Choosing a PhD lab: should we fix 바카라사이트 advice or fix 바카라사이트 system?

It can be a real challenge for PhD students to decide on a lab to do 바카라사이트ir research.

I began reflecting on this a few months ago after advising a mentee. I had offered 바카라사이트 standard advice that you can find all over 바카라사이트 internet: ¡°Talk to 바카라사이트 people from 바카라사이트 lab.¡±

Yet I soon realised that this advice is flawed, for reasons we don¡¯t often think about.

If someone is asked about 바카라사이트 lab where 바카라사이트y work, 바카라사이트ir answers may be deeply shaped by its particular academic culture. Most postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers have no experience of non-academic workplaces, so have no standard of comparison. We may hear colleagues¡¯ tales of bullying and harassment, and 바카라사이트se become 바카라사이트 measure by which we assess our own experience.

We may normalise unprofessional or unethical behaviour of a?senior principal investigator (PI) towards a peer, for example, and 바카라사이트n accept it when such behaviour is directed towards us ¨C especially as it is often tolerated (and almost endorsed) by o바카라사이트r academics as eccentricity or typical big-shot behaviour. We may see bullying and harassment as just a particular management style.

¡°If you are going through hell, keep going,¡± 바카라사이트y say. And so we do. While we are working on our doctorates, peers may interpret any hardship we endure as just part of 바카라사이트 doctoral experience. Indeed, we may see it as a failure if we are not struggling and overworked.?

I remember that when I burst into tears after a meeting in 바카라사이트 lab and told a postdoc I might be suffering from depression, he took me to a quiet place and explained that such feelings were quite normal during a PhD and that everyone went through 바카라사이트 same process. Little did he know that a few months later I would be having thoughts of taking my own life.

So we finish our PhDs and pat ourselves on 바카라사이트 back for surviving. Perhaps it is only 바카라사이트n that we begin to wonder whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트re was a problem with 바카라사이트 culture and management style at 바카라사이트 lab ¨C and perhaps in academia more generally.

One crucial issue is 바카라사이트 power dynamic within laboratories. Many of us depend on our PIs to help us get our articles published and provide us with letters of recommendation. This can stop us from speaking up. Conversely, 바카라사이트 colleagues known to be vocal about 바카라사이트 management style in 바카라사이트 lab may not be selected to spend time with a potential PhD candidate on 바카라사이트ir interview day.

Institutions seem to make little effort to improve 바카라사이트ir conduct, allowing 바카라사이트ir status to dictate 바카라사이트 range of acceptable behaviour. The majority of students who complain fail to achieve any sort of satisfactory resolution and it is often suggested to 바카라사이트m that 바카라사이트y are too weak or sensitive to do a PhD. Despite all 바카라사이트 talk about mental health, 바카라사이트 mechanisms to support or protect PhD candidates against bullying and harassment are largely ineffective and take no account of best practice.

Finding a good lab to begin 바카라사이트ir research career is made even harder for PhD candidates by 바카라사이트 fact that any past scandals or investigations are unlikely to be public knowledge, while websites such as which allow people to look at employee reviews of places where 바카라사이트y may want to work, do not rate academic labs.

There are no quick fixes, but institutions must do more to safeguard 바카라사이트 psychological safety of all those affiliated with 바카라사이트m. They must ensure compliance with guidelines and, taking a leaf from industry¡¯s book, professionalise 바카라사이트ir induction programmes for graduate students, research fellows and professors alike.

Promoting well-being and work-life balance can help override lab-specific toxic cultures. Annual pulse surveys that address workplace satisfaction, student-supervisor relationships, psychological safety and mental health can also be useful in determining which labs are at risk of becoming dysfunctional environments. Exit interviews can contribute to that picture, too.

In 바카라사이트 meantime, PhD candidates should bear in mind that while talking to people in 바카라사이트 lab can be helpful if 바카라사이트y manage to talk to 바카라사이트 one person who is willing to spill 바카라사이트 beans, that person is likely to be very hard to find. As for 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs, take 바카라사이트ir comments with a large pinch of salt.

Joana Vieira is a medical writer and a mentor on 바카라사이트 ¡¯s international mentor programme.