Is your PhD making you grumpy?

P

Is it just me, or does doing a PhD make one grumpy?

D

Incredibly, at times it's worse than PMT, especially 7:30 on a Monday morning ...

S

Even worse when combined with PMT!

B

Grumpy is my middle name.

C

Yeah.. it does...

J

Not the PhD itself, but the endless bureaucracy that seems to characterize universities does. They seem to employ minions of people whose sole purpose it is to slow everything down and slowly drive you mental.

C

mine is but then again my supervisor is a grumpy glaswegian and it seems to rub off on me!

L

I'm practicing to be a grumpy old man! A Victor Meldrew IN THE MAKING

D

yep...or marking undergrad essays that have only 2 items on the bibliography and no paragraphs, after you've clearly gone through with them at least twice what you expect from an essay...that REALLY makes me grumpy

P

Groan...dodgy reference lists in undergraduate assignments. And they always reference their lecture notes. Aaaaahhhhh!!! It infuriates me.

G

Oh god yes it definitely isn't making me happy! Like Ellay, if I get any more "what is a journal?" emails off the 2nd years I will drown myself in a cuppa soup. Everyone seems to moan around here...I guess I'm unfortunately going down the same path :-/

C

Kind of reminds me of when students come up to me in the library and ask me to help them find stuff. I mean, it is my job so I don't mind helping....like first years...but when you have to help third years use the library searches I want to scream: 'how did you get this far!?' :-S

Last week a student came up to me and asked 'Where is the piece of John?' After about thirty seconds later of incredulity I realised she was referring to the fragment of John's Gosepl in the University Special Collection...and directed her to it. But what a way for a degree student to phrase a question!!!!

J

Pushy undergrads...you always get one who wants endless one-to-one attention, special treatment, advice that the others are not privy to. They are the same ones that ask if they can work extra days in the lab when the other students are not there, which seriously disrupts my PhD research cos I can't get on the instruments and they're asking endless questions...in a way I admire their motivation, but I don't like them trying to get ahead by gaining unfair advantage over the others. My colleague even had one student calling her on Christmas day asking about bloody lab work.

W

Hmmm my PhD aint making me grumy Im enjoying it....well its what ive wanted to do since I left school so would hope so BUT what is making me angry is the undergrads....>Arghhhh i went to use the silent studey section in the journal archive an some guy was singing, talking to himself his mate on the phone who then came to see him urghhh!
Its my Fist time at a 'red brick uni' an i cant get over their attisue either they all act like they are the best thing since sliced bread.....rah rah rah went an played rugby/hockey downed 20 pints and oh my got ive got so much work on I have a 1,500 word essay to write by xmas.....Arggghhh ...Im so hoping I dont have to demonstrate cause they all also seem to belive they know more bout the life the universe an everything than pretty much anyone else ARRRGHHHHHHH sorry appologise for the rant!!

J

True enough MistaG: when I look back at some of my undergrad behaviour I cringe. I would have slapped me.

Mind you I'm surprised you didn't know about databases till the end - how did you avoid them? Didn't your lecturers point you to them?

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