'Humiliation' led lecturer to commit suicide (From This is Hampshire)

Unfortunately in many firms there is "a culture of bullying". It seems to be part of life nowadays and probably starts in school where quite a few children have taken their lives. With the demise of most unions it falls to the employer to stop this practice but the logic of many of them seems to be while the employees are fighting amongst themselves they are not fighting me. Carl Baybut was respected and admired by his students and my heart goes out to his family. Hopefully Solent University will put a stop to any further bullying within the campus.

You ought to try being a student at that place!!!

AD07881 wrote:
You ought to try being a student at that place!!!

I was, when it was the institute, or the "destitute", as I called it. I don't put up with bullying at work anymore, as I have found ways to stand up for myself :)

Nearly an OAP wrote:
Unfortunately in many firms there is "a culture of bullying". It seems to be part of life nowadays and probably starts in school where quite a few children have taken their lives. With the demise of most unions it falls to the employer to stop this practice but the logic of many of them seems to be while the employees are fighting amongst themselves they are not fighting me. Carl Baybut was respected and admired by his students and my heart goes out to his family. Hopefully Solent University will put a stop to any further bullying within the campus.

Fortunately in many firms there is not "a culture of bullying". It is not a part of life nowadays and probably never starts in school where over the last 100 years quite a few children have taken their lives but not reported due to lack of reporting in the early 1900's, and most kids were up a chimney or down a pit. With the demise of most unions (see downfall of motor industry in UK and now the downfall of motor industry in US) it falls to the employer to stop this practice but the logic of many of them seems to be while the employees are fighting amongst themselves they are not fighting me. Carl Baybut was respected and admired by his students and my heart goes out to his family. Hopefully Solent University will put a stop to any further bullying within the campus.

"Fashion Lecturer" in the same sentence as "University" shows how Labour have stripped the rigour and discipline out of degree education to the point where it no longer has any meaning. Ever wonder why so many doctors and scientists come from overseas?

No Andy i cant say i have ever wondered why there are so many doctors and scientists from overseas.

How many are there then ?

I just assumed that they came here because the UK is a great place to live, possibly the best place to train in the world as a doctor or scientist and probably gives them the freedom to live their lives to the full without too much fear of reprisal

Poor guy.
Well done Andy, you managed to shoe horn in a bit of pointless politics into this.
Fool.

Did you know, Andy, that fashion and design is one of the areas where Britain leads the world? We don't only need doctors and scientists although we punch above our weight in the provision of these as well.

Andy Locks Heath wrote:
"Fashion Lecturer" in the same sentence as "University" shows how Labour have stripped the rigour and discipline out of degree education to the point where it no longer has any meaning. Ever wonder why so many doctors and scientists come from overseas?

Perhaps you should be a bit more sensitive. Yes, I agree with your point that there is too much focus in universities on certain subjects which aren't as employable or in demand, but this article is not the right place to discuss that.

I feel really sorry for this poor guy.
Depression amongst teachers and lecturers is very high thanks to Labour.
They have been reduced to drones, programmed to follow pointless targets, league tables and other government dictates.
Scrap all the league tables and free people to do their job! i.e. TEACH and Inspire without having to be constantly assessed by overpaid quangos.
If someone really is not performing well as a lecturer then they should be dismissed quietly or allowed to resign without loss of face.
Their Skills could be perfectly good in another setting.
My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

Please address bullying at SI/SSU cos it is there and rife.

I know cos I work there sometimes when I am back there

AD(attention deficit?)74, you initial preamble seemed to get lost in a mixture of tenses. Where you trying out irony?

Whatever, the demise of the UK car/bike industry was not due to the demise of Trades Unions it was due to poor/weak management & poor design & quality of manufacture.

The demise of the US car manufacturing industry was due to the Unions being too strong (they also had problems with Quality control).

Finlay are you extracting the urine?

Big Boy- maybe you are alluding to the British Leyland problems? Mix of bad design, useless management, loony left union leaders (Red Robbo and co) and much more.

I visited the Longbridge plant once and had to laugh at the number of foreign cars in the employee carparks!

We are witnessing a crisis within the car industry - our UK Vauxhall problems only exacerbating the fears of losing even more jobs and the decimating effect on local suppliers/related businesses.


The 'green' lobbies also bashing bigger cars and this will naturally throttle the luxury end of the market. What this government want is for us peasants to be crammed into electric Smart cars but they will still have the limos.

stuartjebbitt wrote:
I feel really sorry for this poor guy.
Depression amongst teachers and lecturers is very high thanks to Labour.
They have been reduced to drones, programmed to follow pointless targets, league tables and other government dictates.
Scrap all the league tables and free people to do their job! i.e. TEACH and Inspire without having to be constantly assessed by overpaid quangos.
If someone really is not performing well as a lecturer then they should be dismissed quietly or allowed to resign without loss of face.
Their Skills could be perfectly good in another setting.
My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

Sorry, Stuart, but you are wrong. The meddling into education by politicians was started by Thatcher in 1988. She was the one that brought in league tables, the national curriuculum, directed time and the all the rest of the rubbish that has clogged the education system ever since. Blame Labour for continuing with this interference but not for starting it. I think this event is a terrible tragedy and I send my condolences to the family.

Big Boy, just copied the first first and replaced "culture of bullying with "not a culture of bulling. Maybe I was wrong and "nearly an OAP" has personnal experience of bullying in every company he and his friends and family have been employed by and the schools they attended. Just thought it was a sweeping statement with no fact, so I made the polar opposite statement. Fact is probobly in between.
Manufacturing went down the toilet because of the inability to reduce costs through continuous improvement, which may or may not have been contributed by the strength of the Unions.

Yes AD74, in my 48 years of employment I have witnessed physical and mental bullying which usually has gone unchecked by employers and has mostly resulted in people leaving the companies basically because they could stand no more. The people who bullied mostly did it for their own enhancement up the ladder - for promotion - and were ruthless in their aims. This unfortunately is tolerated by many firms or swept under the carpet, but I have it on good authority that due to this tragic case management at Solent University is s......g itself that student numbers will fall now due to the adverse publicity. Oh, AD74 I cannot believe that you have not experienced this aspect of the workplace in your life or have you never been employed.

juan101 wrote:

stuartjebbitt wrote:
I feel really sorry for this poor guy.
Depression amongst teachers and lecturers is very high thanks to Labour.
They have been reduced to drones, programmed to follow pointless targets, league tables and other government dictates.
Scrap all the league tables and free people to do their job! i.e. TEACH and Inspire without having to be constantly assessed by overpaid quangos.
If someone really is not performing well as a lecturer then they should be dismissed quietly or allowed to resign without loss of face.
Their Skills could be perfectly good in another setting.
My thoughts and prayers to his family and friends.

Sorry, Stuart, but you are wrong. The meddling into education by politicians was started by Thatcher in 1988. She was the one that brought in league tables, the national curriuculum, directed time and the all the rest of the rubbish that has clogged the education system ever since. Blame Labour for continuing with this interference but not for starting it. I think this event is a terrible tragedy and I send my condolences to the family.

I'm aware of that but Labour have had 12 YEARS now and they've made it even worse, far beyond what the Tories started. Tory-Labour - It's just two cheeks of the same backside.
I support neither.

Why is it that whenever there is a bad story about one of Southampton's universities, it nearly always turns out to be centred on Southampton Institute (I refuse to call it by it's rubbish current name).

When I was a student there, one of our lecturer's wives set up a support group for partners who had their lecturer partners cheat on them with a student.

As an ex-student, one who spent their first years at Leeds Met, I have to say that this was a p***poor place, unfit to call itself a university. Having spoken to other ex-students, we are all united in the belief that having Southampton Institute on our CVs is an embarrassment.

nikolai wrote:
Why is it that whenever there is a bad story about one of Southampton's universities, it nearly always turns out to be centred on Southampton Institute (I refuse to call it by it's rubbish current name).

When I was a student there, one of our lecturer's wives set up a support group for partners who had their lecturer partners cheat on them with a student.

As an ex-student, one who spent their first years at Leeds Met, I have to say that this was a p***poor place, unfit to call itself a university. Having spoken to other ex-students, we are all united in the belief that having Southampton Institute on our CVs is an embarrassment.

Well...Lots of colleges suddenly became universities - but really in name only - the quality didn't go up.
It's just a scam, so that central government can pretend to themselves that 'More people are now going to university'
No one is being fooled - least of all perspective employers.
Better to have stayed as a good college than be a half-a***d university.
The staff get a raw deal as much as the students do.

What can I say OAP, am employed in the manufacturing indusry and have had 2 other jobs in this industry over the last 18 years and very happy in all companies. My biggest worry is not bullying but if I will have a job in 6 months due to the downturn.

Nearly an OAP wrote:
Yes AD74, in my 48 years of employment I have witnessed physical and mental bullying which usually has gone unchecked by employers and has mostly resulted in people leaving the companies basically because they could stand no more. The people who bullied mostly did it for their own enhancement up the ladder - for promotion - and were ruthless in their aims. This unfortunately is tolerated by many firms or swept under the carpet, but I have it on good authority that due to this tragic case management at Solent University is s......g itself that student numbers will fall now due to the adverse publicity. Oh, AD74 I cannot believe that you have not experienced this aspect of the workplace in your life or have you never been employed.

Unfortunately, I'm not so sure that Solent University is all that afraid of the bad PR. At Kingston University, where Diana Winstanley allegedly took her own life by hanging, the University seems to have done very little if anything to improve the inherent culture of bullying as evidenced by the staff survey that found the University had the 2nd worst record in the UK for bullying. It seems that there are still plenty of uniformed students who keep turning up to Kingston, as the Government keeps encouraging poorly prepared students to enter HE and the number of available places at reputable institutions is not keeping up with demand. So, as long as this policy is in place, universities like Solent and Kingston will continue their systematic bullying of vulnerable staff members, that is until the CPS develops the cajones to prosecute for Corporate Manslaughter.