Half of the people working in this department said that they benefited from of some kind of local support when they were hired in their current positions (mostly their PhD supervisor). This support can go as far as the creation of a position for someone: “The
prof. I was working with was quite involved in that and he developed courses quite a bit
there [in another Higher education institution], let’s say there was anyway the idea that
all that could lead to the creation of a post … for a first assistant, that would take some of the load off him there. So yes, from that point of view that was [ahum] let’s say, the idea that this post might be created and then immediately I would be a candidate … let’s
say that in that respect [ahum]… it helped, yeah” (#1).
The need may come from the requirement to provide teaching or from the Faculty’s policies in choosing to develop a particular area of knowledge: “My luck was precisely that this post was created in a… in a university that is more open to these… posts [with
that specialisation] compared to other universities. I think I would never have been hired
or not easily in another university […] with a profile like that it’s very complicated to… to
get a post as prof. except in a university like this one which is open to that, but
174
Those who were not in such a position either had to build their own network –“I started
so to speak to build, to build up a big network that would enable me to carry on that gave me strength energy and recognition because otherwise I think would eventually
have given up” (with the first thesis supervisor) (#40) – or to find a temporary teaching position, as this constitutes a major access to post-doctoral positions. In the whole group of interviewees, one man and one woman entered the Faculty because their work enabled the organization to address urgent teaching needs within their department. The organisational culture is described as led by performance, which is not really seen as
good for science: “I think that all the same there is a culture of performance and
scientific production that is expressed in different ways I think and in particular in the number publications things like that which are self-evident, the organisation of scientific
events” (#1). Therefore, the interviewees say that they feel pressure to publish in
journals instead of writing books. This is especially the case with those who are on tenure track and several yearn to finish this period so to be able to write books –“I would like to publish differently yeah in the sense that there are things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and haven’t had the time to do, publishing books that I know are not always highly valued…”(#1); “All I would like to do now is to be to devote a year to writing a book and that’s in terms of tenure, that’s suicidal” (#4) – simply to have a better work-life balance and some stability: “They think that once you’re
stabilised you won’t work anymore [laughter] but of course it’s not true […] there have
been posts, assistant professor posts for example [ahum] now that could stabilised or
with tenure track, you see, well, after four years [ahum]; but frankly there I… I didn’t
want to apply for something like that because I didn’t want to have another four years in a, in a situation like that, as you can imagine [hum], you know how it is… [ahum ahum] you see where you… you have yeah all the time you have to think about racking up the
publications, it’s a real pressure and it’s always a bit like that… so for the moment I’m
not applying for those posts [ahum right] [laughter] because, all the same, having a stable post is cool [yeah] and not having the status of prof. for the moment that is no big deal for me.” (#40).
As seen above, the people in tenure-track positions stress more than the first assistants the workload of such a temporary situation, mostly due to the obligation to meet the criteria for tenure and to do everything properly –“you get [yeah] the impression you
must always be doing everything so… you… you get into committee work there, yeah”
(#3, M, T) –, and not being able to say “no”.
Which elements of micro-politics (e.g. distribution of space and equipment,
distribution of variously valued tasks in research and teaching) define
internal organisational hierarchy?
Money is available in Switzerland and no one complained of a lack of space or equipment or money to travel.
On one occasion, a junior post-doc complained that he had to run the website for the institute in which he was working. He managed to get rid of this task (it is now in the hands of Senior Lecturers in stable positions), which he describes as one for young researchers and not rewarding despite what his boss says.
175
The way teaching is viewed is quite ambiguous; it is described as a brake on research activities but at the same time the youngest researchers in terms of work experience are proud to be able to teach their own courses.
3.2.3 Comparative conclusions
Although the scientific culture is described as competitive in both departments, differences do emerge. In the STEM Department, the junior researchers tend to highlight the collaborative relations with colleagues (even swapping courses), but they also stress that competition is omnipresent: you have to publish your results before another team
gets there first: “The pressure is not internal, right, there’s no one saying I want to see you working at weekends, on the contrary, they couldn’t care less [laughter] (laughter),
all that counts is the results [ah yes], no its more of an international pressure on [mm
mm] grant applications, the publication of your articles, etc. and yes it’s the amount of work there is to do” (#16, F, T). Nevertheless, this agonistic realm is the reality of science and they mostly accept it, which is not the case in the SHS Department, where
performance is seen as equivalent to uninteresting science: “It’s… it’s something that is rather counterproductive… in in terms even, even of production, let’s say, anyway, useful production, well, production that will be of use to other people because the
articles I’ve published are the same things you see in all journals, that interest no one and don’t interest me either” (#4, Male, T).
Being responsible for other people is clearly seen as a burden for the professors on tenure track in the STEM Department, while no one, with the exception of #22 (senior lecturer, tenured), mention such a concern in SHS. The people in STEM described themselves as pushed to look for money and to write research projects relentlessly, an aspect that may turn against them because science can be slow, experiments can fail and not bring results, despite the work invested.
The same feeling was expressed in the SHS Department by one person who was on a post-doctoral position, but he was somewhat older than his colleagues and said he was shocked by the demands made for a junior tenure-track position: “What I would criticise
is that you place people who are really just graduated [ahum] I mean people who you can be sure have never previously held academic posts before [ahum ahum], that seems to me just a preliminary, right [yeah, yeah, yeah], afterwards the institution says to
itself: ‘Why should I recruit someone who has just graduated when I have a guy who has
twelve years of professional experience, who will give me much more?’ [ahum, ahum] I think it should hold firm and say ‘Look, it’s a post for a new graduate, OK, so let’s give a
chance to someone who has just graduated [ahum] but with a job description that
176