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Dignity at Work

The Department of Chemical Engineering is dedicated to providing and maintaining a healthy, safe and enjoyable place for its staff and students.

All employees and students are entitled to:

  • a workplace free from bullying, intimidation, harassment or victimisation
  • be treated with dignity, respect and courtesy  
  • experience no form of unlawful discrimination
  • be valued for their skills and abilities 

All staff and students are responsible for their own actions and should respect colleagues across the UCL community.

We endorse the UCL-wide “Dignity at Work” policy, which, together with support networks, protects staff and students from bullying, harassment and victimisation. Inappropriate behaviour refers to actions that create (or potentially cause) risk to the business and/or the health of its employees, regardless of whether it was intentional or unintentional, verbal or written. Please be reminded that even malicious comments or actions made outside of the work environment, such as at work-related events or on social media, can incur UCL disciplinary procedures.  

Managers are responsible for implementing and embedding good practice into the work culture; they should set standards and ensure that staff concerns are raised and dealt with accordingly. All staff are responsible for appropriately challenging inappropriate behaviours and raising concerns with managers in a timely manner. Students are encouraged to do likewise. Support and advice is available for staff and students who experience or witness bullying, harassment or discrimination.  

Full Stop Campaign

UCL has recently reviewed its policies and procedures that relate to bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.  

Whilst UCL has not always addressed these issues as well as it could in the past, we are committed to saying ‘’Full Stop’’ to bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, and revising our current policies and procedures is one part of this commitment. 

 We have made good progress with Report + Support, Where to Draw the Line and the Full Stop Campaign.

Full Stop Logo
Department Code of Conduct / Email Etiquette

This code of conduct outlines the Department’s expectations from ALL staff and students. The content is based on three principles: respect, responsibility and integrity.

We, as a department, pledge to:

  • Never tolerate, condone or ignore bullying and harassment of any kind – intentional or unintentional. Exclusionary comments or jokes are deemed inappropriate at any time; staff and students must treat each other respectfully and professionally.
  • Educate students and staff about bullying and harassment. All staff and students should be proactive in communicating with each other and highlight instances where they may find themselves a witness to bullying and harassment of any kind.
  • Actively challenge the culture within which harassment and bullying occurs; the department will support students and staff when they talk about, report or challenge bullying and harassment of any kind. This includes making appropriate adjustments to ensure that those who have experienced harassment or violence are supported in their studies or work.  To ensure this, managers and supervisors must not abuse their authority and should always consider an individual’s competencies and workload when assigning tasks.
  • Take complaints and reports about bullying and harassment seriously. However, it is up to the victim as to whether or not they wish to file a formal complaint (see ‘complaints procedure’ below and/or attached ‘complaints flow chart).
  • Make new starters feel welcome.
  • Promote a working environment that fosters varied ideas and is open to opinions that may be different to our own. We challenge ideas in order to seek to understand each other; we do not attack each other.
  • Seek consent before publishing photos of any members of the Department or visitors on social media. Only with direct consent, participants may also share the contents of talks/PowerPoint slides via social media.

Complaints Procedure

Students/staff who feel they have experienced or witnessed bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct by another may make a formal report to the Student Casework Team by emailing them on casework@ucl.ac.uk.  This process may also be initiated through Report + Support.

At a departmental level, the victim might confide in the line manager. Where bullying and/or harassment is initiated by the victim’s line manager, this matter should be escalated to the Head of Department or another member of the senior management team.

Third parties or members of the public who feel they have experienced or witnessed bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct by an employee or student while at UCL (or participating in a UCL activity), may make a formal complaint using the Public Complaints procedure.


Email Etiquette Code of Conduct

This Code outlines the Department’s expectations from all staff and students in relation to email etiquette and conduct. 

Content 

  • Include all the relevant information in the first email sent to avoid unnecessary back and forth between parties and to reduce emails overall.
  • Take care when using irony and humor as such nuances can be difficult to express in a mail message and could easily be misunderstood.
  • Avoid writing in capitals (UPPERCASE) and overdoing punctuation as this comes across as shouting. If uppercase lettering must be used, use it sparingly to lay emphasis on a particularly key point.
  • Make subject lines and content clear and try to include a status category [Info], [Action], [Time Sens] [Low Priority]. Use crisp, muddle-free sentences.
  • Reduce contentless responses where replies are not needed at all or where the actual content can be reduced conveying only the key message.
  • Have clear and consistent email signatures. 

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion 

  • Include relevant logos to help with inclusivity and signposting e.g. ‘Full Stop’ campaign and ‘Mental Health First Aider.’
  • Include the sentence'My working hours may not be your working hours. Do not feel pressure to reply to this email outside your working hours.’ to show you understand that people have different work patterns.
  • Include pronouns to indicate how to address you but also in support of the UCL (University College London) community that wants others to know how to refer to them. 

Recipient 

  • Respect the recipient’s indicated turn around response time.
  • Use the CC function appropriately and avoid cc’ing people unless it is imperative that the recipients see/act on the information.
  • You may chose to delay or schedule a time to send an email to a recipient that is within their working hours.

General 

  • Only use the urgent function if the email really is urgent and time sensitive. Only use UCL email address when discussing UCL related matters.
  • Use shared email boxes instead of personal email addresses, where they exist.
  • Ensure all emails are GDPR compliant as per UCL’s guidance. 

For further information, visit the UCL guidance on using email website

Bullying, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy on Personal Relationships

Students and staff are using these resources to request support, including counselling or informal resolution through Report + Support, as well as begin the process of making a formal complaint. All policies, guidance and support information are located on the support pages for students and staff to find out more.  

 The Preventing Sexual Misconduct Strategy group have developed the following two policies in consultation with staff, the Students Union, UCU, Unison, Unite and Academic Board: 

  1. The Prevention of Bullying, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy, which replaces the Dignity at Work Statement and the Student Bullying and Harassment Policy
  2. The revised Personal Relationships Policy.  

The Prevention of Bullying, Harsasment and Sexual Midconduct Policy introduces the term ''sexual misconduct'' and gives an expanded explanation of ''consent''. It also clearly articulates examples of unacceptable behaviour including ''grooming'' and ''abuse of power''.

The policy introduces new processes to deal with allegations and to help to protect our students and staff including:  

  • An interim measures panel to conduct risk assessments
  • Environmental investigations 

The policy also:  

  • Clarifies what information will be shared with reporting parties
  • Sets out UCL’s approach to conducting investigations into criminal matters

The Personal Relationships Policy seeks to protect students and staff from potential abuse of power, and address perceived or actual conflict of interest, and breach of confidentiality.

The new policy:

  • Prohibits close personal and intimate relationships between staff and students where there is direct supervision or pastoral support.
  • Requires the disclosure of close personal or intimate relationships between staff and student where there is no supervision.
  • Requires the disclosure of close personal or intimate relationships between staff where it may give rise to a real or perceived conflict of interest. 

The disclosures process will be managed sensitively and in confidence. There will be a transition period of 2 months from the launch of the policy so that disclosures can be made in relation to existing and previous relationships from the past 2 years.