When I found out I got the NAEEA grant I was so happy, and surprised, I gasped! I was conscious that my associate supervisor was there and probably wasn’t aware I had even applied for the grant, or that I was doing that side-project. But that project already has ethics approval, so I’ve been working on it for ages, probably a year I would say. Anyway, he did speak to me shortly after and let me know he thought I had too many projects on the go. Now for the record I’m not even saying that he is wrong. I do have lots of things all on the go at once. AND I’m happy to admit that at least a couple of things ALWYAS get negelected. At the moment that is the digital literacy paper (because I keep passing it to my co-authors who also do nothing on it) and the Intersectionality discussion piece which, a year later, is still sitting as a 4000 word rough draft. But neither of those project have any sort of deadlines and clearly my co-authors aren’t too fussed. I cannot honestly say that my PhD is always my number one priority, but I can say with 101% certaintly that it is NEVER the thing that gets neglected completely. I am right on track to complete every single item in the timeline that we (both supervisors and myself) agreed on. So in my mind, there is actually no real need for concern.

Well that conversation was put to me like it would be my principle supervisor that would be concerned and that she would be talking to me about cutting back projects (she didn’t/hasn’t) and that they both wanted me to finish my PhD early. I argued that I did not see the advantage in finishing early because I needed more time to prepare for being an Early Career Researcher so I could take advantage of that 5 years. I also have opportunities that are only available to PhD students, and I want to take full advantage of those. I have no intention of finishing early, none whatsoever. He seemed to accept that.

Now I’m not sure when, but at some point during that conference he spoke to my Associate Dean and expressed his concerns about my multiple projects, workload, PhD etc etc. She is wonderful, and supportive and undoubtedly wants the best for me. But I have been building a case over the last two years for MORE work because I want to go from 0.5 FTE to at least 0.7 FTE. Well, my bank account wants my fraction to go up! In one foul swoop he planted a seed that perhaps I wasn’t coping. Considering my PhD is with FedUni and I work for CQUniversity it is REALLY innapropriate for him to be discussing anything related to my PhD with my Dean. If anything did need to be communicated to my Dean it would be through offical FedUni channels and that would probably mean my principle supervisor, not associate, not under any circumstances is it appropriate.

While I let things settle and contemplate my next move on that front I am trying to focus on the positives. A team from Indonesia cited the paper from Trixie and I on Self-Efficacy. That’s my second citation, but the first one from people I have never met or worked with.

Outside of work I have been doing yoga all year so far and the pain I was experiencing in my neck and back is much better.

So indeed there are positive things to note! – My ethics application is all but done, so data collection here I come!