Thank you very much

I agree with pm133, they are all different. My friend and I have the same supervisors but I have a really bad relation with my supervisor but my friend took a good advantage of them. You would think it is my fault which I agree on because I did not except to publish my paper in his name as a first author and that made him angry.
You need to set rules with your supervisor, agree on a weekly meeting. Agree on recording your meetings with your supervisor or find another way to document your meetings with them. Keep your relation as shallow as you can, because they will try to be close friend with you to know your weak points and then use them against you like my supervisors did. I had emails document everything and that is how I filied a complaint against them and they were really annoyed because I exposed them to university.
Hopefully, you will have a good experience that most of us in this forum.
Good Luck

Yes, I do. Only one works for academia as a post-doc and two for oil company with many years of experience.

I am sorry but I could not get what you mean

Would you please expand on "I suspect HR advice would be not to go beyond that"

Thank you very much

You are right , it is not. However, I have the right to access my reference and I can sue them if I see they wrote something bad about me. but as tru said, they can do it in another way not through the refence.

Would you please expand on "I suspect HR advice would be not to go beyond that"

Hello , the job is a post-doc in a university and when I was filling the application they were asking for where I finished my PhD and teh name of the supervisor.
I contacted the Head of deartment but he is my supervisor and being complained about so he does not reply to my email. I contacted the stodent co-ordinator and he does not reply to my email too.

Hello
I filed a complaint against my supervsiors and the university issued an official apology letter for my poor experience as a PhD student and for the wrong comments my supervisors made.
When I am trying to apply to some jobs they request the name of my supervisor. I do not want to put any of them but how can I got out of not putting any of their names?
Some would say I should ask the head of department, he is one of my supervisors who got involved in the complaint because I exposed lots of corruption within the institution. He was so annoyed of me that he banned me from using the computer lab, so yes I would not trust him as a reference too.
Any other ideas please. Thanks in advance

Thank you and sorry about what you went through. Honestly, I have no idea. I think they get arrogant and show off. Everytime I question my supervisors, they tell me we supervisod more than 20students and they all finished successfully so you should not question us. But they had no idea about what they say, they know what to say but they do not know exactly anything about the subject matter. When I filed the complaint I know I am going into war but I knew I will win. Because I talked with the advisors and with the student co-ordinator and they were really annoyed of my supervisors emails.

And yes, therapy helps. I took some and mediate for a while to relax the anger inside me. Thinking you live in UK, you will find a high standard people in a high standard institutions but it is bullshit.

I achieved this because I didn’t do anything wrong. My supervisors including the head of the department and also my supervisor were assholes. Everyone knows that even the university but they are bringing fund to the university. Otherwise, the university would get rid of them after they issued the apology letter. I filed the complaint before my viva, and I agree it was a crazy thing to do but it was either this or I sue them which I could have done. So, I took the cheapest thing. The apology letter doesn’t change anything for me but definitely fucked them up, there is even parts where they say they were not wrong but they apologised .

Thank you for your comments but I don’t agree on this point. I found someone who was so kind to help me with my thesis, checking the English and if the story make sense. He also helped me with my paper and was happy to have his name as a co-author because he wrote the abstract and structured it with the conclusion.
There are very good people that will help you to fight your war and win it. Just open your heart and don’t stop at one asshole that you stumbled upon, don’t look at the half empty of the glass. Good luck to you and I wish you all the best to win your war

I filed a complaint against my supervisors for stating in my thesis submission that I received support more than most PhD students in the department and that I am rushing to completion. They forgot that everything was documented by emails.
My supervisors never tried to help me with my research or support me with constructive feedback or regular meetings but they were desperate to publish my research, specially the first one in his name as a first author. He even dared to threaten me and tell me I have to choose between my PhD and publication. Because this was oral threat, no one wanted to believe someone with this position would say that. But I managed to kick him out of the co-authorship. He doesn’t want to be involved in my publication after I exposed the other two to the university. I have emails show their lack of support, their poor feedback.
The university acknowledged that and apologised in their behaviour without taking serious action against them. It’s bit annoying but I replied that I was hoping the apology will come from them and I am hoping this letter will pass to them and stays in their file for future reference.
I got this letter after 8 months and I was emailing the complaint department on regular basis until I got it.
I know they did not mention everything specially the publication (aside from the threat to prevent them from publishing anything from my research) but I am happy with this letter. It’s not a big deal but the university knowable now what kind of people they are.
For anyone who is suffering from his supervisor, don’t. File a complaint and fuck your supervisor, that will teach them a lesson to not underestimate you. Their arrogancy and thinking they are above the law should stop by your complaint.
All the best

I agree with most of you had said. However, my supervisors are British/English which o don’t think the university will take any action against them.
I am working on a paper for publication and another staff in the university helped me with the writing and we both are authors on the paper. I am sure my supervisors will be really angry if the paper got accepted and published specially the primary told me he want to publish it in his name as a first author and I refused which was the main issue with my supervisors as they supported him in his decision.
Regarding the academic reference, I do not need /want one, and it’s not a mandatory thing for getting a job. If it’s , I have friends can provide me with it.
There is no time line for the complaint, and I will move on once the paper is published.
I really appreciate everyone’s comments, it was really helpful to me.
Good luck to everyone

The university cares more about money, and it’s well known the our department makes 40% of university funding. So, even if I am not the first student to file a complaint, there is the matter of funding they keep their heads down.

I am going to graduate in three weeks but I got awarded my PhD in April which is after my complaint by five months. My supervisors were really annoyed when I filed the complaint and one of them is the head of the department as a revenge he prevented me from using the computer lab which is an open facility to all PhD students. He banned me from using the computer lab because I filed the complaint against him. I told the complaint department about that and they didn’t do anything. I want to publish a paper but the reviewers asking me for more work to be done but I couldn’t do that. My examiners were nice during my viva but that doesn’t matter as I do not have any publication. It’s not revenge for me, it’s to get justified that what they did is wrong and what they did will be prevented in the future