To tell my prestigious job to do one

[Magnoliamarigold]

I recently returned from my mat leave, my job is as a postdoctoral researcher at an oxbridge university. Lots of Nobel prizes and OBEs at the department. When I got it it was my dream job.

I'm pouring from an empty cup. Baby is five months old and refusing to go to her dad, I am doing all the night feeds. The other day I slipped down the stairs and fell with the baby in my arms, and my back is in a bad way.

Because the role is so prestigious, my employer takes the . During my mat leave I was asked to use up all my KIT days voluntarily, so that publications could still go ahead. It was non negotiable. I was not paid during my mat leave despite being told I would be. I told them I was pregnant at the beginning of the year, but when I was in hospital being induced I was still having to answer emails about my mat leave as the HR woman hadn't yet got round to it. I have been asked to work on bank holidays, I have been asked to work 4/5 days a week even though I am contracted at 2.5 days. My boss is a professor who has not taken one sick day, or annual leave day in the entire time I have known her. She works bank holidays and a lot of weekends. She works when she's on holiday. Work is her life. Most recently I have been asked to take on a large amount of work that I probably would have been able to do previously, but I am so sleep deprived, my brain is so sluggish, and frankly I can't be bothered anymore.

I'm fed up, and tomorrow morning I am having an ad hoc review with this professor - she is unhappy with my work since coming back from mat leave and is clearly making a paper trail to give me some sort of kick up the and get me working at pace again.

I'm thinking of doing one of the following:

1. Make a record of all the unprofessional things I have had to put up with and use an HR mediator (albeit it might be the useless woman again, and will cause me a massive amount of stress)
2. Tell boss, shove it, I am taking the rest of my mat leave, take the financial hit and will come back when the baby is 1.
3. Work with her to improve my outputs in a way that everyone is happy

Has anyone been in this position? What should I do?

ACAS. They’ve broken the law.

Thank you - So the working beyond contracted hours, HR email when in labour and working bank holidays are breaking employment law?

You're being treated like a robot! Remind them that you aren't one, and if they want to buy an AI machine they can while you go find a job that treats you well.

Talk to a union after the meeting, then HR. Put a formal complaint in

Sounds awful, and it's destroying you. Last thing you need is a bad back.

Do you really want to stay in that lab? Was it a standard 3 years postdoc?
Unless there is a Nature paper brewing I’d go for option 2 AND start sending out CV

What type of contract do you have? Contractor, ftc or permanent?

How long have you been there? And does the useless HR person have a job.

How much time did you agree to take off? You are legally entitled to a year.. Are they forcing you to work? If so, that is very serious and if you feel no option but to leave than they are open to a constructive dismissal claim

The not being paid for Mat leave and KIT days is the one which ACAS will be interested in. Do you have it written on emails etc to prove it?

Also speak to Pregnant then screwed

Really doesn’t sound that prestigious, it sounds shit! Leave and get something better when you are ready

No advice but so sorry you are experiencing this. Sadly all too common in prestigious academic jobs and not getting any better. What sort of contract are you on? I would speak to HR in first instance but you boss will be worried about getting publications out in a timely fashion (depending on your research field) and will only be thinking of that. Am afraid it was one of the reasons I stopped working in academia... couldn't see how I could make it work and balance short term grant funding, long hours, family life and needing to get a mortgage.

Join UCU pronto. They can’t help you with the past but they can help you with the future. Also take a look at the Academic Common Room Board and when replies here taper off, consider having the thread moved there.

Your supervisor’s behaviour is not unusual for an Oxbridge professor but what she and others are doing to you is something else entirely

This is outrageous!!!! You should be gathering evidence and taking them to court!!!!! You should of been paid at least SMP, and you are entitled to 39 weeks pay! Plus your annual leave! I'm fuming for you!!!

Yep standard 3 year and I'm in year 2. To be honest it would be so good for my career to stay in the department but if I was fresh out of phd in my 20s I would have the energy. I did my phd at 33 and whilst, yes, we have papers in BMJ, Lancet etc I just don't know if it's worth the hassle. Looks great on my CV, and I do appreciate the absolute hell it must take to become a professor at this uni, but I wonder whether all of this is really worth it or not.

All I really want to do is sit and stare at my baby all day and go to the park.

Please do join UCU. They can help with this kind of stuff. They have a very poor rep for dealing with women but they are usually OK on employment contract type stuff.
I wasn't paid for KIT days but got them off in lieu.
Are you JRF which I think is standard fixed term contract or RCUK which does things like not pay for mat leave?

Yep I kept a paper trail. I heard some really bad mat leave stories (in different companies, through pregnant and screwed etc) and at the time thought well it's not as bad as all that.

Are you tenured? That sounds like an awful way to treat someone - prestigious role or not. You'll need to collect facts though and see where they've breached your contract. Working bank holidays and weekends isn't uncommon in academia and isn't against the law.

Exactly! it's all about the publications publications publications. They're not even that good or contributory to the academic field, they're just currency to buy more funding to write more pointless crap that gets read by no one, not even my mother is interested in my publications anymore lol.

There's no tenure in UK academia any more.

My wife teaches at Oxbridge. She is incredible . They treat her like absolute shit. The HR support is appalling. They have done numerous illegal things and it got much worse as a result of her pregnancy. I have never known such a terrible employer. They don’t deserve her, and she’s finally leaving. I think they just think they can treat people like that and unless you are genuinely willing to take them to tribunal, I would just walk away (or give up caring). I wouldn’t say that about a normal organisation but they aren’t normal!

Fixed term 0.5 fte which will be renewed at the end unless they decide they don't like me

Hear hear - exactly this.

1 & 2!

I hope you are getting paid a lot and really enjoy your job (even if you dislike your manager).

I’m on an ok wage, nothing compared to London standards. I absolutely detest my job, but it’s a doddle compared to yours. I don’t have transferable skills, I imagine you do? Could you look for something else?

I would say 1 and prepare for 2.

sounds like the LMB, and all too familiar (Oxbridge lecturer here...). You could start with your facility administrator but I would go straight to HR, but at the university level, not the facility level - you want to go higher to start with!