It doesn't sound like the best experience but not an outright fail. I hope the list of corrections they give is comprehensive and you get to work through them ok. Good luck

It could be you're not as bad as your supervisor makes out! Do you have a second supervisor you could clarifyvthings with? I've got 2 supervisors and one thinks my ideas ate unclear whilst the other totally gets what I'm talking about. Also there are those that just as picky and those that want you to suffer I'm afraid.

That's the perspective I was coming from Tree of Life. Not that I totally condone doing taking sick but op says it's a non academic job I'm guessing they will give it up after PhD and PhD is more important?If it's crucial to take time off and you are stressed you could go on the sick a while. Sick is usually counted by instances and duration. It's worse to have many instances of short duration e.g less than a week at a time over a few occasions than few instances of long duration e.g 1 month off for stress over a 12 month period. I've had an employer try and illegitimately get rid of me for sick so I'm speaking from personal experience. It takes a while to go through the official warning procedure (usually 3 warnings). In between there are the meetings with HR/Union etc. It's usually months to get rid of you and you would have had to have had other instances of sickness or very poor performance over that period to escalate the warnings It is also a wrong working culture to make people that wary of taking legitimate sick leave! I agree with Fled, Happy only you know what the outcome will probably be.with your employer (you could check you HR manual to try and work it out) and I guess you have to weigh up what is most important to you and what work you can achieve in the time you have left. I'd still try and go down changing work hours by condensing them and stay on same pay or cut them and reduce some pay as the first route or ask for unpaid sabatical if they allow that? Let us know how you get on :D

I remember your story. it was a terrible time for you for sure. I'm so glad you have a positive ending or should I say new begning to your PhD journey. It sounds like you and your family are on the up. Maybe 30th April will bring you relief? Relief that you got out of there and now have this better life. Thanks for the update. :D

Happy, are you staying with employer post PhD? If not and you are close to submit have you already started looking at post doc? if you are not going to stay I would def still consider the sick leave as you come up to hand in date or even to see if you can juggle your finances to negotiate some unpaid leave or re-jigging your work hours. I condensed my hours to get a day off in the week working 8-6pm 4 days a week. It takes a good while to sack someone, even more sacking over sick leave, they will have to follow their company procedures regarding warnings etc and you are really talking a few months at least to go through the process of warnings etc before they can get rid of you legitimately. Ultimately if you are starting to feel 'stress' from overwork because of juggling the two you might even actually be able to get a legitimate sick note from the Dr to cover periods of intense stress/anxiety? Obviously don't make it up but if it comes to that point you are in your rights to do that. Your employer would be on a very sticky wicket to sack you on the sick with a Dr note and not going through their company policy, they can be taken to court. Have you wrote yourself a timetable of what you need to do by when? I saw a thread about how many words to write a day, it was a good motivator and made the task seem less daunting. Also a good way to not spend too much time on one section at the risk of not completing other; in these circumstances passable/adequate and submitted is better than perfect in parts and incomplete in others :D you will do it. x

Fled makes a good point. Can you take sick leave if you have no holidays? Is your job very important to you? If not it might be worth the risk taking a few weeks off sick! I've 2 young children and did my masters whilst working full time with a 1 yr old and 2 yr old. I learnt to work in short bursts and with lots of noise, working in breaks and lunch hours. I don't know how Fled does it getting up so early but hats off to him. I did late nights but never past midnight. No point getting quantity over quality. Good luck. :-)

I should have said I need something for an android system. Yeah something that would HD and/or pin documents as well would be ace. Surely there must be some techies on here :)

Anyone know of any good mobile apps for taking/making notes? I find I need to write things down or get struck by inspiration with no pen or paper to hand.

It sounds like you are doing the right things just providence hasn't been on your side so it's just a case of keep trying. I too was lucky applied to two got two. But I had been unlucky moving up the career ladder prior to PhD so I do believe good things come to those that wait. :)

Are you matching yourself adequately to the departmen and their research aims/theoretical perspectives used by them. You really have to tailor your application very carefully each time. Even down to the university ethos, how do you fit with that etc. Are you meeting the basic academic requirements? Is there anything you need to do academic wise to improve your application. For example some ask for at least merit at Masters but often they don't want any old Masters degree, they want one with substantial research modules like an MSc in research methods (but they don't tell you this beforehand!). Before making a formal application are you contacting prospective supervisors to see if they are interested in you? This is usual practice before a formal application in some areas eg humanities and social sciences. Good luck.

Cool. Looks like you're turning a corner.

Well done Dr :)

I'm glad people at home don't care. I have something that's mine like a little secret about me :)They say they are proud but we don't talk about it. My husband has no idea at all what a PhD is ha ha

I know loads of people, including myself who did credit transfer but I doubt you will get fees back. You could talk to your uni finance dept and ask what happens to fees paid upfront if you withdraw.

Have you made any decisions yet? Personally, I would go for funded. Chances are you'd do a project you love, which you then learn to hate ha ha ha so a luke warm reception to the funded research project is no reason to decline, you can always put your spin on it and make it your own in at least some way. You can never really tell what the PhD will be in the end either, the other PhD may look better from the outside but it might not pan out that way. Funding is getting much, much harder to come by. Whilst some will say wait for something better, the grass isn't always greener, other funding may never arrive! Well done on both offers though :D