Your Dream Job Awaits!
by Kenneth Hanson on Sep 22 2011 (27793 Views)The Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Materials Simulation (ICAMS) at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany recently posted an opening for a post-doctoral researcher to study "Atomistic simulations of structural rearrangements at solid-solid interfaces." Shortly after the announcement was posted the email below was sent to the PSI-K community - a network created by researchers all over Europe to facilitate cooperation and collaboration in the field of electronic structure calculations. Members usually use the PSI-K listserv to distribute and receive information about workshops, conferences and job announcements.
To: PSI-K
Subject: [ PSI-K ] postdoc position at Department Atomistic Simulation ICAMS Ruhr-Univ. Bochum
Category: Job
From: juttar ogal
Date: 09-Sep-2011 17:57
Message:
I am desperately searching for eager victims - postdocs or PhD students - mine or other supervisors' - to make my workhorses and to plunder ideas from. I am a dirty Hun who seethes from jealousy out of every pore. I cannot do research myself because I'm narrow-minded, rigid-brained, and petty. Therefore, I have to recruit desperate scientists from anywhere in the world and then manage (harangue) them into submission. The smarter you are relative to me, the more I will hate you. If you complain, you will be threatened by my gang of goons - faculty and administration are all allied with me in order to achieve our clan's goal of world domination which has eluded us for the last century or so. The reward for taking up this Faustian bargain with me is good renumeration - but if you start to complain or expose the secret of my incompetence to others, especially outsiders, then you will be let go as we cannot tolerate traitors within our ranks. ALL credit for your work will go to me and my gang of inbred dullards, not to you. We are ruthless gangsters who recruit legitimate scientists from all over the world to do our work because we cannot do any of it ourselves - due to severe brain rigidity brought about by centuries of inbreeding the traits of blind obedience, robotization, and general dullness. The techniques which we employ to keep these victims productive is nagging, threats and psychological abuse, facilitated by the university's administration. Eventually, the victims give up all credit for their research to us. I have no conscience since I am a psychopath. I am entitled to success because supremacy is my birthright.
Please send your CV and three references to jutta.rogal@rub.de
The above email (and another I did not see) was soon followed by a message from the PSI-K Chairman and Vice Chairman:
Dear Psi-k members,
We want to shortly comment on the two e-mails sent last Friday by the fake user "juttar ogal". This was an unfortunate misuse of the Psi-k mailing list. Fortunately up to now it was also the only incident noted. Obviously, these e-mails were not sent by our long term Psi-k member and highly respected scientist Jutta Rogal.
We are very sorry that this has happened and will take appropriate measures for the future.
With best regards,
Peter Dederichs Walter Temmerman
Psi-k Chairman Psi-k Vice Chairman
Prof. Peter H. Dederichs
PGI, Forschungszentrum Jülich
D-52425 Jülich, Germanye-mail: p.h.dederichs@fz-juelich.de
Who sent the emails? A disgruntled employee? An aspiring comedian trying to reach a larger audience? The email is clearly over the top, yet many employees can relate to some of the messages embedded in the hyperbole. Post docs and graduate students acknowledge that we are working to make our advisers famous or more famous. We know that we may not receive full credit for fame-inducing ideas.
Additionally, there are few options for graduate students and postdocs disgruntled with their bosses. Human relation's resources are limited or underutilized in science departments. A conflict between an adviser and a graduate student results in the student joining another research group or leaving school. Postdocs move on to a new position, assuming they receive a reasonable letter of recommendation.
So is the best way to deal with these issues an anonymous, inflammatory email? Probably not. But we should acknowledge that this response alludes to greater issues within the system.
Great choice for a post. The poster in question, who is a friend of mine, is indeed highly disgruntled about the abusive treatment they received while working at that place. It is funded half by industry, half by government but the climate is completely corporate. It is a colleague, who is best friends with, but not their boss, who is the main target of the fake posting and who was responsible for most of the abuse - and had free reign to do it due to her strong influence and brashness. As for channels of complaint, good luck! In a foreign country with a foreign language one is at the mercy of their bosses. Even the union couldn't help as someone complained to them that my friend worked too many hours(!) in their postdoc - whereas it was completely within the norm of everyone working there. The HR of the university behaved in a completely unreasonable manner - they are completely in the pocket of the faculty. Not sure it's any different in the US. My friend has been unemployed for nearly a year because they cannot obtain a letter of reference, and possibly incurs sabotage from informal queries of potential supervisors. Welcome to the brave new world!
@Dodo
Thanks for the insight.
Do you by any chance have a copy of the other email?
When power is distributed unequally in a relationship, it's not a surprise that when the relationship goes bad, the aggrieved party resorts to asymmetric tactics.
@Chemjobber. It's how things are. Now, the question is, why does power get abused so flagrantly in the first place?
@Kenneth. No, sorry, I'm not on the mailing list.
@Dodo: "Now, the question is, why does power get abused so flagrantly in the first place?"
Because it can and there is no dis-incentive structure.
@Dodo
If I got that correctly your friend hasn't received a letter of reference even 1 year after finishing? There is a law in Germany that entitles all employees to receive a letter of reference (or rather the German 'Arbeitszeugnis') when they leave. Morevoer, this letter must (!) be written in a positive way. Your friend should contact them and remind them about their legal obligations to provide this letter. With a little trick he might even end up with a something like a decent letter of reference:
1. Ask for a 'Arbeitszeugnis' in German (which must be positive), don't ask for one in English
2. Get an official English translation of this by some company (will probably cost around 100$ but would be worth it)
3. Enjoy your positive 'letter of recommendation'
If future employers tell you that the letter seemed a bit odd just tell them that this is due to different styles of such letters in Germany...
@Matias, wow, really? Potential employers - outside Germany - want these letters straight from the prof, by email. I will pass on the info.
@Dodo: yep, it's true, see also Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_reference_letter
For companies it's usually the HR department that writes these letters so if the former supervisor refuses to do it your friend should contact the HR or (if there should still be problems) the union.
Regarding the reference, even if it were accepted by a prof outside Germany to be forwarded directly by the candidate, my friend had only had two or three such requests. The rest of the time, employers wanted to phone them up or email them and it looks bad on my friend's CV to have the contact info from their last employer missing.
@Matias, just saw your latest post. Great. Thanks
Has anyone considered beating up abusive adviser as an option?
Even if there were no specifics behind it, it makes great satire.
I'm surprised people don't talk about these issues more often. My friend was made to leave their job because a contingent of locals of a higher rank, but with similar amount of research experience overall, found them threatening to the power structure due to their greater aptitude for the field of study, and also greater interest, something which they lacked as they were only in it for the status. They used their increased power and connections to steal bits and pieces of my friend's work, pass my friend's preliminary results to collaborators so that my friend would have to cite them, or openly threaten to steal in order to provoke my friend into anger. This is a country where status matters more than anything else and people go to great lengths to achieve it, often resorting to backstabbing and cut-throat tactics. The professor got together with some psychotic bat from HR named Gabriele Frohnhaus, who incidentally had one of those fake doctorates based on plagiarism which people from this country love to get to intimidate the general public, and sent my friend a series of threatening letters on trumped-up charges. These are total gangsters. I'd recommend to avoid them like the plague and to spread the word that European academics have a propensity for haughty, underhanded behaviour because of the high status this field is accorded, compared e.g. with the US.
I'd say the boss of the Atomistic Simulation Department at ICAMS is a psychotic megalomaniac who runs a cult-like empire. The lab is run like an 18-th century factory or work camp. Challengers are not tolerated. His right-hand man for example is a science quitter - a PhD with several years of experience in research who is now working as a glorified secretary, for various reasons but a big one is obligation to dependents. In fact, he loves filling up the group with sad losers with dependents such as grossly undereducated or underemployed wives whose key function is to propping up their weak egos, and some
mewling children to lock in the misery. Having these people in his group
makes him feel powerful and in control. In addition, everyone is obligated to socialise, whether it suits them or not, and if they don't they will be talked about behind their back and shunned. Members must absolutely obey the commands
of the professor's office-wife whorish secretary and her minions. He needs to surround himself with whorish helpers at all times because he is
insecure that he may be overthrown.
In addition, apostates will be spied upon, under his orders carried out either by
whorish secretaries who slowly gain their trust, or by their colleagues who are easily convinced to do so out of jealousy and the prospect
of gaining favour with the professor. He runs a stasi-like cult in which the favoured members are selected to inform on and pry into the affairs of their colleagues.
The structure of the Atomistic Simulation Department at ICAMS reflects the hierarchical structure of
materials. The hierarchical management style
serves to stifle creativity and induce social conformity. This is
reflected in the demographic makeup of many of the researchers - sad
robotic individuals dragged down by dependents or trying to live up to
parental expectations due to a lack of imagination in their personal
lives, mirroring their lack of creativity in science. These are the
factory workers of the present and future, using their advanced degrees to
masquerade as professionals when their values remain firmly entrenched
in the working class (conformity, lack of creativity, etc). To
maintain these individuals' contentment, courtesans, in the guise of
secretaries, are provided to engage in light and flattering banter.
Additionally, female group leaders tend to take on the role of
frustrated housewives:
organising parties, nagging and whipping their colleagues into shape,
etc. and in return they are provided by the professor with choice
tidbits of scientific discoveries or research stolen from legitimate
researchers. Two in particular are highly corrupt in this way: Jutta Rogal and Rebecca Janisch. The net result is that scientific progress is impeded,
being discussed behind the originating scientists' backs by the
bloated management with hidden corporate or personal agendas.
Jutta Rogal is a group leader at ICAMS who takes on the role of housewife. She is useful for throwing her
weight around and whipping other colleagues into shape. They avoid confronting her because she is untouchable - having strong links
to many colleagues - in fact she only got her position through contacts, not through fair competition. Despite having no talent for the field in which she is
currently working, and no ability for critical thinking, as due to the
severity of inbreeding, her negative traits of robotic thinking, racism, extreme jealousy, bullying, shrill nagging, plundering research of other scientists, are very strongly expressed, she is kept in the Atomistic Simulation group to intimidate other scientists, and eventually run them out of a job if they are smarter than her, something which doesn't take much at all.
@Dodo: while I am persuaded that it is a GOOD THING to denunciate bad research groups (and by that I mean having bad policy, no respect for work or human relations, and I know a few of such labs all over the world, like every honest scientist does), what you are now doing is pure bullshitting.
What is the point in using ad nominem attacks except to discredit you, your opinion, and everybody that you wanted to defend against what was probably an unfair situation?
I sooo despise such methods, YOU are the reason why it is not possible now to expose frauds or tyrant scientists (like they should be).
Shame on you.
@Kenneth : you should probably moderate a bit there, or you could have problems...
True, V.B., we got carried away!!! We don't want this blog to have problems. We will start our own and take full responsibility for whatever appears there. We wouldn't be opposed to whatever editing Kenneth deems necessary to protect this blog but something tells me it ain't slander if it's true. ahahahaha, at least in the USA where I'm assuming this site is hosted.
Gabriele Frohnhaus is the director of Human Resources at the
Ruhr-University Bochum.
She is a {redacted by editor}.
She is an ignorant dirty housewife. Gabriele Frohnhaus is a meek obedient housewife who hides behind bureaucracy to mask
her lack of a brain. Proof of the lack of brain:
She uses the title "Dr" but it is only a matter of time before people
realize, as they are doing with other powerful people, that she is a fraud, that her thesis is plagiarised and thus her title is FAKE.
Professors who want to fire somebody, such as Ralf Drautz at the
Atomistic Simulation Department
of ICAMS at the Ruhr-University Bochum, only need {redacted} and she will happily oblige, without a second thought, and send innocent employees threatening letters
with false and/or grossly exaggerated accusations and eventually get rid of them. The reason? She is a jealous {redacted}.
She particularly hates women doing science because she has no brain at
all herself, being a ugly old matronly {redacted}.
{last warning. watch the ad hominems.}
The highly-corrupt German weapons (steel) industry controls ICAMS at the Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany DESPITE the fact that half of ICAMS's funding comes from government sources. Researchers are conned into thinking that their contributions will lead to recognition in academic journals and career advancement. NOT TRUE!
Researchers are misled regarding the purpose of their work. A common tactic used at ICAMS is the extensive delaying of feedback on manuscripts, resulting in delays of more than a year. In fact, my friend and their bosses were editing a publication back and forth for nearly a year before the bosses suddenly requested to be removed from the author list, leaving my friend, a lowly postdoc with no name recognition in the field, to try to self-publish an important piece of work, something which is proving to be a very difficult task as ICAMS has their claws in all the well-known materials journals and threatens or pays off corrupt editors to reject my friend's article. My friend was misled into thinking their bosses would eventually approve the article, despite the extremely frustrating delays. Along the way however, my friend's bosses were passing on bits of science to whores such as Rebecca Janisch. The goal was for Rebecca Janisch to use my friend's ideas and publish her work first. Imagine that!
Rebecca Janisch is a group leader at ICAMS who feels entitled to success at all costs. She has a severe princess complex. Even though she has no aptitude for engineering, she finds a way to succeed in a corrupt fashion - even turning to INCEST to achieve her goals. Namely, hooking up with a male group leader at ICAMS who provides her with all the help she needs to achieve her coveted position. Joke is on her though - everyone will eventually figure out just how brainless and rotten to the core she is!
Ralf drautz, the professor of Atomistic Simulation at ICAMS at the Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, when not in bed with Gabriele Frohnhaus, the director of human resources at the Ruhr University Bochum, in exchange for
her assistance in firing "problem" (i.e. motivated and energetic but threatening to the power structure) employees, can be found in bed with one of the various steel companies which dot the ugly landscape
of that part of Germany. He deliberately lies to recruit people by telling them that any interesting findings arising from their work will be published when this is not the case. He deliberately forces his newly-hired employees to work with sub-par computational resources so that any preliminary findings are not publishable but good enough to pass on to collaborators who can repeat them with superior facilities and publish first. In exchange, the collaborators will provide him with other favours at another time. Without the employees' knowledge or consent, their work gets passed on to industrial sponsors and collaborators, who pick off the interesting bits first, and anything left over *may* be published, with a year or more delay, after citing the collaborators of course. Sometimes, the work will not be published at all. In this case, the manuscript is edited back and forth between employee and supervisor but after a year the supervisor mysteriously quits - resulting in a loss of valuable time in this highly competitive field for the employee, who additionally has to endure discrimination
from a lack of name recognition by submitting their work to journals as sole author!