#28 - Exploitation of early career ecologists: Interview with Paul Whitby, Ecology Co-op

Career exploitation refers to situations in which an employer or work environment takes advantage of an employee for their own benefit, often at the expense of the employee's well-being and long-term career prospects. This can take many forms, such as paying employees less than they deserve, not providing adequate opportunities for growth and development, or assigning them work that is outside of their job description or skill set.

Furthermore, career exploitation can lead to feelings of burnout, job dissatisfaction, and a lack of motivation to continue working in a particular field. It can also limit an employee's future career opportunities by not providing the necessary skills and experience to advance to higher-level positions.

So how can early career ecologists, with maybe only a limited knowledge of the work of an ecological or environmental company identify the signs of exploitation, and if found what can they do about it?

Well, helping us to understand this topic is our guest today, Paul Whitby, Managing Director and Principal Ecologist at The Ecology Co-op.

How to avoid exploitation in ecological consultancy?

If you want to avoid exploitation in your career, and help create a better industry for other aspiring ecologists, here’s some suggestions for what you can do:

• Understand what you value from your career. Why are you doing it? Depending on your reasons, are there any trade-offs you would be willing to make and to what threshold?
• Do your research and due diligence. Do your online research, ask questions, or seek answers about the company or organisation you are looking to work for. Try talking to previous employees to make sure the role you’re considering will meet your expectations.
• Create your own career opportunities. Don’t limit yourself to what you see advertised. Identify your goals and companies / organisations or people that could be a match, and reach out to them.
• Report inaccurate advertising or mistreatment. If you’ve done your research and an experience doesn’t provide what was promised, this is exploitation. If a company, organisation, or individual is mistreating its employees, this is unacceptable and should be reported to the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM).

Our Guest:

Paul is a Chartered Ecologist with fourteen years’ experience working as an ecologist and environmental consultant. His career began in Cheshire working on a number of large projects including gas pipelines, waste recovery centres, Liquid Natural Gas installations, and other commercial developments. After a short spell working back in his hometown of Petworth, Paul set up Azure Ecology in 2009, a small independent ecological consultancy working with a network of sub-contractors across south east England.

Paul founded The Ecology Co-operation in March 2014 to replace Azure Ecology and accommodate the expanding team of ecologists. Paul has working experience with a wide variety of British terrestrial wildlife and has managed projects of all sizes including writing Ecological Impact Assessments (EcIA), working as an expert witness at planning enquiries, and completing 23 Farm Environment Plans as part of Higher Level Stewardship applications across seven different counties. He has survey licenses for bats, dormice, and great crested newts and has held a number of European Protected Species licenses.

Aside from ecology, Paul’s interests include rugby, vegetable gardening, free diving, and pretending to be good at DIY.

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