If you find something better, go for it. If not, stick with what you've got now until you do.

I've known a number of PhD graduates who went through hell during their PhD student years but have been much happier in their post-PhD years. On the other hand, I've also known people who completed their PhD and then went straight down a different path and are happy as well. I can't say I've personally known people who have quit their PhDs mid-way. The closest are the ones who decided to take a break from their PhDs for a breather, and then come back to it with renewed energy.

Maybe a break is what you need?

badhaircut - your friend's boyfriend deserves an eye gouge.

fluffymonster - that's why we usually have someone else take the minutes (someone who is actually trained to take minutes, there's a short training session run by the university for administrative staff specifically about coordinating meetings, which includes how best to take minutes). The one RA who does take notes actually volunteered.

piglet - you mean like how they refer to themselves as the admin girls?

You should speak to someone about this. At our meetings we used to have one of the admin girls take minutes, or one of the RAs.

Didn't you have to do a progress seminar or presentation after 6 months?

You're right, you were probably asking the wrong people. It's a bit like preaching to the converted, you were talking to a very skewed sample if they were already established academics with jobs (or people on the other end of the scale who don't know what a PhD is).

I am not aware of age being a factor in this area, unless you're aiming for a professorship (in which case all bets are off on every nit-picking factor depending on who you're talking to).

More often than not, supervising academics are only interested in your intellectual capacity and how your PhD studentship can add to their research group to boost their own standing (and I mean that both in a positive and negative sense, take it how you will). In my experience that is really what it comes down to.

BadHaircut - you've described the average circumstances that most waiters and waitresses put up with every night on the job. I have not met many people in the same hospitality field who have more positive things to say than negative. But we've all got to do what we gotta do to survive when things are tough, it's not always smooth sailing for everyone. Believe me I can understand the situation you're finding yourself in right now, I can definitely empathise with the absolute frustration you're expressing. The only thing I can say to this is to stay positive and to look at it as paying your dues (no matter how long you've been paying it prior to completing your PhD!) until your ship comes in. Out of interest though, did you do a bit of research into the job prospects of your chosen field before undertaking a PhD first?