The office is not your plantation

There is a peculiar culture that persists in too many Jamaican workplaces — the belief that because someone occupies a higher position on the organisational chart, he or she has earned the right to diminish, intimidate, scrutinise, and control the people beneath them.

Nowhere is this more troubling than in higher education. Universities and colleges are supposed to be places where ideas are challenged, expertise is developed, independence is cultivated, and people are encouraged to think critically. Yet, behind the polished language of collegiality and academic excellence, some employees — particularly junior employees — find themselves navigating something far less intellectual: microaggressions, excessive supervision, and managers who seem to confuse leadership with surveillance.

Junior employee are often the easiest target — they are new; they are still learning the institutional culture; they may not yet understand the politics of the workplace; they may be on probation, pursuing a graduate or terminal degree, trying to secure a contract, or simply hoping to establish themselves professionally; and some managers know precisely how vulnerable that position can be.