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Question

I am facing a high possibility of getting fired from my PhD for violating the terms of my work contract, by taking temporary employment outside of my PhD.

The head of my research centre, my boss, and my supervisor have reported me to HR and even the legal team is getting involved. Part of the problem is likely related to my visa (which did not allow for such work).

Just recently, I have had a call with my supervisor (who most likely reported me), and he suggested that I resign and exit gracefully from the program.

To say that I am devastated is an understatement. I have sacrificed years of my life for this program and have had persevered through various personal and professional difficulties only to be cut short when I am so close to the finish line.

What should I do?

Answer 1

You violated the rules of your University, which is not insignificant on its own (I disagree with Ben's answer here).

As we established in comments, you also violated your visa rules. This is much more significant, and explains why your supervisor and your University take this situation so seriously. Your visa is granted by the country (France) with specific purpose of studying for a PhD. Your University has a responsibility to the French government to make sure students who came on this visa do not violate its rules, which you did. You did not just compromise your own degree and your own immigration track in France, but also potentially the University's profile, which may make it more difficult for them to secure visas for international students in future. This is why the University is so unhappy with the situation, and your supervisor is so nervous about it.

In your question, you omitted the facts about visa (which you most surely understand). You worried about the consequences on your degree only. You show no concern about the consequences for the University, that may get in trouble with the immigration department. You show no concern for your supervisor, who also wasted this time, and wasted an opportunity to recruit another student who will complete her/his degree and contribute to research. You demonstrate a very self-centred behaviour and no remorse about breaking the rules and the law.

I think you should reflect on this experience and try to become a better person.

Answer 2

Most people are not going to have a life-long career in academia. You likely have better prospects outside of academia in several measurable ways: salary, mobility, etc.

It seems you have already been tempted by those options by taking outside work; based on the response I assume that this was intellectual outside work and not menial labor.

If you're going to be kicked out anyways, your advisor is probably right that it's not worth fighting and best to walk away to save both sides the time and money. If you had your advisor's support my answer would be different, but I don't think there is any reasonable path to a PhD without advisor support, however close you are.

Ultimately your own actions are the cause of your current circumstance, not the actions of those who reported your actions. This is a useful life lesson though unfortunately one that is coming with a heavier cost than other ways to learn the same lesson.

edit: With some additional details provided by OP, I would strongly recommend consulting a local lawyer to understand the legal position that OP is in. I do not think this website is a good substitute for legal advice besides the recommendation to get legal advice. I would revise my previous suggestion to specify that "walking away" should be done in the context of a specific legal agreement that protects OP from further consequences to the extent possible.

Answer 3

[I took] temporary employment outside of my PhD…The head of my research centre, my boss, and my supervisor have reported me to HR and even the legal team is getting involved. Part of the problem is likely related to my visa (which did not allow for such work).

I agree it’s not looking good. Start applying for your next position now to minimize any gap. It may be worth engaging a lawyer as well (both for the visa issues and to help you understand your options with the university).

Just recently, I have had a call with my supervisor (who most likely reported me), and he suggested that I resign and exit gracefully from the program.

I see no upside to doing this. “Being graceful” might simplify your advisor’s life, but it will leave you high and dry. You need to figure out every option for adjudication, appeal, etc; these will depend on your university’s policies. As I said, hiring a lawyer is probably worth the cost. If you are already very close to finishing, it's possible they might let you finish, so I would not resign prematurely. Or, less optimistically, it's possible that agreeing to resign voluntarily might be leverage you could use in a settlement; you probably don't want to give this away without getting legal advice first.

Answer 4

Don't just roll over and leave if you want to stay --- fight for what you want

I'm going to give an answer with a different perspective than the existing answer. If your supervisor is indeed the complainant to HR, then naturally he would like to be able to bypass the entire adjudication process and just get his preferred outcome. However, that does not mean that this is necessarily the outcome that the university will come to. The notion that you should give up any prospect of a favourable outcome in the HR process to "leave gracefully" is essentially a request to capitulate to the worst possible outcome a priori.

Perhaps it is a serious infraction to take unauthorised employment in breach of your contract, or perhaps it is something that they will view as a smaller violation that does not warrant removal from the program. I would imagine that your demonstrated progress in your PhD program would have a great deal of relevance in determining the negative impact of an outside job and therefore the severity of having taken one on in violation of your contract. Similarly, issues of financial hardship might be relevant. Personally, I would be surprised if taking an outside job on the sly is such a serious infraction that it would warrant removal from the program (at least for a first offence).

If you would like to salvage this situation, the first thing you need to do is to resolve to bring your case to HR and put forward a case for keeping you in the program. This may entail bringing up contextual factors (e.g., financial hardship that led you to pursue and outside job) and any relevant progress issues (how good is your progress in the program?). Be honest about your progress and the impact of the temporary employment you took on, but also put forward a proposal for how you can make progress in the future and satisfy the requirements of your candidature.

Assuming that you can get through the HR adjudication without removal from your program, it will then be necessary to talk to your supervisor to find a way to move forward with a working relationship. If he was the complainant and wanted you removed from the program then you may need to do some damage-repair, but at the same time, he will need to accept the university's adjudication of the matter and perform his supervisory role. Take things one step at a time and gradually repair the situation, but don't just roll over and leave if you want to stay.

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UPDATE: I had not intended to comment on the legal aspects of this question, beyond talking about your HR process, but since it is brought up in comments, let me note a few things. Firstly, it might be useful for you to look up the legal rules for "exclusivity clauses" and "adhesion contracts" in your jurisdiction, and you should feel free to seek legal advice on this matter if you can afford it. Capitulating to "leave gracefully" without going through the regular HR process does not yield any legal benefit to you in relation to your rights as an employee or a student, and it would significantly weaken your legal position, both at law and also in respect to your internal due process rights as a student/employee.

Answer 5

People are very sensitive to violations of visa regulations. The have to report it to HR and the authorities, otherwise they might lose their job or get punished (fines, jail time). There is no room for personal judgement or additional support for you.

Still, you can return to your home country, lose payment and resources from the your current arrangement, and might be able to finish your PhD. If you can stay with your parents without pay for 6 to 12 months, finish your dissertation, fly to your current university for your defense, it could work. Your current advisor needs to agree and the university needs not end your PhD journey. Talk to your advisor, they might be willing to support you or at least help you navigate the situation.
Another possibility would be, that you find an advisor in your home country, finish your dissertation there, have your current advisor as an external co-advisor and save your PhD.

I don't know what your life goals are, but finishing the PhD was very important for myself. You might not be able to return to your current host country. Nevertheless, you might land an academic or industry job with your PhD in your home country or somewhere else. The PhD is the ticket for success.

Answer 6

Morally

Morally, you wanted to work more for earning more. That is nothing morally bad. Except if we substitute "justice" and "moral" with the written characters of the law.

Legal, with the University

Your case with the University and with France are independent from each other. Very likely, France does not even know it. The University does not need to pass this information to the state.

About your case with the University: very likely, you have two different contracts with them. First, you have a work contract with the University, this work contract must close out sidework. If it does not, or it closes out badly (lawyers!!!), they can not fire you on this reason. You also have a student contract (or what is its name). They might fire you from the job, but not from the doctoral school.

You must talk with a lawyer because chances are high that you can save things.

Universities often fear suing them and they will rather allow it.

You stay clearly under a very strong psychological pressure. You must find a lawyer with whom you can talk about your options.

Most importantly, you (as you have written in your now closed post) did not commit really serious.

Legal, with the country

Here you again need a lawyer. Most importantly, because also your employer employed you illegally, and that is his responsibility. Your employer do not want it.

If there would be a court case (99% it won't happen), you could say, the employer said everything is okay. And the court will make the employer responsible, because he needed to know the work law in details, and not you. On this reason, primary interest of the employer is that no trace must remain about your whole work for him.

Fact that the work happened in another country, makes likely that your visa requirements were not violated.

Most likely outcome

The University will probably bow before a legal threat, but they will purge you out anyways.

You will be a temporary resident in the EU with a broken Phd program. That is nothing bad. Here is the time to find your first job here, this time a legal one. You will need to visit some government offices for a work permit as skilled emmigrant.

Believe me, guys without papers et all can do that. And you are a postgrad.

In practice, there is no way to expel you from the EU by force (beside many others: you can just go to Germany and restart this whole thing - there are 35 countries here).

While you are looking for your jobs, you will only show in your CV an entry as "doctoral program, X. University" and so. If they ask, then you answer that you could not end the program because anything. No one will call the University to find this dark spot. Even if anyone would try, they could not even find your former teachers. Anyways, if the University would say anything, you could sue them for defamation and they do not want to risk it.

Best possible outcome

Lawyers will talk and they make a consensus of that they keep this whole thing inside the University. The University makes an internal process where you get some... punishment, for example half year suspension of similar. If you are a high performer, you will get your Phd. If it would happen, you will need to watch your steps until you get the Phd, odds will be that not everyone will like you in the future.

About your University

Clearly you have a very toxic atmosphere. No sane University and no sane workplace does it on this way. You had a serious problem, they find a solution, that would be the ordinary attitude. This "resign or we fire you", and that even your bosses etc are in threat, this is totally abnormal. They consider you an "offender" for doing a summer work, this is a totally non-sense over-aggregation of the reality.

Legal help

Find lawyers! They are not very cheap in the EU. If you can not afford it, find legal helpers everywhere you can. Most importantly, you are in threat of expelling from the EU for doing nothing really bad, that is clearly a case of something might try to help you.