16.12.2025
Imagine this: you’re doing a PhD, working with a postdoc. Instead of a supervisor and a student, you get “supervisor” and supervisor (= postdoc).
The supervisor speaks to the postdoc; the postdoc speaks to you. Decisions, feedback, and expectations travel one way, already settled by the time they arrive.
The third wheel syndrome is when you become the third wheel in your own supervision. Structure, they call it. Decisions without dialogue is what it is.
You are present and accountable, but never a participant in the conversation that shapes your work. Questions get answered indirectly. Disagreements are already resolved. Appreciation, if it comes at all, arrives second-hand.
Decisions are made without you. You’re still expected to own the outcome.
The supervisor keeps authority, but never shows up to exercise it.
This isn’t collaboration. It isn’t mentorship. It’s supervision by proxy.
Call it efficiency if you want. Call it delegation. The person most affected by the decisions is the least involved in making them.
You can work around a lot of things in academia. Being the third wheel in your own PhD isn’t one of them. Supervision by proxy doesn’t train researchers. It trains spectators.