Lessons learned from a toxic workplace
“Equal opportunity creates a better work environment for both men and women” was a statement made during a lab leadership workshop lecture on women in science. Since I had never been in a male-only work environment before, I did not fully grasp the importance of the topic “how women’ or other diverse ethnic groups’ presence made a positive difference” until I worked in one.
I never thought there would be institutions in the US that did not provide equal opportunity and I couldn’t imagine how toxic the work environment was. The one I worked for was very difficult to spot as a male-only institute. From the outside, this institute seemed to have gender equality with people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. They had all the boxes checked due to the requirements. I knew I never felt welcomed, but I did not know why and I could not put my finger on what was wrong. A woman scientist, who was the first woman to be hired for a management position in the 21st century in this department, showed me what to look for. They strongly protected hierarchy in hiring while satisfying equal opportunity requirements. The top tier, all the high-paid management positions, were white males. Second-tier, temporary positions that could be promoted to permanent management positions were occupied by both men and women with Ph.Ds. All of the men were groomed for permanent management positions either in the current or other institutions. However, most women rarely, if ever, became permanent. The third tier was high paid research assistant positions occupied by immigrant men with Ph.D.s. Finally, the fourth tier was the technician position where most women with Ph.D.s were hired. Men did not need a Ph.D. However, if the male technicians decided to earn a Ph.D. degree, they were promoted to a management position, but not women.
Respect was the main difference I observed in the two workplaces; one provided equal opportunity and the other not. One day in a group meeting the top manager and my boss said, “Everyone is replaceable.” He told us this fairly frequently. He even complained that he himself was replaceable. I did not know whether I should have felt sorry for him. Unfortunately, his statement set a disrespectful tone for the whole workplace. Since women were told most of the time their appointment would not be renewed, which created a venue for negative behaviors like mocking women employees. Here are just a few examples:
“I am glad I have a permanent position and I don’t have to worry about my salary.”
“You became an expert on a job search.”
“That position is way above your league.”
“How could you even think you could qualify?”
“You did not even graduate from a prominent school but I did. I qualify for that position.”
“Molecular biologists are a dime a dozen”,
“The powers to be called me and said someone else is going to be the star in your research field, so you should stop working on that topic.”
Merit was definitely not based on hard work. Every scientist was required to produce at least 2 research articles a year. This was critical for promotion or the renewal of your contract. A common complaint about not hiring women I used to hear was that women were not as productive as men. Or women decided to focus on family rather than research and men are superior. The male-only places taught me otherwise. The key to merit was having resources. One male scientist in the group had 5 technicians and one postdoc. The rest of the employees in the department had 0 (that is me) to 2 assistants. You could actually tell based on the number of direct reports, a scientists’ gender, racial and ethnic background. Of course on the surface, upper management was told that I had a shared technician, some greenhouse space and a lab to conduct experiments. The shared technician mainly prevented me from accessing the greenhouse space.
Women were gas-lighted and threatened with physical violence in this place. Another woman scientist and I finally managed to get the greenhouse manager to provide us material which really had promising results. A month after her cooperation the greenhouse manager was forced to retire. Later, a woman with an army background who had been recently hired as a greenhouse assistant was promoted to a greenhouse manager. She was nice until I asked her for the materials. After creating an email havoc with my boss, she came to my office with a threat of physical harm. This was the first time in my life I was threatened with physical violence. Luckily my office had 2 doors, I immediately looked for an exit in case she attacked. I told her she looked very upset and asked whether she would like to sit down to calm down and offered to get her some water. She decided to go back to the greenhouse. Later I checked on her and she was a lot calmer. Since women were constantly gas-lighted, I do not know what exactly set her off. To my knowledge, I had 2 months left for the end of my contract, so I decided to pursue other projects that did not require materials from the greenhouse.
The minute you think things can’t get any worse, they do. One day in a group meeting, my boss said there would be a management position opening. You would think this was a good thing. No, it was not. It was a carrot that the boss used to play anyone he wanted just by implying they would get the position. He presented the qualifications for the position. They lined up nearly perfectly with one of the temporary scientists in the group, a woman. Of course, this was no coincidence. The position had been written with her in mind. People that had been around a while knew the game, but new hires didn’t. He watched everyone stab each other’s backs for about a month. Then he said he chose someone else for this position in the interim. A week later a man was hired for the position.
We all hear the questions, “Where do we lose women trained in STEM? Is it the leaky pipe? We need more STEM training to retain women.” Would you stick with a STEM profession if this was your only work experience?
Finally, lessons learned from a toxic workplace that a leader should NOT do. Luckily, I had great examples of leadership in graduate school.
Author: Dr. Fatma Kaplan is the CEO/CSO of Pheronym, an entrepreneur, and an accomplished scientist with experience in both biology and chemistry. She has a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology and postdoctoral training in Natural Product Chemistry with a focus on isolating biologically active compounds. Dr. Kaplan discovered the first sex pheromone of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and published in Nature. Then she discovered that pheromones regulate other behaviors in both parasitic and beneficial nematodes. She has very high impact publications and her dissertation (beta-amylase’s role during cold and heat shock) was cited in textbooks within 5 years of publication. Dr. Kaplan worked as a scientist at NASA, the National Magnetic Field Laboratory and the US Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Research Service. Dr. Kaplan co-founded Pheronym to bring nematode pheromone technology to the market and to provide effective, non-toxic pest control for farmers and gardeners.
