I think the title says it all.

My supervisor is incredibly disorganized to the point his disorganization messes up my papers. He never commented on my works and he will ask me to do stuff hours before the deadline.

I feel that his disorganization is incredibly childish (very ironic since I worked with children before and they are ever more organized!) to the point that now I'm more worried about his (bad) random decision making skills jeopardizing my work.

I would like to tell you more but I think I'd rather be safe than sorry : /

Could anyone offer me some advice please : (

Sound like my supervisor. Actually, I also need advice on this...
She insisted to be the corresponding author for my paper which is fine.
But she submitted earlier version of my paper instead. This is so dangerous. :-(

However, she is better in presentation. So, it may not be easy to detect her weaknesses like organisation... Beside, my supervisor has some strengths such as EQ...
When my thesis was submitted, she "protected" herself by explaining to the examiner etc... that the thesis may not be ready.... But she was just doing a favour for me since I am confident of my work.

Essentially, if the thesis has minor corrections, she can claim some credits. But if the thesis has major flaws, she is already aware...

Maybe just let your supervisor know about similar websites like postgraduate forum.

You don't.

I posted here very regularly under another username when I was doing my PhD and clearly wasn't happy as it proved very, very, very difficult to get feedback from my supervisors - they were useless. I passed my PhD but the viva was difficult. A supervisor sat in and it must have freaked him out as he tried to take complete control of the corrections. He was getting the internal to send them to him, he was doing them and wanted me to pass them back to the internal! At first I humoured him but then I voiced my concerns to him (he appeared to become uptight) and I started to take more control of the corrections. I even tried to engage with the internal but she still sent additional corrections back through my supervisor. I had to start cutting him out towards the end in an effort to keep the thesis my own and I'm now minus a referee because I actually did the right thing, in my opinion. I was put in a dreadful position, it shouldn't have been allowed to happen and I'm still extremely distressed about it.

In my experience, academics have a bigger ego than a sense of academic integrity!

hi tt dan
my best advice would be:

1. first of all, don't offend your supervisor--if he is giving you silly suggestions, try your best to show him alternatives of his silly suggestions in a way that will make things work. May be hard work for you, but it's worth it if you are going to work with him for the whole of your phd. Remember that you may need referrals in future--and the first port of call for stuff like this always goes back to the supervisor.

2. recognise that everybody is different--and learn to work at different levels with people. For example, some day you might have really "stupid" colleagues at work--and because you need the job etc. you still need to interact with these so-called "stupid" colleagues

3. recognise that seeing imperfection in others reflects something back in ourselves---"we see what is mirrored"

I'll share my experience with you--my supervisor was always lastminute.com and send_me_a_report-now.ac.uk

the thing to consider---could I work with him??? For 3+ years???
I found that I was able to put up with lastminute.com, and stuck with it.
today Dr. lastminute.com is willing to write references for me, and is very encouraging of my job search.

love satchi

Hi tt dan

I agree with the others, telling your supervisor you don't like their supervision is very difficult, if not impossible. But there are ways round it. You need to bolster up support for yourself and find coping mechanisms to deal with your supervisor. Ask for help. The best places of support for me have been:
1) Post grad tutor (a pastoral role at our Uni, I think most have them). You don't have to denigrate your sup. to this tutor, but you can mention you're having difficulties and see what they say.
2) Students' Union. They normally do a drop in service and then you can book a longer session. Totally confidential and independent.
3) Equalities service. If you feel you might be being discriminated against for whatever reason - eg for ill health.
4) Mentor - ask someone you respect if they wouldn't mind mentoring you. My mentor was great, although probably a bit too senior really so too busy to devote the time to me.
5) Phd student colleagues - most supervisors are tough/difficult cookies so your friends should be able to help you deal with them
6) Careers service. Again they normally do a drop in so you can see someone quickly and ask for confidential advice, say you're worried about getting published.
7) Training courses - at our Uni there are plenty of these - dealing with your supervisor type courses. So just enrol.

Let me know how you get on/if you've already trawled those resources.

A

On second thought, we should be thankful of supervisors who are not very demanding, does not bully us, and give us more freedom in our research.

The only concern is supervisor's recommendation letter should be carefully written. It should not be accidentally suggestive or saying the student is unhappy with one's supervision...

Yeah I agree with the others, some great suggestions already made. That is your supervisor's working style, you're not going to change it. You have to find a way to work with them. Remember that you are in charge of the project, find ways to (tactfully) not use the advice that you think is bad. I found this happened sometimes in my phd too, 'luckily' my supervisor would often not remember what they'd said the last time, so I rarely had to justify the occassions when I didn't take their advice.