Usually I suggest meeting times, one of my supervisors agrees, other disagrees (it tends to alternate between which one) - one of them suggests another time, the other agrees, and I have to agree to that (or go through the fuss of not being able to arrange a meeting for ages).

Which is fine, when the time is convenient and I'm not teaching or anything.

But it is not cool when I've already made plans to be away from the office that day!

Does this happen to other people? What are your opinions?

For instance

Supervisor 1: Shall we meet next Wednesday?
Me: Yes that works for me, are you available supervisor 2?
Supervisor 2: No. Let's do Friday.
Supervisor 1: Yes, that works for me, can you book a meeting room, M?
Me: ...

Where is the "Is Friday ok for you, M?"

(Am I getting a little bit TOO mad about this?)

It's a frustrating situation.

Are you a full-time student? I think the unspoken expectation is that if you're a full-time student, you *should* be at the beck and call unless you have teaching commitments, illness, lab experiments, field work or conferences/seminars.

Supervisors are quite busy, and thesis supervision sits quite low on the priority list when compared with their other duties. While it is frustrating that you're expected to change your schedule to suit them, it's best to remember that they have very limited time available to meet with you, whereas as a full-time PhD student, there is the expectation that you arrange your schedule to suit them because unless you're in the lab conducting experiments or out doing field work, you *have* (and I use that word carefully as really, you don't lol!) plenty of time to work with.

Its not fair by any means, but I found in my own experience that it was far easier for me to just arrange my schedule to suit them as opposed to trying to get them to suit mine.

And yes, I am a full-time student, though given my supervisor's frequent comments about how he could never do a 9-5 working pattern, and the fact that I've worked ridiculous hours recently, you'd think it might not be assumed that I have no commitments on the one last Friday before christmas......

I usually just try to get in there first with 'I am available every day except X and Y', then my two supervisors sort it out between them.

I will usually attend meetings at whatever time they ask, but if I see them starting an email chain about a day I can't do, I just stop them right away and suggest another date. They don't mind I can't make the meetings on the day they choose anyway.