Resources – Harvard Ombuds Office

Resources

Policies and Guidelines

For Employees and Faculty

For information about the following topics, please visit the Harvard Intranet for Employees (and Faculty) (HarvIE).

Discrimination
Non-Retaliation
Policies and Union Contracts
Disability Benefits
Paid Time Off
Compensation and Benefits
Work/life Balance
Employee Resources

For Faculty

For information about the following topics, please visit Faculty Development and Diversity

Handbooks and Research Policies
Resources and Support
Employment Opportunities
Professional Development
Benefits, Childcare and Leaves
Diversity and Equity
Hiring and Retention

For Students

For information about the following, please visit the student handbook for your school: https://www.harvard.edu/academics/schools/

Degree and Performance Requirements
Enrollment/Other Procedures
Student Conduct and Expectations
Discipline and Grievance Processes
Grading/Withdrawal Policies
Academic Timelines and Schedules
Financial Aid
Student Life/Housing
Academic Resources

For Postdoctoral/Research Fellows

For information about the following, please visit, please visit your local Post-Doctoral Affairs Office through that portion of HarvIE.

Benefits
Housing
Services
Resources, Policies, Contacts
Announcements/Events
Opportunities

For Everyone at Harvard

Disability and Accommodations

University Disability Resources (UDR)

FAS Disability Access Office

Trainings

The Ombuds team provides highly interactive trainings with custom-designed exercises, case studies and presentations. Topics include Negotiation Skills, Managing Conflicts Effectively, How to Have a Difficult Conversation and Best Practices for Authorship. Other topics are available upon request.

Longwood Training

Cambridge Training

Self-Help Handouts

Authorship

Recommended Best Practices for Determining Authorship

Familiarize yourself with the HMS Authorship Guidelines and encourage the same of your colleagues and collaborators. If you oversee a lab, provide authorship guidelines to all newcomers to the lab and a description of the lab’s usual ways of deciding authorship and authorship order.

♦

Let’s Talk About Authorship

Rashid, Naim. “Lets Talk About Authorship” www.science.org. 29 September 2022, from Science, Vol 377, Issue 6614.

I avoided authorship discussions with collaborators—until I learned some hard lessons. As I moved into an assistant professor position, I knew publishing was crucial for my career. Initially I didn’t have the funding or projects to recruit my own graduate students, so I co-supervised students who were under the primary supervision of other colleagues. I shared the intellectual burden and was a co-author on the resulting papers. My colleagues and I were quite satisfied with this win-win situation, and everything seemed to be going smoothly—until I moved to another institution.

Continue Reading on Science.org.

Active Listening Techniques

Familiarize yourself with tools to use when listening: Encourage, Clarify, Restate, Reflect, Summarize and Validate.

Active Listening Techniques (PDF)

Concerns About Bullying at Work

“Bullying at work is repeated, health-harming mistreatment of a person by one or more workers that takes the form of verbal abuse: conduct or behaviors that are threatening, intimidating, or humiliating; sabotage that prevents work from getting done; or some combination of the three.”

(The Bully at Work, 2nd edition – Gary Namie, Ruth Namie)

Some bullying is done behind closed doors, some in meetings or in front of co-workers. Bullying can be both verbal and non-verbal. Bullies dominate, want control, and threaten and diminish the targeted individual. Bullying can be personally devastating to the targeted individual, causing serious health issues (stress, flare-up of auto-immune illness, lowered self esteem, depression). Bullies are both male and female and select both strong and weak members of their team as targets.

Concerns about Bullying at Work (PDF)

Considerations When Preparing for a Challenging Conversation

Learn the six steps to navigate your way through a challenging conversation.

Considerations When Preparing for A Challenging Conversation (PDF)

Delivering Effective Feedback

Find out how to give effective feedback in four steps.

Delivering Effective Feedback (PDF)

Do’s and Don’ts for Responding When Your Behavior is Perceived as Offensive

Understand how to respond when your behavior is perceived as offensive.

Do’s and Don’ts for Responding When Your Behavior is Perceived as Offensive (PDF)

Elements of an Effective Apology

An apology is a powerful means of reconciliation and restoring trust.However, sometimes even well-intentioned apologies can exacerbate a conflict. It may be helpful to consider what elements to include in a statement of apology to make it most effective and constructive.

Elements of an Effective Apology (PDF)

Legal Referral Services

Find off-campus legal services (not an endorsement of services).

Legal Referral Services (PDF)

Top 10 Dispute Resolutions Skills

With the help of our top 10 dispute resolution skills, you can cover all the bases the next time you are trying to bring a complex conflict to an end.

Top 10 Dispute Resolution Skills (PDF)