Postdocs ‘fear reprisals for calling out workplace abuse’

Many postdoctoral researchers in the UK are suffering in silence because they feel unable to report discriminatory microaggressions, according to the leader of a new project highlighting the “lost voices” of young scientists.

“People are very scared to speak up, even anonymously, because they fear repercussions for their career,” said Sarah Jasim, a research fellow in social care at the London School of Economics, who has collected dozens of stories from early career researchers at UK universities as part of the project led by the London Postdocs association and supported by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) ARC North Thames.

“Most research groups will only have one or two postdocs per principal investigator, so it’s very difficult for anyone to come forward at all if you’re being bullied or have faced discrimination because you will automatically identify yourself,” added Dr Jasim, who called on institutions to become “more proactive” in dealing with potential problems because of the “power imbalances” found in research groups.

“We need more training at senior level to address the issues faced by early career researchers,” she said.

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The UK has an estimated 80,000 postdocs, mostly employed on fixed-term contracts, but testimonies received so far suggested many felt their welfare was overlooked because of their junior and precarious status, said Dr Jasim.

Others explained that inequalities around race, sex, class and nationality were more acute for postdocs than academics in general but they lacked opportunities to either speak to other postdocs in a similar situation, or report problems to their institution, she added.

Dr Jasim said she hoped that The Lost Voices project would help “bring some of the taboo conversations [about life as a postdoc] out of the dark”, with its website containing anonymous accounts of discrimination and microaggressions faced by some researchers as well as personal testimonies from both junior and senior scholars who experienced similar situations.

In one case, a postdoc explained how her supervisor had remarked of her nose piercing: “If you insist on wearing that then you won't be treated any better than a punk begging for change at the bus station,” setting a pattern of bullying behaviour that lasted two years.

Another international postdoc explained that they had faced “comments from university HR staff about immigrants taking British jobs”, while an eastern European postdoc reported she felt “that my accent and nationality are a hindrance when competing for positions with British-born colleagues”.

Another postdoc related some of the homophobic jokes made by lab colleagues, which they were told to ignore by their supervisor, while several scholars spoke about having to suppress regional accents which, they feared, would cause them to be judged negatively by their peers.

The project came as the University and College Union launched a campaign to tackle exploitation of postgraduate researchers, with its manifesto calling for them to be given access to terms and conditions comparable to those contracted employees get.

“If you are a postdoc who is struggling with an issue, it often feels like you have been forgotten – universities have dedicated resources for PhDs, postgraduates and staff groups but there is very little information for postdocs, and it is almost impossible to find anything signposted on university websites,” said Dr Jasim. “We know there are inequalities in academia and postdocs often feel these most heavily – I hope our national campaign helps open up the conversation about these issues,” she added.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com