My supervisors are overwhelmed with teaching and administrative activities, so they don't have a lot of time to do research. They are always lost, behind, and having dumb ideas.

Yes, I know, I've lost the count of how many times I've heard (said to me, to others, in the Internet, etc):

"It's your work. It's you who is doing a PhD".

At some point, I really believed that it is my thesis after all, so I had the control over it; however, now I'm disappointed, since I found myself forced to follow their dumb and damned ideas over and over again. I've tried to convinced them each time that their ideas won't work, but they are too clueless and arrogant to see it.


I'm also really tired of explaining things and discussing with them just to find they forgot everything a couple of days later. Usually, they even forget that they forced me to write or do something in a certain way, telling me it is nonsense, and forcing me to change it: and the loop starts again.

Is there anyone here who deals with something like this? How do you do?

Hi Uranio,

It sounds as though you're in a bit of a pickle, but it's difficult to determine the best advice/response without some more details about your area of research, as lab experiments or hard science PhDs are very different from perhaps the social science or arts stream.

Yes, it's your PhD, but the role of your supervisors are there to help you shape it. One thing we PhDs have to be mindful of is that generally (not always) our supervisors do know more than we do, and our supervisors are not always up to date with the most current literature in our immediate area of research because they'll often have a lateral and not vertical interest. Some PhDs have very bad supervisors, and others, are bad PhD students, so I think it's good to perhaps be a bit more reflective on your own experience within this situation. Labelling them as arrogant and dumb is not helpful or productive regardless of whether they fit the bill or not.

Teaching and administration duties are also not by choice, but rather, something supervisors are given, and PhD supervision is actually quite low on their more pressing duties. I'm not sure where you're located, but at the Uni I'm at in Australia, they are given 'points' that determine the type of workload they take on, even those in tenured positions! Some are given a high number of research, while others teaching, and teaching can be so time consuming! Those who secure high research grants tend to be able to consistently opt out of teaching duties.

Anyways, if you're finding that your supervision isn't working out, you can look into options of moving. Does your university have confirmations of candidature or the like? I know at my uni there was a PhD student whose research actually suited a different department and they were recommended to change at their confirmation. Is this an option for you?

I had a wonderful supervisor in my engineering M.Sc. who had a brand new, stupid idea for my project every time I met him. They were almost always wildly out of my project scope, hugely difficult to experiment on properly, or sometimes just completely impossible (given the current physical laws of the universe). On top of that, the prof had a bit of a personality issue - he wasn't too popular with the department anyway.
I am however, grateful to him. I learned how to deal with difficult people who can be a pain. Here are some of the ways I used:

1) Just humor them. Often they forget and will never follow-up on what they said.

2) On the off chance that they are the type that remember, find some small bit of evidence by next meeting which will show them that what they are saying is ridiculous. Never say it yourself. Make sure you implicate some piece of literature.

3) In the long term, accept the fact that you will have to finish this project largely on your own. Do lots of reading on the topic, identify what can be done, figure out a good "story" that you can tell with your work, and just formulate your scope, problem statement and objectives around that story yourself. Once its on paper in black and white and they can read it, it becomes harder for them to say something against it (because they'll need to give a reason, which they won't have anyway).
Even though I'd been repeatedly telling him, one day I just got fed up with my supervisor and wrote the scope and objectives of my M.Sc. myself. He had nothing to say against them because he had nothing better to offer in their place.

Aside from the degree, I guess dealing with such people is also a learning experience. Good thing they don't charge double fees ;)

One of my supervisors is a little like that, he would suggest crazy things like massive experiments and say 'oh but it will only take a week and use £100 of your budget' when in reality it would have taken 5 months and cost a good few grand. Luckily I have another supervisor that is a lot more down to earth. I think some forget the realities of research when they have been stuck behind a desk or lecturing for so long and don't realise their ideas are ridiculous. Could you research and think up your own ideas and do them without having to go to your supervisors, or at least go to them with a clear plan of your ideas with a defensive argument ready in case they question it?

If you are really stuck and don't have any ideas perhaps water down their until it is more realistic and do-able?

I have a lot of sympathy. The University where I am operates a "dual" supervisor system. In theory, this means that I can access double the support. However, in practice this means that my supervisors frequently contradict me, themselves and each other. I have sent them work previously and agreed to a meeting in the expectation of receiving feedback on my work at the meeting. However when I have been in the meeting it has been quite apparent that they haven't read the work that I sent them. I had a meeting a few months ago when I could have upgraded. However, this didn't occur as my paperwork was not deemed ready. This was despite me previously having written tens of thousands of words. Only 5,000 were required for the upgrade but it has been so difficult trying to get these people to do their jobs because of other "commitments".

Can you start regular meeting even for 15 min per week (or every couple of weeks) with them? Then try to show yourself confident about your ideas in the meetings.