Is my PhD supervisor taking the ****?

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

OpenToSuggestions

Soldato
Joined
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Derbyshire
Hey all.
Firstly, I do a PhD. I am around 6 months into it.

A few months ago I was asked if I want do some paid work (2 hours per week for a semester) with assisting with labs for first year undergraduates. PhD students are permitted in their contracts to work up to 6 hours per week. No issues here.
My supervisor told me no. He then tells me this is because I need to make the most of my time and not spend it on things that are not useful to my PhD.
All the above so far seems to make sense.

Now here comes the issue:
My supervisor has a lot of work to do and as such gives some of the boring/tedius tasks to his researchers to do. These are: Buying IT equipment for the office, verifying exam marks have been copied over OK etc.

I get given these tasks. I am not an employee, but have a 3 year contract to do my PhD in (most PhDs take 3-4 years to complete). I find my PhD very hard, both in sitting at a desk (I do get my own desk in the office) reading PDF academic papers all day and in that 90% of my friends have now left this University. I do worry a great deal about how my PhD is going and to be honest dropping out is certainly a possibility.

I have no issues spending 10 mins here and there filling in IT purchase forms, but for a few months I have been 'the IT purchaser' and have found myself losing half a day a week on average to searching the internet for IT purchases.

Am I being unreasonable to tell my supervisor I am here for my PhD and I will not act as his admin bitch?
 
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You do as your supervisor tells you to do... basically.

Although, you can talk to him/her and say you're not happy with they way things are. On a side note, your supervisor shouldn't stop you from doing demonstrating. it is a good skill to have and makes you go back and think about the basics AND it is great to see if you want to have a dabble in lecturing one day.
 
piggeh said:
no, phd has to come first to doing IT buying
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On Friday he has been on to me about buying a webcam for the meeting room and a coffee maker. Everyone in the office sticks their oar in by giving ideas yet has no intention of helping (just like every other office in the world to be honest!). I really feel like telling him that I refuse to spend time doing admin tasks.

My supervisor expects me to work 9-5 in the office and to book holidays just like an employee does. I haven't issues with this but the noise in the office is stupid as he has conversations with people 10m away.
 
sbi5ar said:
You do as your supervisor tells you to do... basically.

Although, you can talk to him/her and say you're not happy with they way things are. On a side note, your supervisor shouldn't stop you from doing demonstrating. it is a good skill to have and makes you go back and think about the basics AND it is great to see if you want to have a dabble in lecturing one day.
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I have a project supervisor. I am not an employee. I get a fixed amount of money to do my PhD (which does not come from him) and losing 10% of my time means I will struggle even more to finish my PhD in the 750 days that I am required to.
I am happy to do tutorials in my subject for free though as they would be <4 hours per 12 months.
 
Surely there's an IT/procurement department that would deal with this?

I'd tell him that you're not his administrator, and whilst you're happy to assit him in his work you think it's only appropriate that you do things relating directly to your field and your PhD.
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
Hey all.
Firstly, I do a PhD. I am around 6 months into it.

A few months ago I was asked if I want do some paid work (2 hours per week for a semester) with assisting with labs for first year undergraduates. PhD students are permitted in their contracts to work up to 6 hours per week. No issues here.
My supervisor told me no. He then tells me this is because I need to make the most of my time and not spend it on things that are not useful to my PhD.
All the above so far seems to make sense.

Now here comes the issue:
My supervisor has a lot of work to do and as such gives some of the boring/tedius tasks to his researchers to do. These are: Buying IT equipment for the office, verifying exam marks have been copied over OK etc.

I get given these tasks. I am not an employee, but have a 3 year contract to do my PhD in (most PhDs take 3-4 years to complete). I find my PhD very hard, both in sitting at a desk (I do get my own desk in the office) reading PDF academic papers all day and in that 90% of my friends have now left this University. I do worry a great deal about how my PhD is going and to be honest dropping out is certainly a possibility.

I have no issues spending 10 mins here and there filling in IT purchase forms, but for a few months I have been 'the IT purchaser' and have found myself losing half a day a week on average to searching the internet for IT purchases.

Am I being unreasonable to tell my supervisor I am here for my PhD and I will not act as his admin bitch?
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This is very normal.
In my PhD Monday-Friday 9-5 was mostly spent doing non-PhD related activities sch as assisting in student projects, showing visitors around the lab, sowing school children around the lab, finding references for the prof, researching and writing grant proposals for the prof, reviewing papers the prof should have reviewed but didn't have time for, doing the accounting for a 10 million euro project, writing the project review scripts which the prof should have done but since he never paid 1 second notice to the project he was supposed to supervise I would have to write them in full and explain why we were millions over budget and years behind schedule, mark student exams, mark student home work, develop practical lab session for the students, listen in at most of the profs lectures, attend seminars organized by the prof to boost attends numbers, to some of the lab IT work, supervise student mini projects general administration tasks, etc., etc.


PhD time was in general 7-9am and 6-11pm and all weekend. Summer time was the most productive because at least the students were gone.

Expect to do 70 hour weeks.

Good luck.
 
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sbi5ar said:
You do as your supervisor tells you to do... basically
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Not when it comes to being a dogsbody. PhD comes first, end of.

It might be worth taking this up with the head of department before it gets out of hand because if you get into the habit of picking up your supervisor's menial tasks now, you'll end up doing it all the time and later on in your PhD you won't be able to afford to waste time like this.
 
Ahleckz said:
Surely there's an IT/procurement department that would deal with this?
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Yes there is. They are not brilliant, but we do have a set of IT Technicians in the department.


Ahleckz said:
I'd tell him that you're not his administrator, and whilst you're happy to assit him in his work you think it's only appropriate that you do things relating directly to your field and your PhD.
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This is what I was thinking of telling him.
 
Jonny69 said:
Not when it comes to being a dogsbody. PhD comes first, end of.

It might be worth taking this up with the head of department before it gets out of hand because if you get into the habit of picking up your supervisor's menial tasks now, you'll end up doing it all the time and later on in your PhD you won't be able to afford to waste time like this.
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I have spoken to my final year project sueprvisor as he is brilliant.
I have not spoken to my PhD supervisor as he is not exactly a people person. I will speak to him first though as there is no need to go upsetting anybody :).
 
You're not necessarily being unreasonable, but different labs work in different ways. Here, we have a lab tech who does ALL of the ordering. Straight across the corridor they all do their own ordering.

I think with all of these things, a quick discussion with your lab head is the best thing. This stops things growing out of proportion and prevents you and him getting antagonised.
 
A.N.Other said:
You're not necessarily being unreasonable, but different labs work in different ways. Here, we have a lab tech who does ALL of the ordering. Straight across the corridor they all do their own ordering.

I think with all of these things, a quick discussion with your lab head is the best thing. This stops things growing out of proportion and prevents you and him getting antagonised.
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I will certainly speak with him face to face. I won't go behind anyone's back as he is my sueprvisor and he is a good supervisor, but like most academics they will fob off their work to their researchers, but I am not a researcher (employee) i.e. I do not work for him.
 
Jonny69 said:
Not when it comes to being a dogsbody. PhD comes first, end of.
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I still stand by my statement. You do as your supervisor tells you HOWEVER, a supervisor should never jeopardise the PhD by asking too much of the PhD student, HOWEVER (again) as stated by another member... you will have to do lots of other stuff whilst studying for your PhD!
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
My supervisor expects me to work 9-5 in the office and to book holidays just like an employee does. I haven't issues with this but the noise in the office is stupid as he has conversations with people 10m away.
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He only expects 9-5 from you? That's less than any PhD/DPhil students than I know.

Buy some closed back/ noise cancelling headphones.

You thought you had time to do some teaching, yet complain about doing a similar amount of work on purchasing?

It sounds to me that you aren't cut out to do a PhD.
 
OpenToSuggestions said:
I will certainly speak with him face to face. I won't go behind anyone's back as he is my sueprvisor and he is a good supervisor, but like most academics they will fob off their work to their researchers, but I am not a researcher (employee) i.e. I do not work for him.
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You have a lot to learn about being a PhD student :p

You don't work for him, and don't have to do what he says to an extent, BUT it is better to have him onside ;)

Just a quick chat with him will resolve it, but things are going to get a lot worse (in general) before they get better, trust me ;)
 
Seems to be a bit of luck-of-the-draw when it comes to supervisors, but 9-5 Mon-Fri is no way near enough time to do a PhD. My working day is about 8am - 1am so that I can take (most of) the weekend off! Thankfully I have two supervisors, both of them professors (one a pro-vice chancellor :eek:) but they are both fantastic - let me do things my way, tell me if I need to do things differently, and don't make me do any of their work for them. This is including the fact that I am supported by being a research assistant (staff) at the department, so technically they can ask me to do menial tasks :p

PhD comics is your friend for how your PhD will proceed!
 
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I don't recognise some people's experiences of doing a PhD, just as they will not recognise some of mine. They vary hugely depending on department, subject, supervisor and talent.

I did a PhD doing between 2 and 3 days of research work per week. A couple of times I achieved nothing for consecutive months. The rest of the time I was sleeping or teaching for extra money.

Complain to your supervisor/ postgraduate tutor if you want but how effective this will be depends very much on the personalities involved. Academia is full of egos and sometimes if you step out of line you will be marginalised.

I think most PhD students end up doing odd hours of menial work for no pay. Half a day a week I don't think is very abnormal, but again experiences will differ.
 
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