Warning. Major rant ahead.

I have just had one of the most depressive months on record. My postdoc is around half way, but the level of responsibility I now have means I should probably be a PI. Dr Ubercompetitive (another post doc) has now left for pastures new, and the other post docs are "working from home" since November.

I have taken over the co-supervision of one of my PhDers. A young woman who is fresh from her undergrad degree and the most recent addition to the team. A degree in advanced whining and complaining from the sounds of things. Nothing is ever good enough for Ms Complaint. Her computer is too slow. Her seat is too near the door. She doesn't like Sabrina (another PhDer, who has had a fairly crappy time recently- see an earlier post). She feels she doesnt need to wash up as she is now a PhD student. It never ends. The other PhDers are complaining, and she is seriously holding back my work as I have to spend hours explaining things she should have learned on her undergrad course, like everyone else.

I am trying to be nice as possible but honestly it is trying to supervise an advanced neuroscience PhD for Jade Goody. Fair is fair, but after a certain point everyone has a limit to their patience. I dont want to do anything because if there is a complaint about bullying from her I think our team is more or less finished (due to prior events). We all know this, and we are just gritting our teeth.

Sorry you're having a bad time with that student, some are very 'challenging' to work with. You may already be doing this anyway, but cover your own back with paperwork and records of tutorials with her. If she turns out to be below PhD standard somewhere in the future, at least it will be documented and you won't be at fault personally. Depends a bit on what stage she's at in her studies - is she likely to fail her upgrade (or whatever they're called in your institution)? I was wondering whether there might be a chance the college might decide to get rid of her at some point if she's not up to it academically and that would be a good point to do it, and you would have supporting evidence.

If you're stuck with her, can you identify her academic deficiencies through tutorials, all documented through paperwork, and send her on a course or something? Or get her to sit in on Masters course sessions maybe? Because it shouldn't just be your problem, unless you recruited her solely on your own, it should be an institutional problem too, as well as hers, if it's her PhD. If she's a real pain and is also annoying the other students too, could you pass it up the hierarchy to whoever has overall responsibility for PhD students in your dept and get them to speak to her? Someone very senior might have the authority to get through to her, there must be someone who can!

Anyway, you probably know all that stuff, but I was just thinking about truly dreadful students at my uni who had to be dealt with further up the academic chain and were discussed at committee level. It's interesting how there is the odd student who everyone finds problematic and breathes a sigh of relief when they're gone, or drop out in the early stages. Hope you find another way to deal with it beyond gritting your teeth!