Seriously, let's evaluate this kind of work-culture thinking.
I call such work culture praxis "Plantation Politics" highered research, output & teams operate pretty much how antebellum Southern Plantations operated to produce crops w/ exploited labor & tiered oversight https://twitter.com/NAChristakis/status/960211767434665984

Plantations were more-or-less self sustaining agarian centers that produced cash crops to sell on the market.
Very successful plantations had a LOT of skilled (enslaved) craftspeople, ag, soils, tech, & food service, + low wage earning white overseers.

Enslaved labor worked from sun up to sun down in the fields; & some slave narratives talk about working into the night on clear full moon nights.
Working long, working hard in the fields is often discussed romantically by nostalgic antebellum authors/historians

Fear of coming up short - in the harvest or output - was an everyday concern for antebellum slaves. Missing the quota or even if you meet the quota, holding the LIGHTEST bag meant you might get a daily lashing - publicly flogged to instill fear of failure in the rest of team

Fear was such an ever-present part of the labor-extracting system of the Antebellum south that slaves made of point of always moving, looking busy. Even stretching & taking a breath for too long could result in physical reprimand.

Being ill, injured - all treated as excuses enslaved (then later poorly compensated) Black people made to "get out of work" that exploited them anyway. Working through pain/pregnancy was often celebrated as "devotion" & Christian virtue by Plantation owners to encourage others

So tell me how these "competitive-uber productive" science research labs don't sound like Plantations with their repeated calls for jr scholars to work long hours/weekends/holidays, celebrating their commitment to be in the lab following pain/loss or risk of personal injury

How are different are these long-lauded Labs from Southern Plantations with their tiered hierarchy of techs & post-docs who report on grad students to the PI or PIs who are constantly walking through the lab monitoring grad stus & postdoc micromanaging their time & personal time?

A question, every PI should ask themselves:
Am I running a LAB or am I running a Plantation?
Not sure? Ask yourself some questions.
#LaborPlantation

#LaborPlantation
Do you treat the labor/research output of the jr scholars as commodities that belong to you?
Do you disallow postdocs/grad students to work on personal/passion research projects - EVEN on their own time?

#LaborPlantation
Say your grad student/postdoc has expertise at a lab technique and a colleague from another lab/institution wants to collaborate.
Do you expect them to ask you first?
Do you get final say on whether they can participate and at what level?

#LaborPlantation
Do you require your grad students/post-docs to get permission to travel out of town during academic breaks?
Do you expect students to work (nearly) full days on weekends, holidays & winter break - even when there isn't a special experiment happening?

#LaborPlantation
Do you make slick/snide comments about your students/postdoc productivity when you notice them enjoying themselves - in the lab or even "outside of work" (also known as microaggressions)?

#LaborPlantation
Do you only allow time away to attend conferences or offer to pay for conference attendance IF they have "earned" it by way of meeting a productivity goal you have set?
Or do you (PI) present most of papers at conferences that come out of your lab?

#LaborPlantation
Beyond a special experiment setup or a time crunch (pending deadline/field season coming to a close), do you expect trainees to pull 60-80hr research work shift as normal sciencing?

#LaborPlantation
Do you routinely talk about sleep/eating or spending time with family as research distractions?
Have you ever had a fit when a life emergency happens to you or someone in your lab because it compromises your research productivity?

#LaborPlantation
On diversity: Have you only considered URM students/postdocs because their stipends/pay were covered by grants OUTSIDE of your main funding?

#LaborPlantation
On diversity Do you believe URM & international students/postdocs are 'better investments' because you find they work so hard to prove themselves?
Do you offer URM/international students/postdocs the lowest allowed compensation possible?

#LaborPlantation
On diversity: Are you delaying the matriculation of URM & international students/postdocs in your lab bc you're scared you won't be able to replace their expertise? Or you don't want to compensate them at the full tech/consultant price if they graduate?

#LaborPlantation
When bragging about your lab/trainees do you primarily use ‘Extraction’ language to rank how much labor/intellect property/data generation-collection you get out of UG volunteers, grad students & postdocs?

#LaborPlantation
Another query submitted by ALC: https://twitter.com/AbbyLCannon/status/960649048318504960

#LaborPlantation
This: https://twitter.com/lisamdanish/status/960723522439041029

Another way some STEM programs are like plantations? I can’t count how often I’ve counseled other WoC to FINISH your projects & Get Free of toxic labs/PIs/depts/programs.
For some of us, a diploma or submitted manuscript IS FREEDOM PAPERS, literally.
#LaborPlantation

#LabOrPlantation
Another thread by an amazing scientist about how these unhealthy work/productivity expectation manifest in our spirit/psyche https://twitter.com/DrRubidium/status/960582511049949184