Brutal Ways PhDs Get Exploited (If You’re Good at Your Job & What to Do)

8 ways you will get taken advantage of as a PhD (if you are good at your job):

(this is a super hard one for me, but I think it is very real to most people that are in research.)

1. Someone walks into your office with a problem. You solve it. They never acknowledge your help anywhere.

2. You spend hours writing detailed feedback on a draft for a favor. It disappears into a black hole of silence.

3. You take on extra teaching or course prep. It’s quickly forgotten the next semester when you are not needed.

4. You suggest an idea in a meeting. Months later, it reappears — without your name attached. Miraculously, they all of a sudden become very creative.

5. You write a glowing reference letter for a student. You never hear back.

6. You volunteer for service work “just this once.” Suddenly it’s expected of you forever.

7. You show generosity with your time to be supportive of a peer. It’s treated as weakness.

8. You care more than you need to when another PhD didn’t do their work, or has different motives for quality than you. You want to make sure that they succeed more than they do.

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If you’ve experienced these, you’re not alone.

They happen to anyone who actually does their job in research, especially those folks that believe then doing good work matters.

It will happen to you.

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Two ways to survive:

• Accept yourself. Know that caring is part of who you are.

• Detach when needed. Learn to say no, refuse extra work, and draw hard boundaries.

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Here’s a general rule to live by.

Writing thank you doesn’t cost you that much. A short email goes a long way.

There is a reason why there is a section for acknowledgments. People do read them.

Including authors that are developmental will likely not penalize you as much as you think it will.

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Here’s the challenge, you only have a short timeline to be successful in academic research. There is a tenure clock.

Develop a very thick skin from all of the critics, and learn that being good at what you do is something that very few people understand.

See-through and try to understand the context behind why people do the things they do.

This doesn’t excuse them, but it does help you understand the moments when you could get taken advantage of.

Listen to your Spidey-sense, and don’t ignore it.