I had problems with my former supervisor, who has now left but still is involved as my 2nd. I had a good relationship with my current 1st supervisor before he took over and hopefully thought things would work well...Current situation is: I send my written stuff and don't even get a note of acknowledgement - e.g. read receipt- if I do, there is an endless procrastination from my new sup on when he is going to provide feedback -never so far! I am honestly sick of it! What's the point for me to stick to these deadlines when nobody care about what I am doing? I am capable of working by myself, it's not matter of needing a lot of guidance, however at least one of them should do his job: supervise! Sorry about this rant, I just needed to talk to someone.

hey corinne, that's too bad! i have been making a similar experience, i absolutely love my supervisor (as a person, as an academic) but she is just rubbish at supervising. i find that when i send her e-mails i either get a reply in 30 minutes, or not at all (more often the latter). she never reads my stuff, just browses through it really, so she never has any comments to make apart from very general chatting. her other students say similar things. sometimes i get really upset about it, and, like you, want her to SUPERVISE me for god's sake, it's not that hard and it's part of her job. then at other times i think, oh well, it's not that cool but i can deal with it... and when i write something that is really good, i will MAKE her read it and she will be all surprised and impressed!
i know, this doesn't help you in a pragmatic sense, but maybe it's good to know that others are in the same situation?

Hi Shani,
It does help, thank you. Indeed I have the same sort of reaction, but there are moments in which -like now- pressure is on in different areas of your PhD or private life and it is difficult to be detached.
Also, it is irritating when people constantly fail to deliver and this makes difficult to keep motivation going. It is not just matter of doing my research and writing up. I am pretty much independent on this point of view, but there are activities like presenting papers, publishing, organize conferences, in which you cannot just go ahead by yourself bypassing completely your supervisor. I start to be scared that this is going to affect the outcome of my PhD, as I am in the middle of my 2nd year.
I hope that the Christmas holiday will help me to put the situation into perspective. In the meantime, thanks Shani. You made me laugh!

yes, i know what you mean about conferences and stuff. my sup DOES react fast and good when i need a reference or similar, but on the content side she doesn't help so i have kind of stopped asking.

maybe letting your supervisor know that "you are currently experiencing insecurities and need some guidance", or "you are struggling to get that conference abstract done and need help" would work. give your supervisor a clearcut, simple, small-step thing to do, instead of just asking for "supervision" which is long-term, far-away-deadline, and fuzzy. they are just human, after all, and most will appreciate easy things on their to-do list which they can get done and cross off quickly...

What you say makes a lot of sense, but the problem is that this person is busy and very disorganized, which is equal to poor delivery in the areas that are at the bottom of his priority list. He's the type of person that writes a paper the afternoon before the conference, so I am not sure that he can be sympathetic about insecurities. The bottom line is that my insecurities derive from his behaviour. I am never sure if what I do is enough or too much, etc. His personal records show that only the students who were capable to do their project independently got their PhD, the others dropped.
I definitely don't want to join the second party, so I will soldier on!

You need to take fast action on this problem. This is quite serious, remember that if your supervision is bad then you will have a lot of difficulties later and maybe in the viva. Just think about yourself and find a better supervisor, the department will change it easily, I don´t see why you are still waiting.

Things are a little more complicated than you think. There isn't anyone else in the department that could take over, and even if there was, I cannot put myself through another change at this stage. Of course I am concerned, but I think that the best course of action that I can take now is to talk with him and try to find a solution that suits both of us. I have a meeting with him on Thursday to discuss this. For what I can see around, there are a few lucky people who have very supportive supervisors, but the majority of us have to deal with inconsistent or unsupportive supervisors. This does not mean that I am going to accept passively whatever is thrown at me, but I think that at the moment at least, it is better to try and face these problems rather than run away.

Hi Corinne,
maybe you are actually very good and do not need a lot of supervision!

Obviously it is unforgivable that the supervisor is not able to organise his own life and does not provide you feedback. On the other hand you may find that actually most of the work you do is of a high standard and does not need a lot of correction. Remember the trick is perseverance! Try to keep going and try to negotiate with him: Ok I do not need a lot of supervision, yet I do want you to keep this and this agreement! Write that down and try and pin point him on that!

Is this of help?

It's of great help, thanks Rick. This is exactly what I am going to do. I honestly don't know if what I am doing is good or not, but it is possible that he thinks that I don't need a lot of supervision. I certainly don't need to be encouraged to write, because I do it anyway. But as I spend substantial time of my research doing fieldwork abroad I feel that it would be just beneficial to make the most of the time that I spend here by discussing what I am doing with him. However, as I said I am going to talk this matter through shortly and hopefully find an agreement.

My supervisor asks me periodically to send him a plan of what I want to do in the following months (e.g. chapter writing, sources, etc.), and I always include the estimate dates in which I plan to send him written work and possible dates for a supervision session to comment on this work (for example, I may include the submission of a chapter at the beginning of April and a supervision session end-April). I think that this can be useful for your supervisor to realize that you cannot really progress if you don't receive timely feedback.

What's the possibility of having a serious one-on-one with your current supervisor and laying out your concerns in detail? Do you think he'll be able to actually listen?

@ Nimrod81. I do that every month. I send him a report with a list of what I have done, what I plan to do for the following month, I detail what I have read, written, attended, etc.
Result: not even a note to say: 'I received it'. I mean, it's not a problem, I am going to work according to plan anyway. I do it for myself. I know that if I don't do that I am not going to complete at all! Still, I wonder what's the point to let him know...
Hi Rogue, as I mentioned earlier, yes I am going to talk to him on Thursday and see what comes out of this. From the reply I have got when I asked for an appointment I could perceive a hint of guilt, let's see if this correspond to some good will for the future.

sometimes it's not a good thing to have two sups.