Hi,

I think third year of PhD is like that but if you go on to post doc or lectureship it can be quite cushy and good for familly life actually. I had a lecturer who used to help in the labs and when it got to five o clock he was like 'right I'm off I've got to go give my son his bath'. My tutor (very well repected theoretical physicist) used to roll into the office at 10 in the morning. On the other hand I know of another professor who goes in over christmas even though the heating is turned off in the building (what a surprise he's single). Third year of PhD- yes you have to work hard but after that I think it can be quite flexible if you carry on in academia and who's to say you have to carry on in academia? You could get a job in industry where it's more likely to be normal job hours. If you've got this far I would say stick at it if only so that you get to be called 'dr'. At the end of the day there are single sad academics but there are also ones with families and kids and there are single people whose life is their work in all jobs. I would say take up something that is at like a scheduled time each week that is like down time. - I have a yoga class that I go to and whatever I'm doing, at that time I stop it and go to the class. Bonus points if you do something like that with some mates. Also you have to eat so maybe try and go for lunch/ dinner with mates too. I reckon you can squeeze a couple of fun non PhD things in there without loosing too much time (anyway you work more efficiently when less stressed anyway).

Hi,

I think third year of PhD is like that but if you go on to post doc or lectureship it can be quite cushy and good for familly life actually. I had a lecturer who used to help in the labs and when it got to five o clock he was like 'right I'm off I've got to go give my son his bath'. My tutor (very well repected theoretical physicist) used to roll into the office at 10 in the morning. On the other hand I know of another professor who goes in over christmas even though the heating is turned off in the building (what a surprise he's single). Third year of PhD- yes you have to work hard but after that I think it can be quite flexible if you carry on in academia and who's to say you have to carry on in academia? You could get a job in industry where it's more likely to be normal job hours. If you've got this far I would say stick at it if only so that you get to be called 'dr'. At the end of the day there are single sad academics but there are also ones with families and kids and there are single people whose life is their work in all jobs. I would say take up something that is at like a scheduled time each week that is like down time. - I have a yoga class that I go to and whatever I'm doing, at that time I stop it and go to the class. Bonus points if you do something like that with some mates. Also you have to eat so maybe try and go for lunch/ dinner with mates too. I reckon you can squeeze a couple of fun non PhD things in there without loosing too much time (anyway you work more efficiently when less stressed anyway).

Thank you everyone, I feel better knowing that it was my supervisor that was being unreasonable and most PhD's aren't like that so I'm going to switch to a different supervisor and project (can't keep the same project as he is the only one in the department that works in that area) and I'm feeling good about that.

Hi, I know you live a long way from the uni but how often do you go in? some people have 2hr commutes to work everyday -it's not unheard of. I can't see that there's anything stopping you from seeing your supervisor at regular meetings even if you have nothing specific to talk about - if you have a meeting scheduled with them you'll think of things to ask them, so maybe try to have some regular meetings and also if they have group meetings at your depatment maybe try and go to a few. Also try and make friends with other people in the department, get their emails and then you can talk to them without going in and they can keep you up to date on all the department gossip.

I don't know if this is the case everywhere in the UK but at my university, if you do a science PhD generally you don't write the research proposal or get the funding, the supervisor does that and then for you it's like applying for a job to get that project/ position. It's probably different for business- I don't know - you should check it out though. Not sure about the free accomodation - I've never heard of that. Alot of the time they will let you live in university halls (like first year undergraduates do ) and you can get that free if you agree to be a 'warden' at my uni (telling people off if they are too noisy or whatever). The best way to try and get a bit of extra money is try and get some teaching/ marking of undergraduate work - it usually pays pretty well and its a wage so you could definately send that home (I do 5 1/2 hours a week of teaching and get £14 an hour so it's quite a nice bit of extra money). Saving money is of course possible - it all depends on how frugally you are willing to live. bear in mind that you will probably need to save a bit so that you can keep going for a couple of months after your funding runs out - most people don't finish in 3 years.the average time is more like 3 and a half years.

Hope that helps

Hi, started my PhD 2 months ago and my supervisor pressuring me to work longer hours, made me cancel a holiday I had booked and giving me loads of work whilst saying 'this is extra for in your own time, not in your PhD time' I was already working longer hours than most other PhD students in my office and felt like this was still not good enough for him. Sent him an email saying that I wasn't happy to work more than 48hrs a week of official office time (time when I had to be in the office in case he felt like coming over to check up on me). His response was to stop talking to me (i.e pretending he couldn't hear me when I said hello etc), arranged a meeting with the head of school and dropped me from the PhD. He said there was a problem with my efficiency and I hadn't got enough work done, even though we were having weekly meetings where we were deciding together what I needed to do that week and every week I completed the tasks we decided. He has not said anything to me about my not doing enough work apart from all the hints that I should work longer hours, nothing to do with what I have actually achieved.

Anyway bottom line is that we have parted company and the head of school has said I can change to another supervisor in the same department and I can pretty much have my pick since I got a first in undergraduate and the funding I have is tied to me not the supervisor. Problem is the areas the other supervisors in the department work in are not as interesting to me as the project I was doing initially and also not my area of expertise. Also feeling like if I was so bad that he wanted to drop me after two months then how could I be good enough to do any PhD? Not sure whether I should just quit and get a job while I have only wasted 2 months or stick at it and try again with another supervisor? I'm so stressed right now I don't feel like I can trust my own judgement.:-(