PhD Discussion Forum

As with most things, the way you handle this effectively is in choosing to do so. You either accept that this is the way your PhD is going to be and stop letting it bother you, or you decide you don't want to spend the next few years like this and go home. Ultimately it is what is the most acceptable choice for you after weighing up all the things like career options and your mental health.

Alternatively you can speak to your supervisors honestly, give them the chance to give you the support you need, if not forthcoming you could go to graduate school head and tell them to sort it out and eventually change supervisors if still not as you want it.

Personally I would talk to supervisors, and just stop letting it bother me/accept that it's going to be an annoying 3-4 years if they didn't change and then just get on with my PhD.

My experience has been that detailed feedback that addresses issues in any depth are only forthcoming at the later or final stages of writing. The PhD is a journey that is considered to be largely independent so responsibility for growth and development is largely on oneself.

I can understand your claim or statement though that if you get limited feedback early on, it is harder. And the quality of supervision is probably uneven. There would be amazing supervisors out there who just really inspire, but I think most of us have 'good enough' supervisors just like we have 'good enough' parents, etc (borrowing a concept from Winnecott). Good luck with it all-it is a tough process and some people (perhaps like yourself) do have it a bit tougher than others unfortunately.

Thank you all for your replies.
I took some time to think and then some new things happened.

My PhD is in agriculture, so I’ll be working in the field during summer. What happened is that they told me I’m supposed to take care of all the agricultural operations, while nobody in my field does that. What we do is we go in the field, collect our data and that’s it.
I asked why and they told me that at this institute the farm workers only do the “heavy” jobs.
I was pretty pissed because this takes a huge amount of time; moreover, they basically want me to work as a technician (there are only technicians at this institute, no post-docs and I’m the only PhD student), but without the salary and social benefits of a technician. When I say I can’t do something because I’m now running tests at the lab, they get annoyed and ask when I’ll be done with those tests, like they were an issue and not a part of my program.
As this wasn’t enough, my co-supervisor forced me to do additional work for another project not related to my PhD, obviously for free.

I can’t switch supervisors because the field work depends on this institute and the institute is tied to my co-supervisor.

I really like the project and the work, but honestly this is not a PhD. Even if I got to the end of this nightmare, I wouldn’t be competent to have this title, because all I’m doing is technical work and don’t have time to read or even think and try new things.
Thank you again for your time!

Hi Smilinghippo, who do can you go to (at your institution or faculty) who acts as an advisor or advocate for you (other than your supervisors).

It reads as if (to me) that you have a onsite supervisor and academic supervisors-and they are all unhelpful. (Is this how it is?). Can you find out who can assist (from the research faculty, perhaps you have an international student advisor, and your faculty should definitely have something like a graduate research advisor ) and either see them, email or phone, depending on your location to lay out your case and get advice/support.

I know you said your academic supervisors were not helpful but the fieldwork situation you have just described sounds bad. I can understand why you would want to cut your losses in the situation you have described but getting on to a PhD program and funding is difficult (as I am sure you are aware), which is why I usually hesitate before writing to support anyone's decision to quit on the forum.

What you have described sounds like they are really exploiting you in the field. This situation is not something I have experience with so my advice is very limited, but I didn't want you to think that we couldn't care less.

How long do you have to do this field work-is it just for a few weeks? Is it possible to tough it out a bit because it doesn't last long? You have obviously managed to deal really well with this so far (big credit to you), could you possibly last a bit longer if it is only a short period of time in the field?

[quote]Quote From SmilingHippo:

My PhD is in agriculture, so I’ll be working in the field during summer. What happened is that they told me I’m supposed to take care of all the agricultural operations, while nobody in my field does that. What we do is we go in the field, collect our data and that’s it.
I asked why and they told me that at this institute the farm workers only do the “heavy” jobs.
I was pretty pissed because this takes a huge amount of time; moreover, they basically want me to work as a technician (there are only technicians at this institute, no post-docs and I’m the only PhD student), but without the salary and social benefits of a technician. When I say I can’t do something because I’m now running tests at the lab, they get annoyed and ask when I’ll be done with those tests, like they were an issue and not a part of my program.
As this wasn’t enough, my co-supervisor forced me to do additional work for another project not related to my PhD, obviously for free.
![/quote]

Hello nake,
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m really sorry to hear that you’re having a bad time too.
We do everything we can to fulfill our dreams, we invest efforts and time and then things end up like this.
I hope you will find your way!

Hi,

I used to quited from PhD before I started a new program after 3 months.
Now I am in the 3rd year and I cannot cope my stress as well.
To study PhD is to keep your mind to be experience any risk of mental illness.
I met psychiatrist and psychologists. I had big problem with previous supervisor but now I changed supervisor already.
Sometimes supervisor does not know that he/she has large impact on student's mental health.
Sometimes they don't even know that they have mental illness.

Hope you can get along well with your study.

Thank you for your reply, Tru.
I can’t change project because the funding comes from the institute and not the university. At the institute there are only 2 directors of research in my field and they’re both my co-directors. Furthermore, my funding is related to the work I do for this project.
The other institutes that do research in similar fields all work with my academic director, so I would be tied to him again.



I totally agree with you on the subject of time: students at my lab usually take at least 4 years to graduate from 2-year master's programs and 5.5-6 years to graduate from 4-year PhD programs.