I need some advice, i only worked for 6 months with my current phd supervisor.He has bullying me for a long time, i kept bottling it and concentrating on the project. Recently he started getting a bit too unrealistic and making me feel down infront of my secondary supervisor. Anyhow long story short, I went to the student mediator to get some help with the personality clash and it is now in a form of complaint with the head of department. And my department tutor is not happy that I did not share this with her. She says that most likely he wouldnot want to supervise me. What happens next ? if phd supervisor and your relationship dont work out but the science has been doing well and i want to keep working at it, please say something, i have been sleepless and cant eat for 11 days :'(
I will say this so you are informed for the future in case this situation arises again.
You should have tried to discuss this with your supervisor before going to the head of your department. Obviously your supervisor is not going to be happy that they are the subject of a complaint, and maybe if you had discussed it with them rather than bottling it up you wouldn't be in this position now. Of course, also maybe this would have changed nothing.
You will be probably be reassigned another supervisor, but this relationship will also be difficult going forward as he/she will be anticipating problems based on your previous experience and will probably also not be as knowledgeable in your field as your first supervisor was, meaning that your science may suffer.
Please research ways of managing supervisors and dealing with difficult behaviour to assist you in the future and to ensure your next supervisory relationship is successful. You are probably not the one to blame, but equally you may have been able to mediate this before it escalated by communicating more effectively.
Sorry to hear about your difficult situation. It is insane that a woman can find herself in this position in the 21st century, especially after the Equality Act 2010 is enforced in every university in the UK. A close friend of mine was bullied by her male colleague last year causing her to self-harm and take sick leave, and when she reported it there was such a fuss he didn't know whether to beg for forgiveness or just quit the country! Universities are a place for learning, not bullying.
Thankyou all for supportive messages,
Treeoflife your message makes sense. I ended up concentrating too much on the project,meeting with other people, fixing protocols, had taken lots of courses towards this phd and I kept assuming I could handle it but a point came when I got frustrated as he kept provoking me :( via emails. I took two days off and he is saying that you need to produce a doctors certificate as he is not sure of my health and demeaning me infront of others constantly.
Hazy Jane thankyou :), I will keep posted on the situation here as I really want this phd
Trying to put your two posts together - if I understood correctly, it's your industrial supervisor that you've complained about? And your departmental supervisor who wishes you'd gone to her first? Is the funding a collaborative industry / university deal? If so, it would depend on what sort of contract exists between the university and firm and how crucial the industrial supervisor is to the project being able to go ahead, I think.
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