I have found myself in a really sticky position. I am on a Uni funded PhD and work at the same place. I started working on a topic and also applied for a grant as part of my job  and got it. This gave me access to data which I planned to use for my PhD.

My Head of Department and supervisor later suggested a change in topic to something that is of no interest to me and even the supervisor, with the hope of using me to get another grant. At the time, they made it appear that it was the only way forward but I did not know it was because of their greed. I However, I still had to work to complete the first grant. I tried "gently" to suggest sticking to my initial project and continued trying to work on both with overworking and negative health consequences. When I eventually spoke up, both individuals started picking on me. As I also work at the same Uni part time and the same supervisor is my line manager, she also started bullying meon the job.

About 6 months ago, I requested an external supervisor who understands my area of work and initially I was told by the Head of Graduate studies that I could. Once I found someone, I was written by my line manager/ supervisor that I cannot go and furthermore, I must not speak to the external anymore (what I call a gagging order). Things got worse.

Now three years on, I am being threatened that I must transfer under this supervisor with the new topic IF i want to continue to be sponsored. I do not mind leaving and self funding as relationships have gone really bad, but I feel very unfairly treated and wonder if it is even possible to transfer to another Uni. I have spent so much time on the first project and would not want to have to start afresh. There is now a full gang up against me and even the person who said I could find an external has kept quiet.

Please what can I do besides giving up completely? I am now becoming very depressed and now my BP has also shot up.

Have you tried talking to anyone else, other than your supervisor, HoD and the Head of Graduate Studies? Perhaps you have explored this option already, but if not, and depending on what is available at your institution, you could try:

Another academic. Is there anyone who might be sympathetic and offer constructive advice? Sometimes people are reluctant to get involved, but may be prepared to offer their opinions/solutions, if it's made clear that is all you are asking.

University counselling service. That should be confidential, and provide you with the space to talk through your concerns. (My personal experience with the counselling service at my own institution was that it wasn't very helpful, but I don't regret having at least tried, and other people have spoken more favourably of it.)

Fellow students, past and present. Have any of them been through a similar experience? What worked, and what would they do differently? Is any of it applicable to your situation? (Check out any advice you're given with your university's current regulations, etc, as necessary. Helpful as fellow students can be, their advice isn't necessarily accurate. But I should say that I have found my fellow students to be a terrific source of moral support.)

I hope that was helpful - best of luck in dealing with all this.

Thank you so much. I have tried other academics but as you guessed, they are not willing to get involved. The Head of Grad studies who initially supported my finding an external has now kept silent and allowed the bullying. Unless I go way higher up to the Dean, but I am even afraid of the consequences of that.

Past and present students are very supportive. I also tried Uni counselling. I had only two sessions but my view is similar to yours on that. I am currently having CBT through my GP surgery. That is helping with my deep sadness but not addressing how to get out of this problem.

I never knew bullying could be so bad at this stage in life and in University where truth and hard work should pay off. The worst part is that I suspect a smear campaign has started and has filtered even to the external person who was willing to take me on as they are no longer responsive.

I think they would want me to abandon my years of work, resign and drop out. I am not sure I have any options:-( I am sooo sad and feel helpless.

Hello SadPhDStudent,

I am really sorry to hear your story- and I understand your state of mind. If it can be of any relief, your story is much more common than you think. All sorts of games take place in small academic environments, and as you had the chance to experience yourself, staff close ranks if they think that you don't comply to their plans.

I don't know what area you are in and how much work you have done already. If you are working by yourself or as part of a team. All these variables might make a huge difference on how you can deal with this problem and the possible consequences of your actions. I am afraid that I don't have any problem-solving technique, but I agree with you that going down the route of an academic appeal could be potentially more damaging for you than for them.

If you are in the humanities and working on your own project alone, I would suggest talking clearly to your new supervisor and explain why and how much is important for you to complete the current project within a certain time frame, and why a change at this stage is not feasible. Do not criticise or mention anyone involved in the background. It would be pointless. Your objective is completing quickly and move on. Be professional at meetings keep them short and to the point. Believe me, whatever they can throw to you good work is good work - no examiner can fail to see that.

If you have completed significant research and you can prove it, they cannot force you to change topic. Have you presented papers? published something? is there any track that shows your progress so far?

In the worst case-scenario  - is there anyone in the student union that might be able to advise you on how to move out of the place without losing your previous work?

Finally, losing a student would be a problem for them too, so they surely have a high interest in retaining you and make sure that you complete. So, tread very carefully, and focus on your work, not on the people.

Good luck!

I think the crux of the problem here if I've understood the post correctly, is that you are an employee being sponsored to do a PhD, which I think gives your employer certain rights to direct your work in a way that fits with the overall interest of the subject (not necessarily though in your interest) that they would not have in the normal PhD student-supervisor set-up. Was there any written agreement when you started regarding the terms and conditions? Basically I think you need to get some legal advice on your position as an employee rather than as a student - are you in a union? Assuming you're in the UK, a UCU union rep would probably be familiar with the scenario and so helpful but if not a member you might have legal insurance as part of your house insurance.
These are the things I think you need to find out about before you jump ship. It sounds from what you say that you have no desire to continue the PhD on your employer's terms, which is understandable, but I would suggest checking whether there are any penalties in not continuing eg repayment of fees (I doubt there will be as it would be far too organised for a university but I do know someone who was caught by such a clause over some professional qualifications he was being sponsored for). If you can afford to self-fund then it makes sense to apply elsewhere. Be aware though that the new university might have a minimum registration requirement that you'd have to fulfil before the thesis could be examined. EQually, you need to check whether you actually have intellectual property rights over the data arising from the grant - this may belong to your employer which might make it tricky to use in a thesis at a new university. The final thing that I think you need to find out about if how safe your job with the university is if you stop the PhD there (unless you're happy to walk away from that as well) - given how vulnerable most university jobs are at the moment, I'd be a little anxious that you might be in danger, especially if you haven't got a permanent contract and the PhD was something specified in your annual review as an objective. Again a union rep would probably be the most helpful in this scenario - I would suggest trying for union or independent legal advice rather than going to HR as a first port of call.
I feel really sympathetic for your situation but I have a nasty feeling that this is something quite complex, (I hope I'm wrong) and that you probably need to know all the ins and outs before you make a decision. Good luck!

Thank you Bewildered and DrCorrine
Your kindness and wise words are appreciated. I am very unwell with stress about the problem. The Union seem to be keeping mute and from the little I have read, this is not unsual. I spoke to the local rep who was very kind and supportive. She put the case together and submitted to others I think the lawyer and secretary and neither responded.

I feel emotionally and physically damaged enough to want to leave the job but I wonder who would take me to continue and complete the PhD. They already keep making threats that I may have to start from the scratch. I do not mind leaving the job but cannot face starting the PhD afresh after all I have done.

Thanks again.

If you have a lot of work completed under the original topic-enough to really support a thesis (or getting close to it) then I would make some inquiries about applying to self-fund your original topic at a different university. I have a colleague who worked for a few years on a thesis with one university and then finally (fed up with being a distance student and receiving little support) she approached another university with at least half of her thesis or more complete-including all of her data- and completed her final 18 months of write up with the new university. She was part-time so had spent three and a half years with the first university before parting ways.

I am not saying that for definites that you should go down this path-but I think you should explore it at least. And don't worry too much about what your current university think about it-while you are exploring this option, say nothing and go through the motions with them. If you do find a sympathetic institution (and believe me, universities can have very nice academics and support people working for them as well as the tricky ones), then find out what you would have to do to apply. If you did go down this road, you could always find a diplomatic way of phrasing why you needed to move on-thus keeping your job. The sooner you start taking a few small action steps to get yourself out of this, even just by making inquiries and sorting out your options, the sooner this hold that your current team have over you will be lessened. Good luck-if you have a good topic then it is worthwhile holding to it.

Thank you very much indeed. It is very encouraging that all may not be lost.
Kindest regards

I'm so sorry to hear you're having a rough time, I think everyone has given you some great advice. One thing I would do is chase up your union rep and find out what happened to the lawyer. You shouldn't really let the team get away with bullying, I was bullied once in the work place and I always regret not taking it higher. Can you talk to HR?

I think it's critical that you find out what rights you have to your project/data, apply to move on and let these bullies get the punishment they deserve. Will be thinking of you, please come back and let us know how you get on (up)

Thank you so much everyone for all your kindness. Sorry I have not been back for a while. I ended up much worse with anxiety and stress and one last threatening email while off sick resulted in chest pains, extremely high blood pressure and a suspected heart attack (but thankfully it was not) and hospital admission :(.

I went in a lovely happy healthy enthusiastic person with previous distinctions, and here I am on five medicines, limping, a bad hand and so on. I am so upset that I had put in so much and held this whole thing so close to my heart, enough to have been this affected. I think the most frightening thing to me is the ganging up and betrayal. Bad things happen when good people are afraid to speak up. I now know this is called 'mobbing' and common.

Please if anyone knows countries or Unis in the UK where it is easy to move your work to, please let me know. My work is cross-disciplinary and can fit into management of innovation or health services. I am ready to strip out the single year of my work that involved other people and move on if that is possible. I will be happy to self fund and even relocate for a year full time, if that is all it will take. One of my assignments with the therapist was to find options BUT it seemed like a dead-end. Most UK Unis clearly state that they only accept transfers if the supervisor is moving to that Uni.

I have started with making enquiries about formal complaints as I have nothing more to lose. However, my health is so much more important.

I am deeply touched and grateful.

I agree you've got nothing to lose in complaining at this point. Are you still signed off sick? Or back at work? If you want to get everyone very anxious, I'd suggest you refer yourself to the occupational health team at the university as your job has made you ill so you need their support. HR starts listening when they are involved. You might also get some decent advice on stress management etc although I wouldn't hold my breath. Like LindaLou said, chase up the union rep again too if you have the energy.
On transferring, I agree I think it's going to be difficult. I have a couple of thoughts although they all will take longer than you might like. First thought, assuming you can take & use the crucial data - how about just applying to start afresh somewhere else with a similar project that would allow you to use your work thus far. You might end up finishing before you're able to submit but it might get you round the problem of no transfers being allowed. That assumes you could afford it of course. My other thought is could you write up this project for publication rather than a PhD so you got something out of it, and just apply for funded PhDs elsewhere like a normal applicant? Final thought - after all this, do you still really want to do a PhD (I think it I was you, I might hate academia with such a passion that anything would seem preferable to further exposure...)? Don't put yourself through it, unless it's really what you want to do. I mention this only because I know when I get really stressed, I can sometimes only see one path forward, whereas there might be lots of better ways to go. Good luck!

Thank you Bewildered. I think sometimes when everyone knows you are doing a PhD and you quit, its a little akward, especially when they have never known you to fail, but that is a silly reason to hang on.

I have a son in Uni and "I want him to think winners never quit" however your words are wise :) It is strength to know when to call it a day. I have an MBA and an MPH and only yesterday I read a bit from a book and it suggested asking yourself the 5 whys. So, I want a PhD because.... I want to make an impact in lives working with people,... creating evidenced based practice... write a book (and put the letters PhD after my name:)  but do I need a PhD to do most of these things NO! (except the letters of course) I agree that maybe the effort should be better utilised in other things. Thank youuuuu :)

It will be difficult to let go of that PhD dream, but not impossible. Thanks, I have managed to email the union person and there is hope :) and actually funny enough my management team want me to have an OH management referral. I think they want to focus on my health rather than the bullying that got me there and there is an agenda; BUT yes it will give me the chance to state the circumstances that led me here.

Wow, thank you all, I actually smiled FOUR times???