Leeds pulls advert for ‘exploitative’ research assistant job

Well, count me out on that one. I also found the comment both offensive and insensitive. The post is about casualization in the academic job market, not the latest postmodern complaint that is forty years old and very tired. But here's the point: it doesn't take any intelligence to make a comment like that, so once you open an article to comment, even the stupid can participate. That's democracy. Can I add one further comment here? Casualization is an aggregate term for many practices. There is part time work, differentiated work, in every field and occupation. Academic professionals tend unconsciously to assume that medieval guild standards still prevail. They do not. This job posting is disgusting. It promises an academic job as a gopher. The professor who wants a gopher to do his academia.com and research gate postings should be suspended. What a jerk. But this kind of exploitation is two sigmas from the usual casual post at a university. The real issues in casualization are about the pay and the dignity of the work. I personally discourage every young academic from adjunct work. It is bad practice for the university, damaging to students, and terrible as a stepping stone to a career. But if a university wishes to hire someone on long term contract with decent pay and benefits, even half time, and the job conditions are suitable for research and teaching, and if this situation matches the needs of a young scholar, then at the very least it is not in the same moral category as the position at Leeds.

That was my first thought too.