I've come to this late but I just wanted to offer my sympathies for that meeting and say I'm so glad you've resolved things :) I find it immensely hard to take criticism, especially when it's given by a ball-busting academic with no sense of tact (there seem to be a lot of them about).

Your sup A sounds really committed to helping you, and it sounds as if a third person might help plug any gaps in his experience. Other than that, would it be worth emailing Sup B and saying that his criticism was unexpected but that you respect his experience and would like him to help you improve. It's a good test aside from anything else, once the fit has passed these people sometimes back right down and say you're not so bad!

It's amazing how politics-conscious these supervisors are if they're junior. Both myself and my fellow student regularly have our work passed by our on-site team, only to have it destroyed by the senior external - and yes, our on-sites just sit there nodding. I once lost it and told the external "well they all passed this last week!" in the middle of the meeting because I was so exasperated!

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Ooh sneaks! I didn't recognize you there with that icon - is that what excessive wine gum consumption does to a person?

Nice procrastination btw: Choosing the devil face, 2 minutes.
Adding a hat that's just right, three minutes.

Ignoring your PhD for a bit, priceless.

And yes, I shall join your thread again Sneaks, coming over right now!

Today was mainly sleeping, with hourly wakings in order to feel depressed and terrified. It's been a bad patch since I finished that practical work :(

But yes, forums, food and general faffing. I'm destined to be a fattened failure, but with excellent social website skills.

Eeek, I'm with The Ace! I was thinking 35-40,000 words would be me done. Again though, molecular biology and probably plenty of graphs ;)

Could it maybe also be that they're all part of a tight group, and you were a little out of the loop having been away from work so long? I know that won't be the whole explanation, but it might have exacerbated things.

I work in an office/lab most days so I'm kept fairly well socialized, working home alone does do funny things to you though. If I'm working from home I make extra efforts to "visit" the real world, eevn if it's just going out for a coffee or food shopping locally.

I'm sure you're still lovely to be around Sue :)

Thanks so much heifer, that's such a heartening post! And well done, no corrections is fantastic... now go celebrate!!!!

"It's too damn late!" He thundered. "Those bastards have beaten us to the punch, and now they've gotten the Wellcome grant to boot. Damn Clause and his contingent of genetically-modified elves."

The elves shrank back (in so far as an already diminutive elf can), all thoughts of authorship, cast out for the moment by the chill of Carlos' stare. Jemima wondered whether the Daily Mail was in some way to blame for this as well, they certainly were keen on Christmas.

Just as everyone was wondering how the silence could possibly be broken, a striking women careered into the room "Carlos!" she declared, "come with me, I have something to show you". To Jemima's amazment, Carlos unfurled his knitted eyebrows, simpered lightly, and followed, obedient as a well-trained chihuahua.

"Who", Jemima asked, "was that?"

I agree with Bilbo, besides, it's natural for some sections to require more words than others, as long as the writing is succinct I wouldn't worry at all. (then again, I am a science PhD, so you may want to discount anything I say!)

.....her father. Could it be that he was more involved than she first thought?

For one thing "uncle" Carlos and her father looked nothing alike. Facially, Big Bird and Lenny Henry had more in common. And there were no pictures of him at her grandparents home. In fact, she'd never heard him mentioned by anyone in the family. This was getting stranger by the minute.

Seeing the elves hooked up to their machines, frantically tapping away, Jemima felt a terrible sadness descend upon her. Why did they do it, she wondered? There was no glory when they did succeed (supervisor Carlos took that), the hours were long, the conditions terrible, and even after the ten year elf intern scheme, their prospects were little bleaker than before they started.

What kept them here?

Ah I just saw this, thank you so much! I'm really rather touched (does that make me very sad?)

I feel terrible for admitting this, but I only had one cocktail and a glass of wine, the day was a bit messy :s Spent most of it embroiled in a horrid fight with my husband, got no work done and by the end of dinner didn't have the energy to go to the pub where all my friends were - what a tit I am.

Still it's all ok now, I am enjoying my belated birthday cake and hubby is behaving. I'll try to do you all justice at the weekend instead!

I am low on productivity too :(

Currently I have open on my computer; hotmail, outlook mail, facebook (x2 somehow), and of course findaphd...... suddenly it seems clear why I'm not getting any work done!
But I did have cake today, awesome chocolate cake.

People usually only focus on another's hours when they're feeling guilty or insecure about their own working practices, this girl is just trying to make herself feel better by putting you down. If your supervisor is happy and your work's on track, well done you! You clearly time manage well and have a good work ethic (I'd bet anything you're making better progress than the people hassling you). The only downside you might find is that in the long haul of the PhD years, you could be slightly out of the loop with the other students. That said, you may have friends elsewhere and be quite self sufficient, it's each to their own.

I agree that you're well within your rights to say something to this girl, perhaps something like "my supervisor and I are quite happy with this arrangement, why are you so bothered by how I choose to work? If I'm affecting or disrupting you in some way please do tell me, but otherwise I think this is my business." It won't make her your best buddy, but then she doesn't sound like someone you'd want to form a lasting relationship with anyway!

You have my sympathies Apple, I've generated so much junk data and put so much into work that has come to nothing this year. I had a rather lovely plan for how to follow up all my initial work with a functional study and some really interesting techniques, now the whole thing has to be ditched :( Both thesis and I look rather pathetic just now.

Is there another academic you could talk to about this? Or maybe even a satistician if it's a data issue? Having such a disinterested supervisor really sucks and it isn't fair on you, do you have third party monitors or progress committees who might address this?

Hey Button

Natassia is right, beating yourself up over a bad day will just make you more demotivated. Instead, congratulate yourself on the things you did do and the exercise you took :) seriously, you've got to give yourself encouragement.

When planning, concentrate on making a realistic task list, ie - not what you could achieve with a day of 100% efficiency (it just doesn't happen) but what you honestly will get done. If today you achieved half what you expected, then try halving your list for tomorrow. When you finish the list you'll feel good, and you'll either have done as much as you honestly can in a day, or you'll get there early and feel so buoyed up that you'll be raring to do more anyway!

Build confidence from carrots, not a beating from sticks, so say confucius :p

Given the quality of some theses currently in circulation, I would venture a YES!
Is it possible you're just being very self-critical bopeep? I can't think of many students who genuinely believe they've written a masterpiece. If your supervisors were happy for you to submit it then surely there's every chance it's good enough?