# Why do schools and universities have such toxic workplace cultures?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-schools-and-universities-have-such-toxic-workplace-cultures/988902>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 22, 2023, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-schools-and-universities-have-such-toxic-workplace-cultures/988902 "2023-08-22T04:52:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-schools-and-universities-have-such-toxic-workplace-cultures/988902/61 "2023-08-28T15:46:24Z")

</div>

> [@MrLee](#):
>
> **1. Tribalism, favouritism and cliques.** While hardly unique to education, the degree to which tribalism exists in educational contexts is unrivalled. Academic departments can loathe each other for _generations_. This extends to non-academic ‘support departments’ too - it would surprise no-one to learn that Transport hasn’t been on speaking terms with Catering since 2016, for example.
> 
> **2. Poor management & leadership.** Bullying, narcissism, ‘holier-than-tho’ syndrome, ‘do as I say, not as I do’, gaslighting & scapegoating are _standard managerial practice_.
> 
> **3. Inflated egos and face-saving.** No-one can ever admit that they are wrong. Even when you have clearly made a mistake, you are culturally obliged to tie yourself (and everyone else) in knots to make out how this is, somehow, someone else’s fault.

You’ve explained exactly why many workplaces are toxic so why should there be any difference whether business or education? Mrs Cad was recently forced to transfer out of her division because she wasn’t part of the clique. Oh, the division management had been saying for a year that getting rid of the cliques was important. She graduated from the division’s exclusive management classes and discussed the issue with a few of the very-higher-ups in the company, but though they said that they would deal with how she was treated, no one did. And those same higher up did not care that someone eing trained for leadership roles was being forced out. She proved numerous times how her direct supervisor lied about her performance and was told, “I have to support him. He’s the manager.” or “What are **you** doing so that he mistreats you. You need to do better building that professional relationship.” I won’t even start with the abuse my daughter-in-law deals with at work or how half of the schools I worked at were completely toxic. I personally think that toxic workplaces are unfortunately part of the American culture.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-schools-and-universities-have-such-toxic-workplace-cultures/988902.md?page=3)