As other have said there would be no anonymity. Supervisors don’t normally have enough students to not be able to recognise the writing and situation dependant comments of one in particular.

Instead I would strive for some sort of advocacy group that actually has some sort of power. Basically at the moment most supervisors can screw over students completely and because they are academics, institute and universities do nothing to support to student. They are toothless and gutless wonders at the moment.

I have to honestly thank the people here for your concern enough to reply to my message. I honestly can’t remember exactly where I was at in my life when I originally posted that but here’s a bit of an update.

I ended up trying to forget about (or at least pretend to) the things that have happened in the past and just go ahead with what I thought was best for my project. So I ended up getting more done experimentally. And also everything was cozy in our meetings because they mostly consisted of me telling my supervisor what I had done, why I’d done it and what I was going to do next. And that ended up being all good. It hasn’t repaired the damage I still he’s done to my project and progress but at least I can start to repair it because I know what I’m doing.

However now I’m in another bit of a pickle, and this time it’s really mostly my lack of foresight to blame. I’ve let my next milestone creep up on me. And for this one I pretty much need to have a chapter of the thesis completed. The trouble is a) I have 3 or so sub-projects that will become chapters or papers however I’ve kind of half completed all of them rather than completed one to write up (this has a lot to do with the dodgy planning from super and co). b) I hate writing and I think I’ve been subconsciously thinking the due date is further away than it is. c) I suck at writing and realistically I’m going to need supers help. Let’s hope this doesn’t all repeat.

On a positive note the milestone is going to give me a chance to rat out the super a bit. And because I’m in control I should be able to do it in a more confident and calm manner.

And so that’s why I’m here at work on a public holiday trying madly to write a chapter. Urrghhhh

As others have said, PhDs can be isolating and it's not just for you, but the other students as well. The other students have known each other for a while now and have become their own isolated little group. So you will have to make an effort to join in and I believe it is important that you do so, just to have a social outlet within the people you work with.

Just ask one of them if they still go for lunch on Fridays and what time and where. Then show up and gradually join in conversation and listen.

If money is an issue then bring your own lunch (I do). Unless they go to a relative posh restaurant (very uncommon around unis) then the restaurant generally don't mind if someone brings a packed lunch if the majority of the group is paying.

Regarding the supervisor, keep in mind that other students may be a priority to him for various reasons including where they are up to in their PhD. For example, some might be due to submit papers and thesis and whatnot and require his attention at that time. If you think you need more time with him, then you do have to ask and try to set a meeting time. At this stage you should know clearly what your project is and what experiments you need to get done for the rest of your first year. Depending on your project it could differ but I think that's a good guide.

OK, so I've posted before about issues I have with my primary supervisor. The general suggestion from people was to talk to the supervisor about issues and my concern over bad communication between us. I've had the 'big talk' with him multiple times and after each talk things improve a little but then always degrade again after a few weeks or months to at least as bad as they were before. And things have gotten worse just before Christmas, and more than just can be said for end of year stresses. I've just sent an email to request an appointment at my uni's free student counseling service because at this stage I really don't feel like there is any point in talking to the supervisor again because my concerns just haven't been followed or in some cases even taken seriously. So other than the counseling I’m hoping to see if anyone around here can give additional support or advice on how to proceed.

I’m not sure how much to go into detail here but general issues are as follows…
- Poor communication. I’m not being kept involved in the decision making processes of factors that directly involve my project. This is after voicing my concerns multiple times on this issue.
- Lies. Most of the time I can put this down to my supervisor simply forgetting things, but it’s happened to often and I’ve approached him too often for this to continue.
- Hypocrisy and favoritism. Other students in the lab are treated more favorably. Supervisor doesn’t follow own advice given to the lab, mostly concerning communication (above).

I could go into details on specific cases of the above, but then this would be a very long message. But the issues I’m getting are at times these issues seem small from the outside, but his actions have really effected how much progress I am making on my project and career prospects.

Hi everyone,

I'm on the verge of putting in an official complaint against my primary supervisor. There's been lots of things happening which have led to this, but suffice to say I'm sick of putting up with his shit.

Amongst other things he got my started off in my PhD by telling me to get started on writing a review paper. After spending 6 months on this and not making much progress (writing a review paper for someone new in the field sheesh) I finally got to get started at lab work after telling him how little progress I was making. I then discover later that this review (which originally was going to be dual first author) was passed fully onto the student who I was meant to be working with. Trouble is, I had no say in the matter and I only found out months after the decision was made when I had a bout of curiosity and asked 'so what are you currently working on?'.

Any of the publications plans we have had have not been following because he keeps directing me to work on something else. So currently I have no story to my project with lot of half finished stuff sitting in the sidelines.

We then get to official checkup meeting and he lies through his teeth about how much he's trying to get everyone to start writing (bollocks) and how my project has been planned out from the start.

As far as I know, no one in my building has put in official complaint like I am considering so I don't think there is an official process that can be followed. But I'm hoping some people around here might give some tips on how to deal with as well as what might be some generic processes in places at other institutions.

OK, so I'll try to avoid ranting here. I'm having trouble with my supervisor and things need to be sorted out now before they get worse. I have my 2nd year meeting/interview tomorrow and I would like to work out what to say. This involved both my supervisors and outside people in involved in the project. I want to continue with my supervisor because I think things would be even worse without him, but at the moment I am greatly questioning his integrity and ability to have his students best interests in mind.

About 6 months ago we had a long conversation where I was visibly upset about a number of things. After this meeting I thought things would get better but they haven't. My concerns at that time were mainly...
-The increase number of students. The student to supervisor ratio had doubled since I started. He said he was not planning on increasing student numbers.
-Despite the increased students they were getting far better quality supervision in there first year compared to me. My supvisor admitted this and said he had 'failed my during first year'. How's that!

But fast foward to now.
A new PhD student has just started with a project directly related to mine. I found out she had been accepted into the lab pending immigration approval (international student) since the beginning of the year (before out big talked previously). I brought this to the attention of supervisor and was given the verbal run around and no apology - not impressed. Added to this I am expected to teach her the ropes and complex biological preps I do. She has no science or lab experience and I would have to teach her from high school level upwards. I simply do not have the time in my third year to do this. I told my supervisor my concerns and again was given the run around along the lines of 'you will both benefit greatly from this and later on she will teach you coding which will benefit you'. Coding (computer programming) was never part of my project and I have no plans to make it so, so as far as my opinion goes, it's a pretty poor deal. So basically I don't believe he is taking my concerns seriously. Other problems are mostly put down to very poor communication.

There are other things that have come up I'm not happy with, but this is currently the mos pressing. So tomorrow is the interview and my big chance to tell someone in an official setting about what's going on. The trouble is I am unsure of how to do it without looking like I'm just whinging. It can be confidential too (supervisors step out of the room) but if no one can tell anyone, then nothing is going to happen to make things better.

So any advice on how to approach this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks