Early-career researchers are miserable at work – Survey

According to a survey, early-career scientists in Australia, including postdoctoral researchers and those who are already independent investigators, are less satisfied with their jobs and their workplace culture than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic, writes Nicola Jones for Nature.

The study was led by Research Manager Katherine Christian at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. The authors examined responses from more than 500 participants who work at research institutions and have earned their PhD in the past 10 years. Just 57% of respondents reported that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their job, compared with 62% who said the same in a similar survey in 2019. That’s much lower than the average of 80% across the nation’s entire workforce.

More than three-quarters of respondents said that it’s a bad time to start a science career, up from roughly two-thirds in 2019. “That tells the story in itself,” says Christian. The survey also found increasing concerns about workloads and “alarming” rates of bullying.
Full report on the Nature site