patrick.net

Blacklisting at work has been illegal in the UK since 2010, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It just happens informally. I know, because it happened to me.

I was a recent PhD graduate at the time, and as far as I can tell, academic ‘blacklisting’ plays out in similar ways to the regular kind. When it happens, you generally know something is wrong, although you probably won’t know what, at least to start with. You will apply for hundreds of jobs, but rarely, if ever, be shortlisted. You will account for some of this by blaming bad luck. You’ll tell yourself it’s a numbers game, or the economy is bad, or there are too many applicants chasing too few jobs. ...

Blacklisting has terrible consequences for those affected by it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what had been happening. I suppose I’m just one of those people that likes picking scabs.

There are new EU-wide data regulations, known as the GDPR, that were introduced in 2018. These regulations allow people to make a data request, called a Subject Access Request, to any institution that holds any data on them. The definition of data is pretty broad, and I was able to ask my PhD college, and several other institutions, to see all emails in which my name appeared in either the subject line or the body of the email.

In amongst the mostly innocuous material that my request generated, there were two interesting finds. Firstly, my eminent and influential PhD supervisor had let it be widely known that they thought I was an unpleasant person, impossible to work with, fundamentally stupid, and that I definitely shouldn’t be doing a doctorate.

They complained vigorously about having such an awful student, but never mentioned the two hour-long interviews they conducted with me before agreeing to take me on. After that, one of my PhD examiners had been asked about me off the record, and had advised against me. They repeatedly used insults and demeaning adjectives to block me from several employment positions and speaking engagements. ...

As far as blacklisting goes, it is a sad, career-destroying fact that a lie is half way round the world before the truth has got its shoes on, and a good official reference is no match for insider gossip. If these senior academics were making these damaging, unprofessional, ad hominem remarks about their student in emails, what were they saying on the phone, or over coffee?