Academic Bullying

There are many aspects in the world of academia that have encouraged the practice of academic bullying and discourage its reporting and mitigation. The sense of leadership is usually drawn from the ranks of faculty which most of whom has not received the adequate management training that would enable an effective response to such situation. The social ranking of having a higher level of education and protected position plays an important role too in elevating and encouraging academic bullying. Staff and part-time employees even students tend to be bullied as they seem to have a lower education level with unsecured position compared to professors.

There are random but specific cases of academic bullying involving the usage of postgraduate and undergraduate students to subdue to the unrealistic request from the supervisors/academician to perform the task that is totally unrelated to their research areas. Some may consider it as multi-tasking but it is in the matter of fact disturbing the rhythm of research. Research student that are being asked or told to perform these task is usually afraid of disobeying as their supervisor/academician are superior to them. They are afraid if the consequences would affect their research and academic result.

The urge to perform better between researchers has not only resulted in more burdens to others under them but also tend to ignore the true beauty of research. They only focus on achieving what is beneficial to themselves with blanketing it as so called team efforts in achieving his/her personal goals. Post-graduate student commonly experiences journal or publication hijacking whereby authors and co-authors that are john doe miraculously appeared in their journal as per requested/instructed by their researcher/lecturers hence giving credits to those who did not contribute to the research. This totally jeopardises the research nature causing more harm than benefit to the community or university. Researchers that are not experts in that certain field writing in a totally different field seem to be a common thing but it is an unethical way of practice.  

Unethical researchers with the tendency to bully must be deal with to ensure research is free from corruption and miss usage. Funding for academic purposes must be monitored accordingly to ensure cases of misuse of funding does not happen. Universities in Malaysia must monitor the usage of funding as funding is somehow syphoned into other matters not relating to the research. The similar topic of research have been known to be the pitch for funding but however, the fund for the double funding research has not been utilised for that only that one research.  

We should address this issue accordingly and I believe that it is a common practice in most universities in Malaysia. The result in misconduct of this issue would affect Malaysian to opt not to further their studies due to these bullying practices. It must be clear from corruption and abuse of power to truly cultivate the beauty of research. Don’t make it as an achievement for oneself but for the mankind altogether. 

Darren Lai Chai En

Work based messaging apps group : beneficial or a burden?

As our IT age evolve into something more sophisticated, our ways of communication changes as well. Ever remember the days where we would constantly periodically check the credit balance to ensure that we had enough to keep on chatting with our bf/gf or even friends? 

That has already been the prehistoric age, the world now worries about how big is your data plan, your internet speed and etc. From our simple SMS to the usage of messaging apps which allows unlimited texting (well, depending on your data plan) has made connecting people much easier and faster. Not mentioning the iconic troublesome bluetick or the seen features on this which I believe many have turned off on this features. 

This messaging app has allowed chatroom or groups which have transformed many small talks and discussions into the digital world. Alumni, friends, and workplace would have all these groups whereby news can get across easily and fast. However, as the title would have told you a work based messaging apps group, is it truly beneficial? 

Well, i would not put asides on how this type of app have turn long boredom meeting into quick and simple discussion through this app whereby to save a lot of time. We can easily share information, ideas and thoughts with our workmate without needing to be facing each other or anywhere close. That the bright side of it, without a doubt. 

However, have you ever been in a situation whereby your superior (codename Boss) uses that very simplified, efficient way of communication to disturb your quality time with your family friends or even while you are resting? They don't ask much, just a 2-page report on whatever the boss needs to know and it should be asap. I guess many people has experienced it which their tight faces and constant vulgar languages (typical Malaysian but not sure if other countries would be practising the same gestures). Koreans have banned employers from contacting their workers after office hour through all these messaging apps as it violates human rights laws. Don't get me wrong, if your boss asks you to report through apps during office hours, it's your duty to answer him asap. What we would be discussing here is after working hours.

As workers, we must know the limitation and boundary that you have so that your employees does not violate them. But you cannot totally blame them, they are worried and it can be your own fault for not reporting to them during office hours. Hence put it in mind to always update your work during office hour, then I guess it gives you the right to ignore this types of messages after office hours. Well, some may have different opinions on this but always bear in mind that in this matter, it should be a win-win situation. Wouldn't you want to start packing your stuff and start clearing your table right? To say that it is beneficial or not, i would put it as, it would be beneficial if and only if the apps is being used during working hours but otherwise it is not.