Ask HN: Is abuse from supervisors as common in industry as in academia?

> Also, when academics are getting paid less, I feel like they gain some of their status by lording their power over other people, which is known to be part of the academic game.

"Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low." - Wallace Stanley Sayre

I have an advanced degree and have been (managed/manager) in industry. Academia is much, much worse:

First, in an industry job, you can almost always quit or transfer, when in academia, your success is tied very tightly to your advisor. There are stories from the old days of people whose advisors died in the late years of their thesis work, causing them to have to abandon their degree or start over.

Second, professors are never trained to be managers, nor are they hired for their management skill. In most departments, the role of chair is mocked and despised, to the point that its often a rotating position - nobody wants to be the boss. Most companies invest significant time in training and coaching their managers.

Third, there is almost no consequence in academia for your students failing. If it’s widespread, you might not get enough work done to continue getting grants, but usually even abused grad students turn out a few papers. It’s not like there’s a customer satisfaction survey or annual performance evaluation for faculty, at least not one that incorporates grad student happiness. Where I work, if your employees are significantly unhappy, you’re not going to be a manager for long.

Finally, I’ve heard an argument that academics is based on a libertarian concept of freedom of thought and action, which is why professors have tenure. For a long time, this translated to there being no rules, even around things like profs dating students - if it’s consensual, who are we to get in the way? Outside of academics, we have agreed that it’s not a good idea to date your employees ...

There is a lot of politics in academia, but it’s mostly between professors, not professors and students.

Frankly I have seen it’s mostly students who abuse the system. There are a lot of goof-offs who are paid by taxpayers and just want to party, have fun and get a degree. This is just my own observation.

Why should a supervisor neglect a student if student is doing an OK job? What’s the motivation here?

I am not saying either side is always at fault. Rather, the person in power should not automatically be blamed.

The reason you don’t have personal relationships with students is not because of MeToo or the current political environment, it’s because it’s inappropriate, and always has been. And please don’t tell me it’s because of nerdy academics not being able to handle it.

If you find yourself meeting with a single student anywhere but the office, discussing things that aren’t related to work, for any significant amount of time, then you need to at least carefully examine the situation. Save that for your friends and family.

Good managers know that developing personal relationships with your team members is not how you lead a team.