Leaving a toxic workplace with reputation intact
October 20, 2024 4:30 AM Subscribe
I'm leaving my job (academic at a clinical school) due to burnout and a toxic workplace. I'm worried about people taking credit for my work and possibly blocking my future job chances in this field. What's the best way to leave while protecting my work, making sure students can still learn what they need, and maintaining my reputation and relationships in case I want to work in this area again?
In 2022 I was hired as a lecturer and curriculum development lead in my area of expertise (digital health). Coming from a clinical background, this was a difficult but rewarding role for me, and I'm proud of what I've learned and achieved since I started. However, I experienced burnout on and off pretty much from the first semester. I assumed it was because of the part-time nature of the role plus my natural tendency to overwork. I'm mainly based at a clinical school, but my role is joint-funded by another centre at the university, so it also took me a while to understand and navigate the different organisational structures of each.
For the last few years, the clinical school has been undergoing a massive curriculum redesign. I was aware of grumblings among long-term faculty here and there, but this seemed normal for any large transition, and I had faith in my direct supervisor who is the lead of the curriculum redesign project.
I found out two things in the last few months: 1) part of the funding for my role will not be renewed by the other centre, and 2) for the last few years, what has actually been going on under the surface is a coup led by academics of a clinical background with a different scope trying to run the school (think: nurses actively preventing doctors from having input in writing a medical curriculum). One particular academic has been promoted despite a history of toxic behaviour and verbal intimidation reported by multiple staff. This explains why so many of the senior clinician-researchers I know and love have mysteriously taken long leaves or resigned (along with, at one point, the entire timetabling department).
I talked to a senior colleague I trust who has personally experienced burnout related to the above. He advised me NOT to leave if I'm still thinking about staying in academia, because the group may block my re-entry if I leave (they've already done this to another ex-colleague). Because there are only two schools for our profession in the state, and only one in the major city, they have an outsized influence on the job market here.
I've ultimately decided to leave to protect my sanity. The school may continue to fund the role on their own or my portfolio may be taken up by another academic as part of their work. I'm lucky enough to still love my clinical work, so I don't feel the need to, nor have the energy anymore to engage in political games, especially of the Mean Girls-kind that seems to be happening. However, my role is an attractive one and I can already feel the sharks circling.
At first I had plans to document and share all the work I've done so far to make it easier for handover. However, this group have also been known to take other academics' lectures, record over them and post them as their own without credit. Last week one of them emailed me asking for access to files in "the digital health folder". When I politely asked what she needed it for and if it was in relation to project X or Y, she replied "both would be useful to me" without further explanation. I'm now suspicious of her motives and I'm wondering if I shouldn't share anything at all, and let them fend for themselves when I leave.
Another of this group has been trying to increase her visibility in my area of expertise for 2 years and has openly admitted to me that she would love to take my role. The sad thing is I don't doubt she would do a great job at it and it would obviously be great for her career. But at this point I don't trust her not to use my work as a launching pad to position herself as the expert in my field.
I feel pity for this group who clearly feel they can't succeed without bullying people and stealing work, but I'm also angry for my colleagues. Can the hive mind please give me advice on how to leave as professionally as possible, while maintaining the credit and IP for my work (if there's any that doesn't belong to the university) and also maintaining good relationships in case of future work in the area?
In 2022 I was hired as a lecturer and curriculum development lead in my area of expertise (digital health). Coming from a clinical background, this was a difficult but rewarding role for me, and I'm proud of what I've learned and achieved since I started. However, I experienced burnout on and off pretty much from the first semester. I assumed it was because of the part-time nature of the role plus my natural tendency to overwork. I'm mainly based at a clinical school, but my role is joint-funded by another centre at the university, so it also took me a while to understand and navigate the different organisational structures of each.
For the last few years, the clinical school has been undergoing a massive curriculum redesign. I was aware of grumblings among long-term faculty here and there, but this seemed normal for any large transition, and I had faith in my direct supervisor who is the lead of the curriculum redesign project.
I found out two things in the last few months: 1) part of the funding for my role will not be renewed by the other centre, and 2) for the last few years, what has actually been going on under the surface is a coup led by academics of a clinical background with a different scope trying to run the school (think: nurses actively preventing doctors from having input in writing a medical curriculum). One particular academic has been promoted despite a history of toxic behaviour and verbal intimidation reported by multiple staff. This explains why so many of the senior clinician-researchers I know and love have mysteriously taken long leaves or resigned (along with, at one point, the entire timetabling department).
I talked to a senior colleague I trust who has personally experienced burnout related to the above. He advised me NOT to leave if I'm still thinking about staying in academia, because the group may block my re-entry if I leave (they've already done this to another ex-colleague). Because there are only two schools for our profession in the state, and only one in the major city, they have an outsized influence on the job market here.
I've ultimately decided to leave to protect my sanity. The school may continue to fund the role on their own or my portfolio may be taken up by another academic as part of their work. I'm lucky enough to still love my clinical work, so I don't feel the need to, nor have the energy anymore to engage in political games, especially of the Mean Girls-kind that seems to be happening. However, my role is an attractive one and I can already feel the sharks circling.
At first I had plans to document and share all the work I've done so far to make it easier for handover. However, this group have also been known to take other academics' lectures, record over them and post them as their own without credit. Last week one of them emailed me asking for access to files in "the digital health folder". When I politely asked what she needed it for and if it was in relation to project X or Y, she replied "both would be useful to me" without further explanation. I'm now suspicious of her motives and I'm wondering if I shouldn't share anything at all, and let them fend for themselves when I leave.
Another of this group has been trying to increase her visibility in my area of expertise for 2 years and has openly admitted to me that she would love to take my role. The sad thing is I don't doubt she would do a great job at it and it would obviously be great for her career. But at this point I don't trust her not to use my work as a launching pad to position herself as the expert in my field.
I feel pity for this group who clearly feel they can't succeed without bullying people and stealing work, but I'm also angry for my colleagues. Can the hive mind please give me advice on how to leave as professionally as possible, while maintaining the credit and IP for my work (if there's any that doesn't belong to the university) and also maintaining good relationships in case of future work in the area?
I’d look into policies at your university before getting too defensive about ownership of lecture notes and so forth. It sounds from your comments about IP like you may already be aware of different copyright rules around works for hire, and your university will be a better guide than we will about which of your work products might be considered such, I think.
Your role actually does not sound attractive to me! Jointly funded posts can have exactly these problems — needing to please multiple constituencies who may have disagreements you don’t fully understand and partial lapses in funding, maybe tied to those disagreements, maybe not. It sounds like you’re worried that someone will waltz in and have an easy time at the job where you did not on the strength of uncredited work that was yours. I personally think it is more likely that the next person will have similar struggles to yours for structural reasons.
posted by eirias at 5:08 AM on October 20 [7 favorites]
Your role actually does not sound attractive to me! Jointly funded posts can have exactly these problems — needing to please multiple constituencies who may have disagreements you don’t fully understand and partial lapses in funding, maybe tied to those disagreements, maybe not. It sounds like you’re worried that someone will waltz in and have an easy time at the job where you did not on the strength of uncredited work that was yours. I personally think it is more likely that the next person will have similar struggles to yours for structural reasons.
posted by eirias at 5:08 AM on October 20 [7 favorites]
so, the senior colleague you trust is different from the group you don't; that's what i'm reading. sounds like he's aware of the political games & willing to play them (honestly, i imagine he doesn't want you to leave b/c it's super annoying to deal with all the bs w/o other people around who see through it). would it be possible to just share the dig health folder with him & let him work out the details (e.g. tell the emailer that's what's been done) while you gtfo?
toxic workplaces suck. or, capitalism sucks & toxic workplaces are particularly bad examples of how. anyway, i applaud you for taking care of yourself. from my own experience of leaving a toxic workplace i can tell you i'm much happier where i'm at now. also, i was recently talking to a senior colleague/friend who is still there & yeah, the problems are structural.
posted by HearHere at 5:45 AM on October 20
toxic workplaces suck. or, capitalism sucks & toxic workplaces are particularly bad examples of how. anyway, i applaud you for taking care of yourself. from my own experience of leaving a toxic workplace i can tell you i'm much happier where i'm at now. also, i was recently talking to a senior colleague/friend who is still there & yeah, the problems are structural.
posted by HearHere at 5:45 AM on October 20
When you leave, you should just say that 1) you found another great opportunity, 2) with the other org. not funding the position it sounded like it might be going away, so just needed some security 3) You love all of your coworkers, they are so smart and great, you hope you all stay connected on LinkedIn!
You should give them the materials you made when at work - I think others are right, they belong to the University. However, if it makes you feel any better, in my experience, people like this think they can replicate the sizable work of others because others make it look easy, and then come crashing down once they have squeezed the other person/people out. Let them learn this lesson.
posted by Toddles at 7:08 AM on October 20 [7 favorites]
You should give them the materials you made when at work - I think others are right, they belong to the University. However, if it makes you feel any better, in my experience, people like this think they can replicate the sizable work of others because others make it look easy, and then come crashing down once they have squeezed the other person/people out. Let them learn this lesson.
posted by Toddles at 7:08 AM on October 20 [7 favorites]
"A sense that your job is terribly important is a sure sign of an impending nervous breakdown.”
You, as you have noted, are on the way to a nervous breakdown.
It is time to completely surrender, grit your teeth, and be as helpful as you can without getting involved in faction fights.
Legal or not, your IP is their IP now. The ownership situation is more clear in industry, and there are many people out there right now claiming sole responsibility for things that I did. My résumé says “originated ___ project". Or "started". Or "laid the groundwork for."
In academia the only way to really establish authorship is to publish. Insisting that the organization recognize your authorship in perpetuity A) is futile, and B) will make you enemies.
At this point you definitely should not be making enemies. (Or hoarding data, btw.)
Once again, let it go. Their only memories of you should be as a cooperative person who made their lives easier.
How long can you afford to wait between jobs? Obviously you need some time to deal with burnout, but the longer you wait the less the reason the current people have to badmouth you. They’re busy with their drama and year from now they won’t remember your name.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:13 AM on October 20 [6 favorites]
You, as you have noted, are on the way to a nervous breakdown.
It is time to completely surrender, grit your teeth, and be as helpful as you can without getting involved in faction fights.
Legal or not, your IP is their IP now. The ownership situation is more clear in industry, and there are many people out there right now claiming sole responsibility for things that I did. My résumé says “originated ___ project". Or "started". Or "laid the groundwork for."
In academia the only way to really establish authorship is to publish. Insisting that the organization recognize your authorship in perpetuity A) is futile, and B) will make you enemies.
At this point you definitely should not be making enemies. (Or hoarding data, btw.)
Once again, let it go. Their only memories of you should be as a cooperative person who made their lives easier.
How long can you afford to wait between jobs? Obviously you need some time to deal with burnout, but the longer you wait the less the reason the current people have to badmouth you. They’re busy with their drama and year from now they won’t remember your name.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:13 AM on October 20 [6 favorites]
Common Misconceptions about the "Work for Hire" Doctrine:
"First and foremost, the “work for hire” doctrine applies only to a very narrow category of works, as defined in Section 101 of the U.S. Copyright Act (Title 17 of the U.S. Code). Moreover, it only applies to copyrightable works, and does not extend to works protected by trade secrets, patents..." [ogc]posted by HearHere at 9:34 AM on October 20
Based on the spelling in this post, I would guess that US law does not apply. But it is worth looking at your university's IP policy. At mine (in the US) everything I do in my official capacity belongs to the University. This includes curricula, lectures, videos, quiz questions....
I will also say that your senior colleague is absolutely right that returning to academia after leaving it can be an uphill battle. That's true even without the politicking you describe. Bullying is pervasive in academia, and in my experience, the institution will protect whoever has more funding.
If I were you, I would move all the files onto some kind of shared drive (tbh they should have been living there anyway) and call it a day. The best revenge is indifference.
posted by basalganglia at 9:53 AM on October 20 [2 favorites]
I will also say that your senior colleague is absolutely right that returning to academia after leaving it can be an uphill battle. That's true even without the politicking you describe. Bullying is pervasive in academia, and in my experience, the institution will protect whoever has more funding.
If I were you, I would move all the files onto some kind of shared drive (tbh they should have been living there anyway) and call it a day. The best revenge is indifference.
posted by basalganglia at 9:53 AM on October 20 [2 favorites]
You have my sympathies, this kind of situation sucks. I agree with the advice you're getting to be as neutrally pleasant as possible between now and your departure, and to attribute your decision to the uncertainty of the contract and desire to return to your first love (clinical work).
Re others taking credit for your work, the best way to mitigate that is to share it as widely as possible yourself now, so that everyone knows where it comes from. Do up some handover notes and circulate them, with links to your key presentations, data etc, as widely as possible "in the interests of knowledge transfer" before you leave. If someone asks for something specific, send it to them but copy as many others as possible "because you realized that this might also be useful to others" (and so everyone knows they've asked). It will be much harder for toxic people to claim your work as theirs if everybody has already seen it from you.
posted by rpfields at 4:53 PM on October 20 [6 favorites]
Re others taking credit for your work, the best way to mitigate that is to share it as widely as possible yourself now, so that everyone knows where it comes from. Do up some handover notes and circulate them, with links to your key presentations, data etc, as widely as possible "in the interests of knowledge transfer" before you leave. If someone asks for something specific, send it to them but copy as many others as possible "because you realized that this might also be useful to others" (and so everyone knows they've asked). It will be much harder for toxic people to claim your work as theirs if everybody has already seen it from you.
posted by rpfields at 4:53 PM on October 20 [6 favorites]
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posted by Stacey at 5:08 AM on October 20 [15 favorites]