I know what you mean about the importance of keeping items related to research findings and I don't plan to put out anything like that! I am talking about putting out broken signs, periodicals from the 1990s which were written in a language none of the current staff speak and annual reports from organisations we have no contact with. In fact I think the reports could have come here by mistake! None of the current staff are sure why we have them and nobody can be bothered sorting it out except for me who would love to get stuck in as I feel i need something physical to do after a lot of reading. However, that brings me back to the original point of getting stuck in without being annoying.

======= Date Modified 22 Oct 2012 15:40:43 =======
Strangely enough the health and safety chap came round last week and we have been deemed a health and safety hazard but sadly not a fire risk. I think if the boxes were bad enough to be endangering the fabric of the building by being a fire risk we would need to do something about it but so long as they are simply a tripping hazard on the way to the kettle it is not
a biggy in terms of health and safety. We simply have to watch our step.

I find it hard to be surrounded by a load of junk but it appears that some of my colleagues find it comforting and any talk of change is a source of great distress to them. I know they find it very annoying that I am keen to have a clear up and really I am just after a bit of advice about how to go ahead and get the job done without seeming like a whiny, nagging pain in the neck.

Hi there

A similar thing happened to me last month. I was on the run up to my transfer review when my second supervisor had a
fall out with the first and they both ended up resigning from my PhD. At the time I was a bit non plussed as neither of them bothered to tell me. Or to be fair, one of them told me when he bumped into me in the corridor on the way to the toilet. Anyway, it turned out for the best. I got two new supervisors from with in the department and they have both been great. Try not to take this bullying behaviour personally and don't worry what other people think. You will not be the first person that this bully has treated this way but you might well be the first person to refuse to stand for it. There will be more people on your side than you realise.

======= Date Modified 22 Oct 2012 12:51:36 =======
I have been given desk space in an office which is terribly untidy.

The room holds about 10 people when it is full and it does feel cramped. There are boxes of stuff everywhere none of which have been touched since I arrived a year ago. I want to tidy the place up so that we have some more room. I suggested this to colleagues and half think it is great idea and half are utterly horrified at the prospect. Any ideas as to how i can get my way i.e. clear out the clutter without coming across as so annoying to my colleagues?

Thank you all so much for your kind words of support. They have made a huge difference in the way I have been feeling and have also helped me approach my situation differently.

Quite frankly I was embarrassed that this bloke ever thought he stood a chance with me and terribly hurt that people had listened and believed his spiteful rumours. Initially I wanted as few people as possible to know what had been said in the hope that it would just go away. Clearly that was a mistake as my department loves gossip and would not let the truth get in the way of a salacious scandal!

So………following the support I received from you guys I decided to tell as many people as possible about the kind of things that had been said about me and expressed my upset and confusion about how these rumours could have started. I have now told half the department (the other half are on holiday!) and every single person has been kind and supportive. Two people actually mentioned they had noticed how this guy was towards me but they had not wanted to say anything for fear of repercussions. The culture here is quite ingrained so I do not think this joker is going to stop his vindictive behaviour. However, now that I have confided in colleagues I feel a lot better about it and hope that I will be able to brush it off for the nonsense that it is.

I started my PhD nine moths ago and since then a senior member of staff appeared to develop a romantic interest in me. I had no interest in him and made this clear. Since then he has spread a number of rumours about me (suggesting I had tried to have an affair with a married colleague) and also informed my supervisor that I had lost focus on my PhD because I was spending too much time assisting MSc students. None of this was true but it has affected my standing within the department. It appears that colleagues simply love good gossip. I know that the university has systems for dealing with this kind of thing but I have seen other people take that approach and all that happened was that the injured party ended up leaving and the harasser type got promoted! Despite the problems I really want to finish my PhD. Does anybody have any ideas about how to save my reputation (and my PhD placement) and shut this guy up?

======= Date Modified 19 Jan 2012 08:56:02 =======
One month into my PhD I have concerns about the data collection methods used by my supervisor.