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Don't go. My young friend went on contract for a year, doing fishery research. After a few months they said "We aren't going to pay you any more. You can't lea
by JoeAltmaier 5y ago
Don't go.
My young friend went on contract for a year, doing fishery research. After a few months they said "We aren't going to pay you any more. You can't leave because the boat won't come back until {whenever}. And if you say anything, we won't give you the recommendation you need as a young researcher doing a PhD."
She had to stay for months working for nothing. It's slavery, and they know it, and that's how it works.
Don't go.
- aww_dang 5y agoCan you say who held the contract?
- bbarnett 5y agoIt would. And after their hold on her was over, she should have screamed to the hills. While I get the reluctance, at the same time, not yelling about it means others get burned. That's just plain wrong.
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoHer professor counseled her against reporting. They needed the contact to get PhD students positions and recommendations. Reporting it online meant throwing up obstacles to herself for holding other academic positions. A PhD student is hostage against the system.
- bbarnett 5y agoHer professor counceled her to let him trap others in the same situation?!? Fine professor. Sounds like she should wait until after she gets her phd, then scream. And, while leveling accusations at the professor too. He's as guilty as they are.
- bbarnett 5y agoYou should council your friend to keep as much data, write everything down (keep a log book), keep backups of emails etc. Don't let time, let scum win.
- throwaway98797 5y agoNot all want to fight the just fight. By fighting you become the victim twice. Yes, you may save others but I cant blame someone for makinf the pragmatic choice for their lives and family.
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoI did, but as a tall white middle-class male counseling a short young inner-city woman of color it's a little difficult without being patronizing. Her response was "This is not even the worst thing that's been done to me; I have to let some of it go."
- pc86 5y agoWould you have felt more comfortable counselling her if you were 3 or 4" shorter?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- HappySweeney 5y agoWere I in this situation, I would be quite sure the professor is receiving kickbacks.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- gnopgnip 5y agoThey can file a wage claim like any other employee. In fact employers on the islands are required to hold a bond to prevent this kind of thing in the first place.
- pessimizer 5y agoWhistleblowing can severely hurt you, from destroying your career to killing you. People who demand it blindly probably haven't ever had to make a hard choice about it. I recommend against it in almost all cases for people I care about, because people have this natural infatuation for victims that is obviously prurient (whether it's love, reverence, hate, or even disgust) and you yourself are going to end up the center of the storm. If they decide to do it anyway because they're better people than me. I try to make sure they don't do it stupidly, and work with them on a careful plan that minimizes their personal danger and has the best chance of succeeding.
- nradov 5y agoIn the book "Close Calls" by Stratis Kas, Dr. Sonia Rowley tells a heartbreaking story of having to endure constant sexual harassment from one of her colleagues during a field research expedition. She was already a PhD and nominally in charge but decided not to blow the whistle because that would have set her research back by years. It's never an easy decision. https://stratiskas.com/closecalls/ https://stratiskas.com/closecalls/
- cookieswumchorr 5y agoshe had to stay, ok. but why keep working? Jobs can be scarce on an island but maybe you can find something that pays more than zero. Or work remote. Or just take vacation if you have some reserve
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoThe recommendation, remember? The research? She was a PhD student.
- dasudasu 5y agoEmployers can pull the "non recommendation" thing anywhere under any circumstance. Why would this occurrence be at all special? That’s like saying they got mugged by someone, don’t go there.
- Kluny 5y agoI think you can get a job in most fields fairly easily without references if your resume is good. I don't think it's possible to get a job without references in academia.
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoThe boat - she was trapped. Elsewhere you can find another position, move, change schools, something.
- gruez 5y agoSounds like it's more of a problem with phd students than with Falkland islands.
- Workaccount2 5y agoTechnically, just to be that guy, she worked all the extra time and was compensated for it with a recommendation.
- morpheos137 5y agoshe went on a contract. Why did she expect a raise?
- ghola2k5 5y ago"she had to stay for months working for nothing" - looks like it wasn't a raise she way after, but they stopped paying her at all?
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoYes
- Kihashi 5y agoGP mis-wrote it a bit- "We aren't going to pay you [anymore]". Meaning that they stopped paying her.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoWho can say it's even the truth though. Do you have a reference? For sure she would have filed complaint or something. It's super convenient no one has questioned you on this...
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoI understand doubt, you don't know me. But I'm not sure what you want? She's now an officer in my son's startup.
- defaulty 5y agoIt sounds like an awful experience. Was this recent or 30 years ago?
- JoeAltmaier 5y agoThree or four years ago.
- BurningFrog 5y agoThis says more about conditions for PhD students than about the Falklands.
- skrtskrt 5y agoAcademia is a ridiculous racket at this point. The ratio of people that can make a living doing research to people that are entering PhD programs is way, way off, which naturally produces a zero-sum hypercompetition "market" among PhD students that can only end in "success" by people able and willing to work crazy hard for no money for years on end - aka the already-rich, the desperate true believers, the delusional, or some combination of those three. To make things worse, all the money in universities is being sucked up by the explosion of the self-licking ice cream cone of middle management catering to the "student experience" or whatever else. Look up the absolute explosion of management salaries in universities in the last 20 years.
- AlbertCory 5y agoI stopped at M.S., but I know many Ph.D.'s. The horror stories of things they endure would fill hundreds of volumes. One told me another prof just stole her dissertation topic, and she lost two years. Innumerable others get caught in academic politics because another prof doesn't like theirs. As many people say below, being a whistleblower brings a heavy personal cost, and no one should say "you should publicize this" without being aware of that.