Hi everyone,

I'll try make this as quick as possible.

So I took up a bit of work at the university where I am studying my PhD. The first time I met the woman in charge of the study, I noticed she spoke to her assistant like crap but she was nice enough to me - this assistant left in the middle of the project. When I started working for her she knew I had zero experience but did not offer any training or guidance on how to complete the job, she just left me to it. She refused to give us contracts and then stopped paying us but expected us to carry on working (for six months), for free because it would 'be good for our careers'. One girl refused and was later told by the same woman not to bother applying for any jobs with her again as she clearly wasn't 'dedicated'.

That job finished eventually and a new one was advertised, after speaking to her I told her that I would have to leave my permanent job to take her job and she basically told me to do it and that they 'needed' my 'skills' on the research project. I started working for her again and again received no training. I was now working with complex computer programs and handling large quantities of data that I hadn't experienced before. I was given zero instructions but another girl that started the same time as me did, she received a personal one-to-one demonstration on how to use the programs and was sent detailed emails with screen grabs. She had to forward these to me just so I had an idea of what to do. The boss was horrible to me constantly and made me feel small, she would announce to the office that I was getting married abroad before describing how ridiculous she thinks the concept was. She organised a party for everyone who had taken part in the study, including the participants and third parties and she excluded me. I became upset at this point and admittedly cried in front of her. She told me I needed to be more resilient. She wouldn't give me a contract and despite me asking often when the job would end and being met with shrugged shoulders, one day told me that I would be finishing in six days as what they needed me to do had been completed. I couldn't find another job and lost my house, I'm now living with my partner and daughter in his parents house. She then called me into her office and told me how rubbish I was, that I'd never get a job and made a quip about signing on the dole. She said I had a severe lack of skills and called me a child.

This woman has now been promoted within my school! She is now in charge of all research projects. I live in a rural area and the next university is around 60 miles away. I can't move as I have a child and a partner with a job but I know she'll never employ me once I graduate. It's making me want to give up my studies.

She sounds like a narcissist (best strategy = avoid). Sorry to hear you're going through that. So are you now still in the middle of your PhD? And are your supervisors normal people (as far as can be)? Just continue. There was no guarantee you would have been employed there anyway. No one (generally) does a PhD at a Uni with a guarantee of a job at the end. Much could happen between now and when you graduate. And even if the situation is the same with the socio/psychopath being in charge - you'll now have a PhD under your belt.

Good luck!