This is a story about John, Mary, Cumol and Boss.

John is working on his Ph. D and is not a good scientist. Boss knows he is not a good scientist.

Mary is working on her Ph. D and is not a good scientist. Boss either knows she isn't a good scientist or is too incompetent to figure it out.

Cumol is working on his Ph. D and sounds like a good scientist (hard for the audience to know for sure, but it seems reasonable). Boss has no reason to think Cumol isn't a good scientist, other than Mary attempting to share her incompetence with Cumol.

Boss is an asshole.

There are four people in this story, and one of them doesn't belong. Of these four people, one of them employs the other three. All three employees are there because they don't have any better options right now, but only Cumol has the luxury of supposing better options will come around eventually. Mary and John? Yeah, they're stuck where they are because they suck at what they do.

There are four people in this story, and one of them doesn't belong. Of these four people, one of them doesn't suck. The three that suck all sort of want Cumol to go away because - honestly, dude - you make them all look bad.

So when Mary and John tell you their lives would be better if you left, they're not wrong. They're assholes, but correct assholes. The fact of the matter is you'd bolt to a better job instantaneously if one presented itself, and the fact of the matter is they're assholes and not at all concerned about your well-being.

The happy solution for everyone is for you to be somewhere else. However, their happiness doesn't hinge on your happiness so the sooner they can kick you out the door the faster they can return to comfy mediocrity. After all, they have to have some sense that you don't think they're competent; they might even have the creeping suspicion that you're right. These people exist all over the world. I've worked with lots of them.

You are correct: You should never have trusted your colleagues. Now is about the time to start thinking "what the fuck am I doing here?" and burning the midnight oil to end up somewhere else. It's abundantly clear you are not employed by a meritocracy which means you are there as long as it's more convenient to employ you than let you go. The more you draw attention to everyone else's mediocrity the less that situation balances in your favor.

Shitty situation, and I'm sorry. But you're basically saying "I hate my job and am surrounded by backstabbing, incompetent opportunists, what do I do?" And you're a clever guy. You can solve that by inspection.

There's a hell of a lot of road between theory and practice, I know. If I had any way to help in that department I'd be all over it. Know that we're all pulling for you, and we tip one back in your general direction.