My experience of academia in the UK (sciences) is that it is very relaxed ie there is no proper start or finishing time, noone is monitoring days off or holidays and in general students and post docs are just trusted not to abuse this freedom and just get their work done. I really appreciate this flexibility and find it makes me more productive.

Do other people have this experience? I know it's very different in the US, but what about in other European countries or in other parts of the world?

hi TreeofLife
I think it also depends who you get as your supervisor. I did my phd in a very relaxed environment (in the UK) but this was very different for my colleague. In her department she was expected to write lab reports everyday, update her lab-book everyday, read 20 papers a week and her supervisor even CHECKED her lab attendance! He expected her to show up exactly at 9am and only leave at 5pm or stay later. He did not even approve of her going back to her country for a short visit, of course he could not stop her (it's her right for a holiday) he wrote about this during her progress report (we didn't expect this, we did think it was really petty of him). How she complained to us (our circle of friends!), but of course she put up with all this, she had to finish the phd.

My supervisor is British and her supervisor is of different nationality (better not say).
My supervisor left me to do my work as long as I handed in to her and attended meetings (whenever necessary), but my colleague's supervisor was like a Gestapo officer.

Looking back, my colleague did finish earlier than me (!!!!) so maybe this was also good after all.

love satchi