system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
need help with work bully

there is a staff member at my work (responsible for organizing orientation, budgets sheets, etc) who is making my life miserable. im a new tenure track hire and this staff member constantly makes demands of me which are not my responsibility. he orders me around and talks to me like im his secretary. i have pushed back politely and firmly, and he has raised his voice, lied/exaggerated things to manipulate me into doing his bidding, cornered me, blocked exits, and accused me of not pulling my weight. i finally went to the chair and told him about all the demands that this admin has been making and the chair said that i'm doing everything i'm supposed to be doing at work (the bully told me i wasn't doing enough), and that he would talk to the staff person about it. but i'm not sure if the chair gets the whole gist of the issue. chair travels a lot and is not always around when these things are happening. the staff member is on his BEST behavior when chair is around and kisses his butt.

i've already had many nights of insomnia and anxiety and ive been avoiding this person as much as possible. but i know that this situation is not tenable. it is distracting me from my research and my work is suffering. i've considered the following options: 1) telling this bully more directly about his effect on me, 2) talking to my faculty mentor, 3) talking to the ombudsman

my fears are that no one will believe me or that they will think that this is no big deal. if i talk to him directly, i'm worried that he will yell at me again or accuse me of even more things or use my concerns as a weapon against me. what do you think is the best approach?
gpt
Complain to HR if your chair won't act. Yelling is almost always the sort of thing where they will intervene, at least at a reasonable institution. Especially when it is a staff member yelling at a TT line hire.

Refer them to the chair every time they make requests/demands of you. Say no firmly and more often.