Mob is not more critical of bodies like the CMC, the Ombudsman, governments and political parties.
Dealing With The Mob understands this frustration.
( Pages describing specific experiences with various bodies were added at a later date. )
19 November 2005
One year since the Bad Apple Bullies website was established.
Recent feedback suggests that groups other than Queensland teachers are finding the site interesting and useful.
Some Queensland Department of Education school administrators have found the site depressing and draw attention to their own high levels of stress.
Dealing With The Mob does not suggest that all Queensland Department of Education administrators are bullies.
We do suggest that, when a Bad Apple administrator begins to bully, other administrators are put under enormous pressure to go along with the bullying and to avoid "rocking the boat".
And that the more administrators who sit very, very still in the Bad Apple Bully-boat, the harder it becomes to rock the boat and toss out the Bad Apple.
Queensland Department of Education administrators need to be trained to spot the strategies of a workplace psychopath and to avoid being sucked into mobbing.
26 June 2005
Recent feedback from individuals and small groups of Queensland classroom teachers indicates that they find the website "spot on".
Some concern was raised that the "it wasn't workplace bullying, it was reasonable management action" strategy was being abused by Bad Apple Bully administrators.
One group of teachers cornered and closely questioned Dealing With the Mob, convinced that the Bad Apple Bully Boss was actually their school principal. They said that the website seemed to describe him/her so exactly. This was a very funny experience and Dealing With The Mob was sorry to have to disillusion these teachers, but if the patterns of behaviour described on this website sound like the behaviour of your own Bad Apple Bully, it is because all Bad Apple Bully administrators demonstrate similar patterns of behaviour.
One or two administrators have been worried that the website might have been written about them.
Dealing With The Mob would be pretty confident that, if you are worried that you might be a Bad Apple Bully, then you probably aren't.
Bad Apple Bullies do not reflect on their own behaviour.
Bad Apple Bullies just tell impulsive lies and enjoy menacing classroom teachers.
18 May 2005
Bad Apple Bullies is listed in The Times Educational Supplement as a resource for English teachers who are considering coming to work in Australia. http://www.tes.co.uk/2097204
TES is the world's leading education newspaper.
04 May 2005
BullyEQ established links with Bad Apple Bullies http://www.bullyeq.com/bullying%20links.htm
BullyEQ is a huge site with many useful links to information on how to deal with workplace bullying.
01 May 2005
Bully OnLine, the world's leading website on workplace bullying, lists Bad Apple Bullies as a resource for the second time http://www.bullyonline.org/news/may05.htm (scroll down to "support groups").
Thanks for the memories, Tim Field.
11 April 2005
Workplace Mobbing Australia list Bad Apple Bullies as a resource. This is the group that organised the seminal Brisbane conference on Workplace Mobbing in October 2004. It was after that conference that the Bad Apple Bullies website was established to support Queensland teachers dealing with workplace harassment, mobbing, victimisation, discrimination, etc. http://www.workplacemobbing.com/hotline.html
The Bad Apple Bullies website is largely concerned with "downwards mobbing" (in which a group of administrators "gang up" on a subordinate employee) while Workplace Mobbing Australia is concerned largely with "upward mobbing" (in which a group of employees "gang up" on their boss and try to destroy him/ her).
07 April 2005
The State School Teacher's Union of Western Australia list Bad Apple Bullies as a resource for teachers dealing with workplace harassment and mobbing.
The SSTUWA paid for a representative of their union to fly over to Queensland to attend the conference on Workplace Mobbing that was held in Brisbane during October 2004.
The QTU was not represented at the conference.
27 March 2005
Parents Against Violence Everywhere (PAVE), a Canadian organisation, list Bad Apple Bullies as a resource. Reading PAVE's huge website provokes thought. If it takes a Queensland teacher more than five years to have a complaint of workplace harassment investigated, how long would it take a Queensland student to have a complaint of sexual or physical abuse by a teacher investigated?
If Queensland teachers are at risk of abuse, Queensland children must also be at risk of abuse, because Bad Apple Bully administrators are not following the official policies and procedures - and nobody cares.
11 February 2005
"Congratulations ... brilliant. ...
I only found out by pure chance that I could lodge a WorkCover claim when ... asked if I had lodged one.
When I said no she brightly said it was too late anyway ....
The (person) who went to that meeting (with a Bad Apple and his mob) doesn't exist any more ...
I wish I had had the benefit of your site to read.
In retrospect I was so naive and trusting of a fair go.
I knew I had to fight (the abuse of the DWP).
I made the decision that I would rather die on my feet than die on my knees. ...
Only people ... who have gone through all this can understand that."
06 February 2005
"Just been reading your site. It really is brilliant! Everything you describe happened to me."
01 December 2004
Bully OnLine, The world's leading website on workplace bullying, list Bad Apple Bullies as a resource http://www.bullyonline.org/news/dec04.htm.
It was very supportive to have issues being raised on the site the site taken so seriously at this early stage
If you would like to comment on your own experience of workplace bullying, harassment, mobbing, discrimination, victimisation stalking or the MUP, email dealingwiththemob@badapplebullies.com .
