I actually think thats appalling pay, and complete exploitation. My place pays £38 per hour, whether its a lecture or seminar, although admin and office hours all come under that, so if you calculate how many hours it takes to prepare that hour (particularly lectures) then its pretty poor. But even so, what you are getting for 20 weeks work is completely unethical. Do you need the experience that much, or can you just say no?

Thanks for your responses - really helpful!
Regarding consent, i havent even been asked to consent, but looking at the conference website (its a series of conferences), all the other presentations are up there from all the previous conferences, so theres no reason to think they wouldnt bother for the forthcoming one. In a way, thats one of the things thats bugging me - that it'll be audio-video'ed 'through the back door' so to speak - hence my need to say/do something before it gets that far. But i do feel tremendous pressure not to rock the boat...

Hiya
Ive been asked to do a presentation at a forthcoming conference, which is great, but they want to record my presentation and upload it onto the conference website - where anybody can access it. I feel really uncomfortable about this, and am not sure i can even articulate why. I know that this is the way things are going in academia, so perhaps i should just get on with it and accept it...Would it be reasonable of me to object? and on what grounds? (and might it be a damaging route to take, in terms of career?). Any thoughts?

Oh no, i havent done it or anything!! Its just that Im always being told by my supervisors etc that its a big no-no, but no-one has actually explained what would happen if anyone did it (obviously withdrawing one before it got to the publishing stage). So i guess i just wondered if anyone had?

...whats the worse that could happen? does anyone know?

you know that is it actually illegal for them not to pay you for work done??? This is insane - you seriously cant go and work for them next week while this is all up in the air - you HAVE to kick up a fuss about the money!

i got around it by thanking 'my very talented supervisor x', without stating what they are talented in (ie being a bitch)

Hey Sleepyhead - I admire your balls, and think you are right to email him and say this. id also be tempted to threaten to write to the funder and explain your role in writing the bid and the applicants refusal to acknowledge you...which should put the wind up him. You could even do this if he still refuses to acknowledge you - i guess you have nothing to lose?

This does sound a bit insane. I knew the date of my viva before i submitted, so that i could then work out my final submission date (as it needed to be 6 weeks before viva). Is there not a student administrator of head of postgrad person you could ask? I think that making you hang around not knowing is pretty poor practice.

If youre doing your PhD at the same institution, should only be doing a max of 6 hours per week contact time - if its elsewhere, then i agree its a little more tricky as contact hours varies between institutions - probably anything between 4 and 20....how many hours are you teaching?

i had mine yesterday and it went really well - passed with minor typos! Hurrah! It all feels a bit weird now...plus, im exhausted today from all the intensity of it.

I actually think that - thinking about the long game and your future career - that if you want to continue in research/academia, then quitting half-way through a post-doc will look far worse on your CV than not having a post-doc at all.

Mine is also next week - feeling exactly the same! (eek!)

the best advice i was ever given when i started teaching was 'make the buggers do the work' (ie not you). Its all too easy, when starting out, to over-prepare to cover a lack of confidence but do remember that youve got the degree, they havent, so they need to be doing the work. The advice above is really good - definitely focus on getting THEM to take responsibility in the seminars e.g. get them to deliver presentations, do group tasks etc, and see yourself more as a facilitator. Otherwise you'll be bouncing around at the front for an hour, trying to entertain/inform/cajole them, and exhausting yourself trying to do it all, so to speak...

I completely agree although, like Eska, i cant help myself but to read the whole lot...books, journal articles etc. Even reading for pleasure i am a slow reader. Id also say not to worry too much though - despite all this probably extraneous reading, i still got my PhD in in 3 years & 2 months...so i dont think it actually held me up as such.