Interestingly, I caught up with an old PhDer I studied with.

I mentioned her here before here, she dropped out got a job and is doing quite well in a scientific company that uses her skills. She said she does not regret dropping out, but still wonders sometimes "...what if I had finished?". However, she is in a position a to own a house and has gotten engaged which she felt she couldn't do with the temporary contracts and low wage of her former life and she recognises this.

I asked her what she missed the most (apart from me), and she said that she had held an image of having a professorship and the prestige that went with it. However, she realised that it was just that. An image.

I am not a humanities graduate so can't give you anything concrete, but as you will find out most of the world of academia is very much played out behind closed doors.

However, as I understand it the AHRC has a huge role to play in the humanities world in general, and that they fund most of the humanities PhDs in the UK. It seems logical that the AHRC are more likely to support their own students, be favourable with their grants etc. If you already are "in", in some capacity it makes future life a lot easier (especially in humanities which I understand is more cut throat than science).

I think the fact that you won a stipend at a competitive level is something future employers respect. As we all know lecturers are appointed on the basis of publication and grant acquisition, and the fact you were able to secure funding from day 1 of your career is an auspicious start (Unless you have no plans to stay in academia, then I am not sure of the relevance of the above).

I have become more aware of the "self funded" issue since starting my post doc and looking at tenured positions. When I learn more I will post about the positive and negative factors that influence ones long term career.

I would echo the sentiment about not self funding. In addition to the debt that could potentially be accrued on such an open ended time frame (which is very hard to repay on a post-doc salary) there are additional factors to take into consideration.

In my experience the self funders were the ones that were most likely to be taken advantage of because a) they had invested so much into their projects they couldn't simply "walk away" if someone tried to take advantage of them, and b)the funding bodies were quite strict about what they did/ plans/ timeframe so they were able to use this to assert their rights and argue their position more.

Similarly, in the post PhD market, the self funders in my field have tended to fare worse than the stipended ones.

Good news:

1) Katy has been off the radar for a while and seems to be maintaining radio silence. Haven't seen the last of her yet I will wager.
2) Have been given responsibility for running the day to day leadership for the team while PI is in the US. Great experience and am enjoying the status that goes with it.
3) Just got my second PhD major paper published.

Bad news:
1) Ms Ultra-competitive is starting to get a bit shirty about being "superceded" by the new guy.
2) Publication has not improved the situation outlined in point above.

Thanks for all your concern.

Actually its very strange. Its fairly horrid at the moment, the PI has really placed a lot of faith and responsibility on me, and because of the way I handled the situation with Katy, has made me the "go to" guy if any problems emerge while he is away. He has also written a spectacular letter of recommendation for this Fellowship I was in the process of applying for.

Although the situation sucks, I am looking on the brightside.

I would say that after a certain point the "law of diminishing returns" kicks in. Upto first degree level I reckon that continued education is linked with increased potential earnings for every step you take, so someone with only GCSEs generally has a significantly lower earning potential than someone with A levels (and a similar jump between A levels and Degree).

However, after this point the premium is not as high between say BSc and MSc(unless you are in a field that demands a postgraduate qualification). Likewise that second masters is probably not going to earn you much more.

Many think a PhD can actually harm your earnings, because a) you never recover from the debt you accrue while you could be earning b) you may be considered "over-educated" and repeatedly overlooked from some jobs.

Unbelievable!

Katy has launched a counter-allegation that she was being bullied by the entire team. Aparently she went to tell her external supervisor that "we have ALL been ganging up on her from day one" and the external is totally backing her up.

She has also made a complaint that she recieved inadequate supervision because the PI was never around. This is sort of true, but she is in the lit review part of her PhD and is expected to be fairly autonomous for this stage.

Ms Ultra-competitive reckons that Katy is going to go fishing for a big compensation payout, but I have never heard anything like this before. Has anyone else?

Obviously, there is other stuff I cant go into, but thats the gist of it. To be honest I am a little confused after everything.

I didnt realise that people were going to be as interested as I am (as you know I use this place to vent frustration and get things out my system). I am sorry there wasnt anything dramatic like cops coming in and taking Katy to jail or a fight breaking out, if that is what you were expecting.

Thanks for all your support folks.

I dont know what the PI said to Sabrina (cos they were alone), but he asked me again was I absolutely sure about everything I said. I said I had only seen her at the computer beforehand, and that she had threatened me.

He said that Katy had denied everything even when told there was video evidence. She said that she wanted to know everything before saying anything. She also said that she had been unhappy with the group for some time, and that her other supervisor was aware of this.

The PI told me that disciplinary measures have been launched, but there were two problems. The first is that the PI has got a visiting professorship in the states, so it may be difficult for him to handle everything due to time limitations. The second is that Katy has a fairly prestigious scholarship award which may cause problems for the group if she decides to cause "trouble".

He then said he would like to see Katy individually. I and Sabrina knew what was going on but Katy went crimson as the rest of us looked at her. They went to another office while the rest of us sat there and were gossiping about it, apart from Sabrina and I who didnt know what to say or do so just sat there giving each other looks.

Katy came back out the office and said that "THIS ISNT OVER!" and death stared at Sabrina. The PI came back and explained that there were allegations that Katy had sabotaged, but Katy had denied it. On being told there is evidence she still denied it and said that she was going to talk to her personal tutor and co-supervisor (she has 2 supervisors 1 local, 1 at another uni). Katy had been sent home for the rest of Friday, and first Sabrina and I were asked to go to the PIs office.

Sorry its taken so long guys, as you can understand I had to leave work before posting, and there is quite a lot to think about. What I am going to write is anonymised for my own safety, so some things may not make sense. Apologies in advance.

The meeting was to say the least interesting. The PI, post docs, PhDers and RAs all met at 9pm. The PI started out simply by saying Sabrina's work had gone missing and as it was quite a substantial amount, he thought it wise to investigate further. Not strictly true, but I wasnt about to point this out at that time. He said he had been through "Various channels" and had uncovered evidence that there may have been an act of academic sabotage and that there may be some turmoil because of possible disciplinary action.

I went to see the PI (who is in the UK now but it is like the 3rd time I have met him) and explained the situation. He listened to the whole story and was REALLY sympathetic. He also said he was really impressed by the way I had taken on the initiative and handled it myself.

He got a copy of the tape and saw what happened and then arranged a whole group meeting tommorow morning. He also arranged to explain what had happened to Sabrina, but I don't think Katy knows yet.

I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL TOMMOROW MORNING!

The saga continues...

A few days ago, there was something in an earlier post by Olivia that got me thinking about there being a possible other source of evidence. I noticed that there was this black box suspended on the corner of the room. I asked one of the postdocs what was it, and he told me that there had been a break in last September and a lot of valuable equipment had gone missing, so the uni had installed cameras in case it happened again.

This morning I went over to security and the rather helpful guard told me they kept a months worth of footage before they wiped it. I said rather vaguely that "data had gone missing" and he reviewed the tape.

Guess who was captured on film?

You are right, this business is stressful, but that stress is balanced with one of the best jobs in the world.

It is a damn hard journey and there are very few spots for where most of us want to be. However, the sort of people that make it are tough, smart and have the tenacity of a cockroach. The downside to this is that some people get burned and fall by the wayside. Good people that would have done well anywhere else.