Does anybody else ever feel like they are in a playground environment? This was not apparent to me at undergrad, but now, having to interact with the staff more (same uni), I've seen all kinds of pettiness, backstabbing, and dare I say it, favouritism, and I don't mean just between staff-students, but staff-staff as well.

It's quite demotivating, and I'm starting to want to distance myself from certain individuals.

For instance, an admin. job was offered to somebody without inviting the rest of us to apply; certain people are normally asked to teach before others; when we have academic-visitors, the same individuals are normally asked to go and socialize with them; there is also an attitude that research council funded students should be treated better than self-funded.

Sometimes I think I've imagined it, as one incident isn't grounds for thinking there are politics going on, but it's consistent. The thought of another two years of this fills me with dread. And I wonder if these issues are likely to exist elsewhere.

Yes definitely! I remember the first time I was at an exam board with other lecturers (my old lecturers from when I was an undergrad) and they were all slagging off students - not in the meeting, but outside beforehand - saying things like 'oh my bunch were TERRIBLE this year'... I was totally shocked!!! And have heard plenty more like that since...