At my request, my predecessor, Pierre Gildemyn, kindly agreed to compile and share his statistics for the 2017-2020 period in order to shed light on the categories of conflictual situations that are most frequently raised with the Ombud.

Here, in order of frequency, are those eight categories, each illustrated by an example* :

1. Jane, a young doctoral student, relies on the support of her thesis supervisor, a senior staff member who is respected by his peers. He is taking advantage of the situation by making sexual advances to her. At first, he is very pleasant and supportive and Jane doesn’t suspect that anything is amiss until his true intentions become clear.
   This is an example of sexual harassment, exacerbated by the power imbalance between thesis supervisor and student.
    
2. Paul has been working at CERN for 20 years. When Henry, a young colleague, joins the team, Paul constantly belittles him: he doesn’t share any information with him, doesn’t invite him to meetings and doesn’t copy him in his emails.
   
   Regardless of the reasons for this behaviour, it amounts to moral harassment.
    
3. Alexander used to be a technical expert in his field, which enabled him to rise to the position of team leader, but today his younger colleagues have a better grasp of the latest technologies than he does. Alexander’s response is to close his mind to any new initiatives or innovation, which negatively impacts the effectiveness of his team.
   
   Alexander is probably aware that his knowledge is obsolete and is struggling to come to terms with that but, by acting in this way, he’s demonstrating ineffective leadership.
    
4. Louise has had a change of functions and new objectives imposed on her without warning or any kind of discussion. Apparently, her supervisor’s decision is not open to negotiation. Louise feels like she’s been presented with a fait accompli, as if she is a pawn in a game that she doesn’t understand.
   
   This shows a lack of respect for her task management and objectives, resulting in her losing motivation and her sense of purpose.
    
5. Sonia and Igor share an office but never speak to each other. They communicate only via email and hash out their differences on social platforms. By refusing to speak face to face and openly address the conflict between them, their working environment is severely damaged and their performance – and that of the whole team – suffers.
   
   This is a problem of interpersonal communication that could be resolved by external mediation, perhaps by an ombud.
    
6. Yvan doesn’t share information that his colleague needs to make progress. Mark thinks that only his colleagues of the same nationality as him are any good at organising work and that Simon, who is of a different nationality, doesn’t have a clue. Juan and Morten, whose CERN badges are clearly visible, verbally harass a young woman who walks past them in the street in Geneva. Samuel uses a colleague’s PowerPoint presentation without giving her credit for it.
   
   These are all examples of violations of the CERN Code of Conduct. They may not be serious, but they nevertheless create a toxic, hostile working environment and/or harm the Laboratory’s reputation.
    
7. Laura is Peter’s boss. She constantly reproaches him for making “mistakes”, undermines his skills and has unreasonable expectations of him. She frequently criticises and insults him and disparages his work. When Peter reacts, he is met with barely veiled threats of reprisal.
   
   Laura behaves like a bully who is abusing her position of seniority to behave in an unacceptable way.
    
8. Andrew and Marco are co-organising a project follow-up meeting. Andrew has an indefinite contract while Marco is on a limited duration contract and needs to raise his profile and gain recognition in order to bolster his professional position. But Andrew systematically sabotages Marco’s work in order to take all the credit for himself.
   
   Andrew behaves like a bully even though he doesn’t have a position of power over Marco. This behaviour is also completely unacceptable.

These eight categories of problems, which are those that are the most frequently raised in the Ombud’s office, are not all on an equal footing – some are more harmful than others. But what they all have in common is that they relate to violations of the CERN Code of Conduct and demonstrate unacceptable behaviour.

Don’t suffer in silence if you’re experiencing interpersonal problems at work: come and speak to the Ombud. I can provide guidance on how to interpret and apply the CERN Code of Conduct.

* Names have been changed.

Laure Esteveny

I want to hear from you – feel free to email ombud@cern.ch with any feedback or suggestions for topics you’d like me to address.