One of only two seismologists in Cyprus’ Geological Survey on Tuesday accused the department of indifference to workplace bullying by unqualified staff in higher positions.

Making public statements on social media following a dispute with her department’s head, seismologist Sylvana Pilidou said she will no longer be updating social media accounts for the department about recent earthquakes in Cyprus.

She said the entire issue surfaced after her department head criticised her following the death of her father.

Pilidou, who is a Cambridge university educated seismologist and holds a PhD in seismic tomography, said that she joined the civil service in 2006, and she was immediately met with obstinance from another senior individual in the department that bullied her.

The individual that had engaged in bullying, according to Pilidou, was at the department for years, and had managed to be promoted despite having only a high school diploma.

She claimed that in 2007, when she went to file a complaint, she was only met with retribution by the department, whose staff told her that lower level employees don’t really file complaints about higher-ups.

After insisting and filing the complaint, she was told to just sit tight and wait until the individual retired, something which she did.

She said she had put up with all the “messed up” parts of the public sector for years.

She said that over the years the department got new equipment and a better network for detecting earthquakes, and that she chose to keep the social media accounts of the department up to date, no matter the timing.

She did this after the earthquakes in Turkey, which shook Cyprus, and coincided with the death of her father.

She said she updated Twitter “24/7 regardless of civil servant hours, although there is no overtime or compensation. I loved my area of focus and wanted to place my little rock to society selflessly and I did it with all my heart,” she said in her social media post.

She said that after the meeting where she was criticised for something over the loss of her father, the department managed to “murder” her ambitions.

Earthquakes can occur at whatever hour, she said, adding that for years they have been requesting the department head to establish an on call system or shifts, so that they can better organise their schedules, but the answer was always no.

She said that the department decided that there would be no system in place for on call or shifts but that the two officials working in the seismological unit were always criticised and evaluated lower if they failed to answer their works phones whenever they were called.

They were constantly called upon to update websites and social media.

Describing other foul play, Pilidou spoke of officers entering retirement and the same day receiving raises, without having done the work.

She saw people using work time and money to go get master’s degrees, and employees that were unqualified getting appointed to various positions.

“I thought I would be able to make the difference. I tried. I believed these were issues of the previous generation. But there is no hope. This behaviour is rooted and passes down from generation to generation,” she said.