3 ms·
This is really just not true. Mostly because in a normal job you don't receive all of your pay in a lump sum at the end of 5+ years. The degree of lock in you
by pfisch 12y ago
This is really just not true. Mostly because in a normal job you don't receive all of your pay in a lump sum at the end of 5+ years. The degree of lock in you see in a phd program creates this kind of strange indentured servitude situation where the phd candidates have basically no recourse in most situations. In a real job you can just quit when there is sexual harassment happening, you basically can't in a phd situation without losing everything. You generally can't even switch PIs without losing years of work.
- throwaway120934 12y agoExactly. I knew someone working for a professor in the US under the Fulbright program. They were supposed to have limited hours of work so that they could also take classes. It was the professor's first year participating in the program. The professor had the same course load as normal but offloaded it all on the Fulbrighter. The professor would yell and treat the Fulbrighter the same way an emotionally abusive parent would (I saw emails). It caused crippling anxiety. But the student thought there was nothing they could do, it was a prestigious program they had worked hard to get accepted into. It was a huge honor and everyone at home was proud. It was a small school where the professor was the also the head of the department. The person could complain to some external HR or appeal to the Fulbright program to be reassigned or something, but that might not work out, might make things worse with the professor, and at best would set the person back a year to try again with someone else the next year; and what if that someone was also a sociopath?