Evening all: I'm wanting to talk to women about their career and personal experiences after they completed a Master's or PhD. I realise there will be a lot of students on this forum but if you fit this category and you'd be interested in participating in this research I'd be happy to hear from you. If you know someone who would be interested let them know about this study and drop me a line. I have a PhD from an Australian University in Sociology and Education. I am currently on a self funded research leave (meaning I left my well paid but hugely stressful job to save my sanity and so that I could actually write something), and am working on a book. I published my PhD in October of last year and have a couple of journal articles in the works as well. I am intending to turn this research into a book.

Thank you very much

Dr M Hughes

@DrMHughes2015

Bullying in the academic workplace is incredibly common...bullying in the workplace full stop is incredibly common. I am sorry that this happened to you. A similar thing happened to me in the second year of my PhD but my Dean, who was and is an incredibly upstanding person, shut my supervisor down, took over as my supervisor and was the single biggest reason why and how I finished my PhD.

Fast forward to 9 years later and I'm trying to figure out what to do with my fallow career. I have 10 years of teaching and research experience in academe and 8 years as a senior public servant but I left my last job 15 months ago because I was bullied to the point I got the Human Rights Commission involved. This was the 5th bullying boss I'd had in 8 years. I've published my PhD in the intervening time and done some normal jobs but I'd really like a half time research position within a normal, functioning dept.

What I think I"m trying to say is that there are no guarantees of plum jobs even when you finish. I made a six figure salary in my last position but it was a horrendous environment and my boss was a nightmare. As were 4 bosses prior to him (I worked a lot of contract and fixed term positions). I'm unemployed, jobs are scarce at the moment, funding is even scarcer. I'm working to identify what else I can and want to do, and I'm thinking of doing an acupuncture and Chinese medicine degree. We'll see. I wish you the best in whatever you decide.