There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched.
--Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, Saint Denis in book 13, ch. 3
In the Feb. 10 issue, after polling 2,800 postdocs, we highlighted the best places to work and the factors that contribute to job satisfaction. But in the box for free-text comments, quite a different set of verdicts was being delivered. Most of the 600 comments were shrieks of protest, frustration, misery, and fury.
A typical remark: "... You are not paid what you deserve, but you are working more than you are supposed to do to get the job that you want. It is a very bad culture to take advantage of those who are interested in science by not giving them the job and making them work hard for free (almost free)."
At the ...
