Does anyone else have a supervisor with an erratic personality? My supervisor is so unpredictable. I simply can't work him out at all! He swings from one extreme to the next, and I never know what sort of mood I'll find him in when I arrive at his office for our supervisions. It drives me mad! I handed in a piece of work, and he was livid about what he perceived to be an 'extreme lack of care and attention' put into it. Then three days later when I turned up to discuss it, it was almost as though he had never said that. I don't get it.

Is he under a lot of stress? My sup can be a bit unpredictable and sometimes clearly in a bad mood - I think it's due to intense work-related stress.

particularly around grant or paper deadlines I find

(or if they have been rejected!)

Agreed with the other two posters--sounds like your sup might be someone who is very reactive to external events and does not do good "mood control".

Is there any way to approach the sup ( constructively) about the remarks--perhaps bringing it up, as "I wonder if there is a way to clarify a response I got from you. It has been concerning me and I was wondering if we could talk about this latest piece of work and the concerns you have on it...blah blah blah...I want to hear more about that so I can address it in the future..." something like that?

The more I read about sups and people's experience, the more convinced I am that I have the absolute gold standard in supervisors!

Agreed with the other two posters--sounds like your sup might be someone who is very reactive to external events and does not do good "mood control".

Is there any way to approach the sup ( constructively) about the remarks--perhaps bringing it up, as "I wonder if there is a way to clarify a response I got from you. It has been concerning me and I was wondering if we could talk about this latest piece of work and the concerns you have on it...blah blah blah...I want to hear more about that so I can address it in the future..." something like that?

The more I read about sups and people's experience, the more convinced I am that I have the absolute gold standard in supervisors!

it sort of makes me wonder if academic types are fragile in some sense, perhaps not as resilient as a group ( I am broadly over generalising here I know!) as other types of professions? The conferene I was at last week--a typical conversation went something like,

"Hi, I am Joe Bloggs from City University"

"Oh, pleased to meet you, Joe. I am Sue Bloggs from Shire University."

"Have you given a paper at the conference, Sue?"

"Yes, I have, what about you?"

"Yes, its scheduled in 2 days and 7 minutes, and I am panicking about it, so I must be off and revise my paper for the zillioneth time."

"Nice to meet you, Joe." and Joe, who could be anything from first year PhD student to a senior professor sort, would vanish in a cloud of panic and dust.

In short, there was no one at the conference who expressed the idea that presenting was other than angst ridden and awful and something that hung over them until it was done! Again, this was throughout the range of presenters--from first time presenters to really senior academics. And that was not a "mean" conference, filled up with people waiting to ask evil and mean questions designed to demolish the presenter.

I was glad to realise I was not the only person who fretted and wanted to endlessly revise and felt some anxiety--on the other hand, I think I would put myself on the low end of the scale on that...which certainly surprised me!
Point being--academics might just be sort of emotionally reactive, anxious and fragile? easily rocked off their centre of calm and confidence?

The other thing is that sups feature more prominently in our lives than we do in their's--in other words the things that stick out to us as students in the exchange are probably forgotten by the sups, because of differing priorities..not saying sups dont care about students, but as a student, your PhD sup is more front and centre in your world than you are as a student likely to be in their's, given competing demands, etc.

Is it possible at some level to just ignore what a sup says, when it is clear the sup is in some sort of emotionally wound up state?

I am reminded of when I was a managing attorney in a small legal aid office, and my moods were something that people paid a lot of attention to as I was the "boss", often reading meaning into them that was not there...that if I shut the door to work, it did not mean I was getting ready to fire the person in the next office...( which is what that person used to worry abut!!!)...etc...I finally felt like I had to explain, OK, I have a deadline, so I am closing the door to work on this and that is the reason it is shut, no other sinister reason!

So how we as students look at the sups mood as some kind of barometer on how they feel about us and our work might not always be an accurate read...

Poor fragile, highly stressed souls. Doesn't it just make you eager to be one of them ....?

Actually....it made me stop and wonder why I am running down this path...it made me feel a bit more robust and sturdy, actually! I also tried to go out of my way to tell people who had given a nice paper ( esp. if a student) that I liked their paper and had found it interesting ( the generic word used to describe presentations!) and thought they had done a good job. And in a few sessions, the session chair really made the session by outstanding by leading good discussion and encouraging positive questions and responses. So I made sure to let the session leaders they had done a good job.

And you know what, the difference that a kind or appreciative word makes to someone, esp. someone who was a bit nervous or new to presenting--the smiles and obvious heart felt thanks pointed out to me the importance of making sure to pass along praise when it seems appropriate. There is a huge difference between criticism and constructive criticism or genuinely inquiring questions.

I had an incredibly moody masters supervisor. He would blow up, and swear about tiny things that didn't matter. That was his personality....when I didn't let it get to me, and ignored him, he told me later that I was the only student who seemed to 'get him'. haha.

Not really helpful, but I thought that I would let you know that you're not alone!

hehe, I can't stand this kind of professors. It makes me really nervous, besides, it is not good for the working environment. Research should be fun; it doesnot matter if you get one paper rejected, but it matters if this stress turns someone into evil.
You have to show that you don't like this bad behavior, and look for better professors, I am sure they are out there.

@ bellaz : Is there any chance you are at Cambridge , Oxford or Imperial ?