I think you should listen to Sylvester. As an undergrad, I challenged the rules, got threatened by one of my lecturers that "I should think very carefully about what I am doing" & "he felt he had a duty to warn the academic comunity about me". I persisted and took it as far as I could - only to lose at the final hurdle two years later when a crucial email was produced at the 11th hour. I went to hell and back and, although I feel very strongly that I did the 'right' thing, my emotional health suffered very badly. I have just started a phd but my career took a 3 year 'diversion' and I dread the first conference that I present at incase I am taken apart by people with old scores to settle (or friends). Maybe I am being paranoid but it fels like a real enough fear to me. Make sure you are up to the fight because it will be hell!!!

Do you think it is more endemic in academia than other work environments though? My experience says not. I think that anti-bullying legislation is already in place, it just needs to be enforced better. I just wonder if we really need an academic-specific anti-bullying law.

I don't think academia is particularly different from anywhere else. I suppose the difficulty arises if you are dependent entirely upon one supervisor in which case you have a pretty enclosed relationship.

Even if new laws (or guidance/good practice procedures) were implemented, they only have limited practical power. For instance, some people sue their employers for wrongful dismissal and might even win (albeit rarely, most employers can contrive a good reason). OK, they get a few quid in compensation but they still have to move on. In the commercial world you simply go and work elsewhere, perhaps in a new industry. In academia, it's not as easy to start over if you make big waves. I still think it's better to avoid academic infamy if you intend to make a career of it.

That's true. The academic world is a small one.

Mind you I have experienced this type of thing in industry, but my industry (pharmaceutics) is also a small world. But in industry the real b*stards lose out pretty quickly, cos no-one will do business with them. I agree that it is harder to get rid of bad apples in academia: so many levels of admin to go through when a complaint is made.

Take the dead wood to the cleaners! TES is a brill idea. I'm in the midst of fighting the system. Just written to the VC and he's putting some bullets up the rear end of the university complaints officer. Also, previous correspondence have come out in the wash and some people involved in the emails are crapping themselves. The academic world is not the only place you can find work after a PhD- the sky's the limit. Think outside the box and use the transferable skills obtained in the 3 years of PhD. As adults, we must not allow ourselves to be bullied. Life's just too short for that. The experience of the PhD is to toughen you up, not make you into a frightened, hopeless, spineless literati!!!!!!!!