[KLIMOV25gyi]

actually think that being a professor is equal to having a big penis
Nothing is equal to having a big penis.

[Babposa]

Nah, it's just a huge amount of frustration, throwing away 2 years of work which was good work, which paid me little to no money and for which I gave my all. All those nights writing papers for what? Frustrating. Well, that's an understatement.

[Donadoni1809]

Ecofarm, was it a conference on bragging about speaking at conferences.

[new-nickname-zanovo]

Pekka, I left myself and came back. It is always harder to start back up rather then just pushing through.

[RBJamez]

Yeah well... it's not that the University lacks the intelligence or competence of how it should be done. There are rules. It's just that they are not followed in a strict manner. What I mean by this is that doctorate students are at the very low end of the food chain, and they have no rights. Some of them, like myself, are employed there. That means I should have basic employee rights, but when it comes to that, then you're just a student.

I emphasize that it's not that studies are difficult and take a lot of work. That's obvious. But we are in a constant breach of agreements. My workload gets bigger and bigger all the time, and yet my pay stays the same. Sure, I can always say, which I do, that I don't think this is one of my tasks, but since you get new terms that last 3 months per term, you're ****ed if you become difficult. I mean you are, if you have an ******* for a boss who fully exploits the situation, and my boss does. IF you had a boss that sort of was interested in his or her employees in other ways as well than pure resources, it would be different. That's what the rules are there for, to secure people's rights, so situations don't get out of the hand. Unfortunately they do.

Of course there's staff to help in situations like these. They are there just to be on your side. I went to see the head honcho of this department. I complained that my boss is violating our agreements on a regular basis, starting from the contract to other miscellaneous issues on a daily basis. So the head honcho asked a bunch of questions, zeroing in if I had been a victim of work abuse related to gender issues. It was a total wtf moment. Who CARES if I'm a man or a woman, these issues are not gender related! And after that, she was not interested about the breaches of agreements but said they want to keep students who have advanced well and it would be a pity to lose me. OK. Thanks for the help and advice.

I have no complaints of having to do a dissertation without guidance. Or that it is assumed to finish fast. I have complaints about work abuse. But when it comes to that, and you're at the bottom, you have no chance. So all I can do is go to the dean now and it won't probably do anything good for me except I get to tell what has happened and to let them know what kind of abuses are handed out, some of which might not be legal. Some are definitely illegal, but they do not concern me only, and I don't want to drag other people with me and get them trouble as well.

One thing is for sure. If you're at the bottom, there's no such things as employee rights, it's just a nice word. Unless you hire a lawyer that is or join a union. If you go solo, you're ****ed.

[RSAccountssy]

There definately should not be any crying between advisors and PhD students. Crying is the result of feeling helpless (it can be good crying, when we are helpless [or not responsible] but something good happens). I'm not helpless, I'm totally in charge of my program (I could work at the department and don't, but I cannot imagine that would make a difference). Right now, I'm fkn off for a couple weeks before getting my ticket to Kenya.


I should make a list, and it would be a loooong list.
Seems like you are working on it now.

[Khcyhshq]

I have a friend who ejected from a Ph.D. program when all of her classwork and almost all of her lab work was done. She had an awful adviser. It got tricky because in some fields the adviser co-owns the research of the advisee. So I guess even if there are boards and advisers, the situation can be as bad as you are experiencing.

She switched schools and eventually received her Ph.D.

Yes, advisors can be quite bad. In here, as far as I know, advisor owns nothing of it. Regardless, I can rewrite the same thing and use different data if need be.

Just yesterday I received a message saying I'm behind deadline, I should go to Uni now and "interview people or my neighbors or whoever" and spend the weekend working, of course for free. That I'm behind deadline already and it's serious and I'm this and that. I got pissed off, thought about it and fired an email back saying clearly that I need rest, I work a lot already, I am offended and frustrated about the way these things are being handled and that we need a lot of changes. I think I said that I'm offended couple of times at least, and that I'm tired. And that to me it is out of the line and offensive that I have to defend myself, just coming off from brain surgery and now running in this circle of madness and irrational deadlines, that it is bad for my health and that I find it offensive that this is of no concern to anyone, as I don't like to repeat it and sound like a whiner.

Finally, I concluded that should this matter be neglected in the near future again and should we continue to fail in communication and constructive feedback, we will just have to bring a third party to settle it then.

Which is me way of saying that I'm going to the dean and say everything I know, mofos.

[tramadolwithall]

SUPERCITIZENS SCORES ANOTHER VICTORYYYYY!!!

So... my boss once again contacted me on Sunday, saying how much I dodge working and how I should do this and that and stfu.

I disagreed. I said, listen, I'm stressed out, we need to communicate and work this thing out together, it's escalating and getting out of the hand so let's stop now, talk together and work this out. I said I just came out of a brain surgery, I'm trying to avoid stress, let's be calm and talk OK?

He said he wants to see doctor's diagnosis of my tumor, right? I was like WHAT THE ****!? I got pissed off. I've given all the documents required by the law. In here, employer does NOT have the right to see any diagnosis papers. The only thing you have to do is provide them with the sick leave note with some weird code and that doesn't go to your personal boss either. In short, they don't have the right to know WHY you were sick or what the sickness was.

So I got pissed off saying I don't show it to you, period. That I'm OK, I've told you what I had, you can take my word for it. He said quit bullshitting, time to provide evidence. I said wow, you think I'm lying to you, how can you be suspicious of this, I've been more than open and honest about it? He was like give me the evidence. I said no, he said good, I won't continue your term then. He de facto FIRED me.

But now he got himself into trouble. All this crap was in email. I talked to the dean, and then head of my department. Suddenly my boss was in deep ****. He thought he had all the power in the world, turned out he didn't. So when we talked together, my boss was quiet the whole time. I provided all the evidence including emails, diagnosis papers, my publication list and publications, showing that I've been more active than doctorate students in general and in fact have better publications than some professors in the last year and that I just got fired and my rights were also sort of abused, not to mention in a totally inappropriate way.

So suddenly my boss, the god, shut his mouth. It was obvious to me that the dean had told him to STFU and play dead, because he had no leverage and I held all the cards in my hand and could pretty much do what I want with it.

So here's what I wanted:

I'm moving to another city. I get a grant for the rest of the year, I make my own deadlines, I don't work for my boss anymore but only do my dissertation where I want, when I want and how I want to do it. I also wanted the head of department as my second advisor so in case our cooperation doesn't work, he can be my first advisor. I wanted all my conference trips paid I've sent my papers into before this solution and to have my language inspection paid for the dissertation. That, plus total autonomy on my own work. So this means that I get to do my dissertation from home, when I want to write I'll write and when I want to masturbate, I'll just do that. And still get paid. Worked out for me

In short, they're paying me my salary even though I don't work for them. Sort of a cool job to have

[L6RLnyfl]

Wow, the guy put it in e-mail. What an idiot.

With truth and justice on his side, it was only a matter of time before SUPERCITIZEN vanquished his enemies!

[BrainTop]

win!

[unapelosina]

You need to update your win column in your sig.

[jurnalkduo]

Good job Pekka!

[dwestemesse]

pekka

[Uzezqelj]

They read your thread and had to recruit you.

[levitratestimon]

It just keeps getting better

We did indeed get the apartment we wanted from that luxury "cream ass" part of the city. My SO went there to secure our position, there were many others wanting to get that place as well but we got an offer because she did an excellent job of marketing us as the best possible candidates. So we're moving there in few weeks!! Yikes!

So I get my company to pay for the apartment, which is good taxing-wise. We get tons of benefits doing it this way, plus I don't have to worry about the rent then. It's my salary. Then, I get my full grant, which is small if you have to pay rent (but I don't) so we should be secure for the end of this year. Plus, grants are good, taxing-wise, since I officially make very little money now, living off of a grant and having an apartment paid by this company using tax workarounds (totally legal though).

THEN my new post doc position looks really good. I thought I had a huge race against real post docs (as I'm still working on my dissertation), but.... my old connection from there said that Whooops, they forgot to post the open position as being open, so I'm de facto only one knowing about it right now, and they don't mind me doing my dissertation still, and they don't mind me living in another city. I don't know, how can I lose? It looks like my boss firing me was the best thing that ever happened to me

Now I only have to get one clearance from MRI saying that I'm still clean and cool, and even that looks really promising then. Oh, and my neurologist (all the coolest kids have their own neurologists, brain pimpage ftw!), said that I can now enjoy small amounts of alcohol, since everything has gone well up to date.

So... only great news. Maybe ying and yang or God or what ever is working, because the beginning of the year was totally crap, I mean reaaalllly crap with a capital C, life altering crap, but now it seems like just having an idea and it just works out great without much effort.

To life

Did I say that we know the gender of the baby? It's most likely going to be a girl She won't be dating until 21.

[deackatera]

The supercitizen has been victorious in life, vanquished his enemies to the coldest realms of Finland, and overcome death itself. Is he the messiah that will lead us to a new golden age of naked philosophy?

I believe this might be true. I mean it is about seeking the truth and when I look at myself in the mirror, in the nude...

... I see that I've got some years on me That leads to my next quest: back to serious work outs. This is essential as I need to fit in order to avoid that stress, who knows if stress hormones have a negative effect on this whole cancer thing. So now I'm looking at doing lots of stuff, not just gym. I want to add eating healthy, cycling, swimming, even perhaps yoga. I just need that holistic approach now, take care of my joints as well.

But this should not mean that I would be unhappy. It is not a goal that after I have conquered I will be happy. No, I'm happy right now I figure I need to be on the clear for few years and it will look really good as then I should be able to get an operation and since this is very passive, it would mean many more years just with one operation... making me live a long time without much of the side effects of having your brains cut out.

[retyopj]

Don't do it. Tatoos are ugly.

[Hitfaromarf]

I'm not against tattoos, I just can't think of anything I'd like on my skin.

goodbye horses....

by the way, I thought that song was about heroin, turns out it was not. A bit of a disappointment.

... I'm flying over you...