>>37222111My supervisor is a full blown narcissist. He bullies me, the other PhD students, and the MA students. They come to my office crying. He called my colleague PhD a 'cuntface' because she didn't manage to get a restaurant reservation he wanted.
The big professor doesn't give a shit about anyone but himself, so while he know of this behaviour, he does nothing to fix it. Also, we are understaffed because our language professor killed himself at 44 and he couldn't be bothered to fight for a replacement. Now the PhD students are teaching most of his classes (ie me and one other guy).
The university, meanwhile, will only take steps of you are willing to file a personal complaint against someone and thereby ruin your own career. They will not support a (PhD) student over a productive staff member. A colleague of mine in Philosophy had to get a lawyer so she could switch supervisors, because her supervisor was mentally destroying her.
Oh, and the institute I work for has been out of commission for the 1,5 years because the entire management quit because death threats were made against them by certain senior staff members. Today I received an email complaining that I haven't had my annual assessment yet - yes, because there was literally no one to do it. Somehow, this is still my fault.
And I wish I could tell you my situation is not common. Welcome to academia.
