I work in a research center at a university. I have recently completed a report and listed myself and the Professor who oversees the research center as Project Head. Understandably, I listed myself as the first author under Project Head because I did the bulk of the work for this report.
The report is funded by an external organization and during our meeting today, the Prof mentioned that the head of that external organization should be listed jointly with him as Project Head and that I should be relegated to Project Leader.
I was literally fuming mad upon hearing this and retorted that it won't be fair to me as my name will appear as the third author when being cited even though I have put in the most work. Then the Prof went on to add that in academia it doesn't matter where one's name appears because every name gets an equal weightage in terms of importance. Well, I countered by saying that from my knowledge it is the first and last authors who are regarded as the researchers who have made the most contribution to the study. He proceeded to dismiss what I said.
In past projects that we had worked on jointly, he would always request that his name be listed first despite me being the one who had done the most work. His argument was that we should list names in alphabetical order and his name starts with L, whereas mine starts with Y, therefore his name should precede mine. I can't believe that I fell for this pathetic excuse.
The first time I encountered this issue, I tried to justify that it was no big deal, after all, I'm paid a decent salary but the fact that he dismissed me today made me feel like crap. This is full of shit. Suffice to say, I'm on the lookout for a new job.