Workplace Bullying and Problematic Culture - Assistant George Washington University Employee Review

As an assistant, you are bound to work for your share of problematic people, but my experience at GW went beyond that. I experienced workplace bullying at the hands of a high ranking employee. This supervisor made me feel belittled because I wasn't faculty and I am young. The culture of GW as a whole supports their opinion that staff, especially young staff, are barely above the rank of a student staffer. More than that, I experienced emotional and verbal abuse every day. I had to completely change how I worked in order to survive this environment of chronic anger, personal criticism, and an outright invasion of my privacy. GW claims to be a place that supports employee growth and mentorship through feedback and performance review, but I did not get that support from my supervisor or HR when it mattered. I went to HR from the very beginning, hoping to report my supervisor for creating a toxic work environment and eventually violating my right to privacy. My complaints were pushed aside with empty promises of impending changes. In the end, I realized that GW HR supports a culture that protects my supervisor's awful treatment of me simply because they were a high-ranking employee. I was meant to simply put up with things until I finally accepted another role outside of the university. My experience at GW is still affecting me though. I'm still feeling the impact on my mental health of chronic bullying and a lack of support even though my new job could not be more different or more positive. It saddens me to have to write this review even after leaving, but I hope helping someone else might help me move forward. GW is not the environment for young, entry-level staff looking to start their careers. You will not feel happy or supported in that journey.