My reasons to start this blog

 I decided to start this blog because through the passing of the years I have felt appalled and astonished by the level of acceptance and the wide extension of bullying practices in the working atmosphere of Hong Kong. I suffered a mild, but nevertheless of grave consequences in my professional career years after, case of bullying and moving from three Spanish ladies at the School of Modern Languages of HKU in 2006/07, and a few years later I came to experience how the internal mechanisms of some institutions in this city protect and give impunity to bullies, manipulators and slanderers:  I was a lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages of CUHK when the following happened. I supported the accusations of bullying against the supervisor of my Department from a workmate that even needed psychological support to cope with the bullying. As a result of my reporting, the Head of my department (Linguistics and Modern Languages- 2013) vilified me and accused me of lack of collegiality. Eventually they refused to renew me and I ended up out of my department because of my complaints against the said supervisor. I have to say that the Personnel office and the Dean of the Faculty were perfectly aware of everything and all their concerns were about whether I would sue the university or not. They did nothing to redress the wrong and remove the vilification and professional slandering against my person. They even keep to this day some people who participated actively in the bullying and vilifying as part of that department. I was advised by the Professional Teachers Union at that time and decided not to go ahead and sue them because of all the money, time and energy that would drag out of me and the weakness of legal regulation against bullying and slandering in the city, and I'm afraid that the said administrators have been taking advantage of their position at that university to defame me, always in a covert way, never openly, with the absolute negligence and complacency of CUHK. I gave a more detailed explanation of this case in a previous entry to this blog, for those interested.

What has come to puzzle me and make me feel outraged with the passing of time is the absolute lack of proper legal mechanisms to protect employees against bullying and slandering practices in this city: the victim has the obligation of proving once and again his innocence against any doubt whereas the perpetrators can act with almost absolute anonymity and impunity. Only when the damage done is so serious as to end in suicide or raping chances to demand a proper compensation in Court seem to increase. Shameful indeed. Also, the false and totally wrong spirit of toxic corporativism that permeates several sectors of this society (especially at the working place) discourages victims to speak up and empowers perpetrators to gather supporters, by force or by any other means or reasons, to shield themselves and smear their targets with absolute impunity and carelessness. I have experienced facing bullies and defamers whose only credibility seems to be linked to their working contract with a so-called “prestigious” institution and I have had to witness how they can repeatedly spread false stories and distort facts based in their professional position, exclusively  and, very frequently, contrary to facts and good sense. No ethical or professional standards, but a certain unwritten social hierarchy, seems to be at play here, rendering useless any sense of fairness or legal protection that one could hope for. This apparent impunity encourages indeed neutral people to get on the side of the psychos and bullies, since they perceive that they hold more power and can grant more advantages and rewards at the working place than the wronged side.

Very often we find in local articles a certain tendency to justify bullying and moving in the office under shady and old-fashioned cultural reasons: Confucianism and the paternalistic, vertical structure of traditional relations in China normalises these practises and helps to sharpen the productivity of the employee. That is totally false and blatantly inaccurate. I would say that it’s nothing but a modern neoliberal lie to disempower workers from their right to question management’s behaviour. A strict but efficient boss will encourage self-development and improvement of performance in non-destructive, self-defeating ways. An employee that has been terrorized, threatened unfairly and vilified will never increase his productivity or manage to perform better. Confucianism encouraged obeying rulers, but it also encouraged denouncing abusers and their malpractices. And bullying and slandering are nothing more than the latter, at the end of the day.

Due to all these factor mentioned, it seems that many employees in this city lack the theoretical, psychological and legal tools to face psychopathic, bullying managers, and they very often develop mental illnesses such as depression and other abnormal behaviour due to the impossibility to vent their frustration and feel sufficiently recognized and compensated by society for their suffering. For all these people (and they make a large segment of the HK working population, I am afraid), and also for myself, I am starting this blog in which I will try to compile and ponder on the existence and behavioural patterns of psychopaths, bullies and slanders in the working place. 

It’s high time to rise and say “NO” to bullies and slanderers in this city.

Eduardo Méndez

03-11-2022