- #1
camillio
- 74
- 2
Hello folks,
I'm a postdoc in CS/Statistics in a small EU country, working in academia as a scientist, no teaching just research. The stupid thing is that our department is the second worst in the (otherwise prestigious) institute, as there are many lazy people around, just procrastinating, doing nothing. Even there are members who have no publications for years, but who are under protection of our chair (surprisingly unlike most active ones).
I feel I'm loosing motivation to do anything. For instance, right now, I'm preparing a project proposal without any chance to be a PI - it will be one extremely lazy colleague with whom I've been working for two years on another project where *completely* all results were mine. However, he's older and he's preferred by the chair. Another example: I've submitted a paper to a prestigious conference and it was accepted with very nice reviews. However, the lack of money prevented me from going there, while another older and not very smart colleague with bad reviews and wrong results gained support from the department and will present results that were proved wrong a few days ago. Young people with early PhDs are leaving it here due to this bad situation. The very few who stay are either working with someone from outside the department or have very high frustration tollerance.
The question is obvious - I don't know what to do. Leaving the institute is no go for me now, I have a family and two little babies. I'm trying to do my best, but the situation around me makes me loose motivation. For instance, I intend to extend the mentioned conference paper, but have no mental energy for it. I intend to study stochastic processes, stochastic integration and SDEs this summer, but the question why to do it is still with me (I often ask myself whether I'll have any chance to use it before I leave it here). And of course, I feel depressed and lost. I would be grateful for any recommendation and any new hint as they will be surely useful in my frequent brainstormings.
I'm a postdoc in CS/Statistics in a small EU country, working in academia as a scientist, no teaching just research. The stupid thing is that our department is the second worst in the (otherwise prestigious) institute, as there are many lazy people around, just procrastinating, doing nothing. Even there are members who have no publications for years, but who are under protection of our chair (surprisingly unlike most active ones).
I feel I'm loosing motivation to do anything. For instance, right now, I'm preparing a project proposal without any chance to be a PI - it will be one extremely lazy colleague with whom I've been working for two years on another project where *completely* all results were mine. However, he's older and he's preferred by the chair. Another example: I've submitted a paper to a prestigious conference and it was accepted with very nice reviews. However, the lack of money prevented me from going there, while another older and not very smart colleague with bad reviews and wrong results gained support from the department and will present results that were proved wrong a few days ago. Young people with early PhDs are leaving it here due to this bad situation. The very few who stay are either working with someone from outside the department or have very high frustration tollerance.
The question is obvious - I don't know what to do. Leaving the institute is no go for me now, I have a family and two little babies. I'm trying to do my best, but the situation around me makes me loose motivation. For instance, I intend to extend the mentioned conference paper, but have no mental energy for it. I intend to study stochastic processes, stochastic integration and SDEs this summer, but the question why to do it is still with me (I often ask myself whether I'll have any chance to use it before I leave it here). And of course, I feel depressed and lost. I would be grateful for any recommendation and any new hint as they will be surely useful in my frequent brainstormings.