{"id":1371,"date":"2025-01-19T16:47:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T16:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1371"},"modified":"2025-01-19T16:54:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T16:54:50","slug":"lined-up-against-the-wall-and-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1371","title":{"rendered":"Lined up Against the Wall and Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all worked for the lab at the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a very successful lab. It was run on big grants obtained by our highly-cited PI. We made many important contributions to medical research for over 25 years. We had many influential publications in high impact journals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lab was shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a quarrel between Professors. Our PI was ousted by the Head of Department. The lab was shut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 25 people employed on the grants;  3 senior research associates, 10 research associates, 6 research assistants and 6 graduate students<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the story of what happened to us. It\u2019s a story of damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 10 research associates and 6 research assistants all had fixed-term contracts. Their contracts were not renewed. They all left without any redundancy pay. Some found jobs at other labs, some had to leave research altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The entire experience has caused me personal distress. It prevented me from publishing my work, which has restricted future academic opportunities. As a result, I\u2019ve had to relocate and now commute, reducing time I spend with my family and my children, who are settled in school. I\u2019ve lost faith in the university due to the hostile manner in which this process has been handled, as well as the lack of care for its staff. I would never consider working there again, nor would I recommend it to anyone I know<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There were 3 graduate students who were near the end of their PhDs. Two were OK, one had PhD corrections that needed access to lab data, which was refused by the Head of Department. We had to get a dispensation from the examiner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 3 graduate students near the beginning of their PhDs. They suffered badly. One had to change project completely. Others suffered from sporadic supervision and disrupted projects, inevitable with the lab closure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Many research projects proposed by my supervisor have been unable to proceed. During this period, many members of the lab have left, and no new members joined, resulting in few opportunities for collaboration. I have only one high-risk research project, which requires two years of work with no guarantee of a positive outcome until the later stages. With limited research opportunities and the stress of a single high-risk project, I have experienced chronic stress, increased anxiety, and a persistently low mood, driven by concerns about the impact of reduced research output on my career and graduation prospects. This has contributed to burnout, including exhaustion and growing cynicism towards my research<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The 3 senior research staff had ‘open ended (subject to funding)’ contracts.  The university had to give us redundancy pay. Even then, they used a trick to reduce the money. Two of us had worked at labs now part of the university, but not then. They denied that those years counted, saving our wealthy university a few thousand pounds<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The distressing reality is that I have lost the once vibrant enthusiasm I used to possess for academic research. Previously, I eagerly looked forward to entering the laboratory, engaging in my research, and mentoring junior colleagues. However, now I find myself struggling to even formulate a coherent experimental plan due to a lack of focus, and my ability to mentor students has been severely hindered by a profound loss of interest and patience. The destructive aftermath of these events has left me with an overwhelming sense of distrust towards others, greatly impeding my ability to engage in research collaborations. Consequently, my career, which used to boast an average of five publications per year, has plummeted to almost zero publications this year, resulting in significant setbacks. I expressed my profound distress at what has been done to me. It unfortunately did not elicit any human response from the HR departments of the university.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a grim tale of the effects of precarity and lack of duty of care in modern research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Universities take the benefits but completely absolve themselves of the risk of employing researchers longer than the project grants with which they are associated. Universities won\u2019t update the fixed-term contract system \u2014 or even ameliorate its worst features \u2014 despite simultaneously and insincerely insisting on their commitment to anti-bullying, diversity and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a tale of a pitilessness and dishonesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all worked for the lab at the university.  It was a very successful lab. It was run on big grants obtained by our highly-cited PI. We made many important contributions to medical research for over 25 years. We had many influential publications in high impact journals.  The lab was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1371"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1384,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1371\/revisions\/1384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}