Is it legal to ask an RA on a fellowship for timesheets?

[sasnak]

It might seem like a silly question but I thought I'd ask. The professor I RA for thinks I am not working enough hours for them, even though they never told me any precise hours, metrics, or goals they wanted me to meet in the first place. I have my own personal timesheets, which I'm willing to turn over to the professor, but I still would like to check that this is legal? I'm on a five year merit-based assistantship. I've never had a professor ask me to do this before as part of my semester assignment. I've only done timesheets over summer or when I'm working jobs outside the five year assistantship. Thanks for your responses!

[TakeruK]

I don't see why it would not be legal.

I think it is a little strange that a professor is asking for timesheets for an RAship after the fact. I've worked in RAships (and TAships) where the expectation of keeping timesheets was communicated at the very beginning (these are cases where I was paid hourly rather than salary). 

However, I don't think the professor is really doing anything unethical or wrong here. I think this level of communication is the best way to resolve the issue of the professor thinking you are not working enough hours for them. You should also quickly check any policies/handbooks to see if there is already an underlying requirement for all RAships in the department (regardless of source) to keep track of their hours.

Depending on how you feel about your professor, I think there are different routes I'd recommend:

1. If you have a good relationship with your professor and you trust them, I would turn over the personal timesheets while pointing out that since there were no metrics/guidelines in the past, these timesheets just reflect your judgement of how you should split your time and that you are open to further discussion about setting metric/goals for the future.

2. If you aren't confident in the professor's intentions, you could tell them that since there were no metrics/goals/guidelines in the past, you did not keep detailed timesheets for this project. Instead, just give them approximate hours per week or per month and let them know you are open to further discussion about future goals as well as future timesheet keeping.

3. If you are suspicious of your professor's intentions (perhaps you think they want to use this information against you to fire you or something), then I would reveal as little information as possible. If you aren't required to keep timesheets (via other policies) then tell them you didn't keep track since you were not asked to (or you can reveal whatever vague numbers you want to show that you are indeed doing work). But be sure to communicate that you are willing to start keeping track now and that you would like to clarify what they would want tracked and that you would like to set some goals.

Overall, I don't think it should make a difference whether or not you are on fellowship. I think it's an appropriate thing for all advisors to ask for timesheets from the people that work for them if this request is made clearly in advance. In my field, there are a lot of grants/fellowships that professors apply for and when they apply for funding to pay a grad student, they need to specify a number of person-hours and if they get audited, then these timesheets may be necessary. 

That said, despite which of the three "trust levels" you pick above, I would take this request for timesheet and the concern about not working enough hours seriously and work hard to improve communication between you and the professor so that everyone is meeting expectations. If I was a professor that was concerned about a student's productivity, this would be the first step I would take so that in the future, the amount of work this student completes is documented and we have actual numbers and information to work from and determine if any changes are necessary. If a professor wants to release the RA from the appointment, I think documentation is important and this would be one of the first items I'd document. I don't mean to say this to scare you or imply that you are bad worker though! If I was a professor, I would request this at the first sign that there is a difference in my work expectations and student performance, even if I fully believe that the problem will be resolved and I think most of the time, all of these problems will be resolved by simply improving communication. However, I would always request and keep documentation, just in case, because you never know which cases will end up being the one or two cases that require stronger action.

[Eigen]

Without a general discipline, it's hard to give more specific advice- especially because in my experience, if you're on a fellowship, you're not usually allowed to be an RA. You'd be a graduate fellow working for/with a faculty member. 

That said, I think it's totally reasonable to be asked for time sheets, and certainly legal. Even if you're not being directly paid from a grant by this individual, they are acting as your supervisor. 

[rising_star]

I think it's completely reasonable to ask someone for their timesheet or for a record of the number of hours they're putting in, regardless of whether they're being paid by the hour or not.

[sasnak]

Thanks for your replies, especially yours TakeruK - sorry I'm not familiar with how to post on here and reply to someone or tag them in a response. Thanks so much for the thought you put into that. I talked a lot with my mom about this, who has been through the Ph.D. process herself, as well as with my partner and closest friend in the program. What I ended up doing was responding to the email and telling them that if they had specific timelines etc that they want me to meet, to please let me know. I then listed all I have accomplished over the past 5 weeks.

I really just don't feel comfortable about timesheets - this is something that just isn't done in my department, as far as I can tell. Honestly at this point I don't trust the professor very much, since they sent me this email out of the blue after an in person meeting where everything seemed fine, and after I had emailed them several times the previous week, checking in on where I should be. This also has put our whole relationship into perspective - I'm starting to see that they've never been very supportive or seemed to care much about my research, haven't given me much feedback as a member of my committee early on, etc... so I'm basically looking ahead now to separating myself and my research as much as I can from this person. It might sound overdramatic but I don't really want to give too many details on here. 

[TakeruK]

I really just don't feel comfortable about timesheets - this is something that just isn't done in my department, as far as I can tell. Honestly at this point I don't trust the professor very much, since they sent me this email out of the blue after an in person meeting where everything seemed fine, and after I had emailed them several times the previous week, checking in on where I should be. This also has put our whole relationship into perspective - I'm starting to see that they've never been very supportive or seemed to care much about my research, haven't given me much feedback as a member of my committee early on, etc... so I'm basically looking ahead now to separating myself and my research as much as I can from this person. It might sound overdramatic but I don't really want to give too many details on here. 

There are probably a lot of details that you (rightfully so!) aren't providing here so it's hard to tell. But, although I understand that timesheets out of the blue is surprising and not the norm for your department, I don't think this is the important part to focus on. If you ask the question "Should an RA supervisor know how many hours their student is spending on their project, even if the RA supervisor is not paying the student?", the answer is Yes. So, I wouldn't interpret this request as a sign of a bad/unsupportive advisor. Of course, it sounds like you have other reasons to think this, and you certainly don't have to justify them or anything. Just wanted to say that asking for timesheets may be abnormal in your department but it is still within the realm of a healthy advisor-student relationship! Good luck