Uni staffer David Polydores says his husband was hospitalised with heart attack symptoms caused by the stress of a Zoom call

A three-hour Zoom session led to the resignation of a Sydney Uni staffer and the hospitalisation of his husband, a tribunal has heard.

A “horrific” three-hour Zoom session led to the resignation of a university staffer and the hospitalisation of his husband, a tribunal has heard.

University of Sydney grants officer David Polydores took part in an online performance review in March 2025 with his supervisor, Nicole Richardson. He claims he was

belittled, bullied, intimidated, and attacked by her in the probation meeting.

Mr Polydores told the Fair Work Commission in July his husband Rodney Porter was present in the background and was hospitalised two days later with heart attack symptoms caused by the stress of the online session.

David Polydores claims he was belittled, bullied, intimidated, and attacked in a Zoom meeting. Picture: Linkedin

Mr Polydores wrote an email to the university with the subject line of “Urgent Help Requested”, prompting responses from various staff offering assistance.

Despite this Mr Polydores formally resigned in late March, saying he had “lost all faith” in his employers. He sought to get his job back, saying he was forced to resign due to the university’s conduct.

Commissioner Stephen Crawford was sympathetic to Mr Polydores’ plight, and called him a “credible witness”, but he was not forced to resign and thus could not claim unfair dismissal.

A University of Sydney spokeswoman said it acknowledged “the Fair Work Commission’s decision and comments confirming the university treated the complaint seriously, acted promptly to try and resolve his concerns, and did not compel him to resign”.

Mr Polydores was contacted for comment.

It comes amid a number of high-profile university sackings at other institutions including the University of Melbourne, Adelaide University and James Cook University.

The University of Melbourne is considering an appeal in the unfair dismissal case of former engineering professor Dr Stephan Matthai this month.

The university was forced to rehire the German academic even though he admitted to sending “highly inappropriate” messages to a student in 2017, including a photo of himself in boxer shorts.

Engineering professor Dr Stephan Matthai.

Unless an appeal is successful, Dr Matthai will be paid $28,098 and has the right to return to his $226,000- a-year post despite the university stating that it had “lost trust” in his ability to “behave appropriately”.

It comes after Dr Matthai told the student he was supervising at the time: “I like it when our souls touch. This is very special” and described a Facetime session between them as a “moment of bliss”.

The University of Melbourne has also been defending its sacking of Dr Angela Paladino, the former professor of marketing who was dismissed after what her lawyers have called “27 years unblemished service”.

Former University of Melbourne professor Angela Paladino.

In a Fair Work Commission hearing earlier this month, Dr Paladino was accused of “plain nastiness”, micromanagement and gaslighting. A lawyer for the university said Dr Paladino “engaged in a pattern of inappropriate behaviour, that when viewed in totality” justified her dismissal. A finding has not been handed down.

Adelaide University also came under fire for settling with former vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen, who resigned from his $1m-a-year role in July 2020 after giving evidence to an inquiry into his behaviour by the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption.

ICAC head Bruce Lander found Professor Rathjen committed “serious misconduct” by groping two female staff after a university function in Sydney in April 2019.

Former Adelaide University vice-chancellor Peter Rathjen.

In Queensland, James Cook University (JCU) academic Dr Peter Ridd was fired in 2017 for claiming global warming was not destroying the Great Barrier Reef. Two years later, a Federal Circuit Court ruled he was unlawfully sacked for expressing his views. The case reached all the way to the High Court, which ruled in 2021 that a clause in the JCU enterprise agreement protecting “intellectual freedom” did not prohibit Ridd’s dismissal for breaching the university’s code of conduct.

Dr Peter Ridd was fired in 2017 for claiming global warming was not destroying the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Cameron Laird

National Tertiary Education Union national president Dr Alison Barnes said the

“hiring-firing yo-yo at too many universities is a product of a broken governance system which doesn’t hold vice-chancellors and executives to account for shoddy workforce planning”.

“Governance reform and a fairer funding model are the keys to giving staff the stability they need to deliver world-class teaching and research,” she said. Her comments do not relate to any specific case above.

Originally published as Uni staffer David Polydores says his husband was hospitalised with heart attack symptoms caused by the stress of a Zoom call