One of my academic pet peeves is the phenomenon in which a graduate student and/or post-doc refers to his advisor as his ‘boss’. Although I truly appreciate the situations in which the advisor very clearly is the Boss (overbearing, unrelenting, merciless, etc.), I see an overabundance of examples in which researchers are entirely too flippant with their use of the word.

For me, one of the utopian dreams of academia is mutually-beneficial collaboration. The best advisor-student relationships that I have witnessed have been rooted in mutual respect, and both parties have worked together to achieve a common goal. The advisor does not boss the student around (except maybe during the first phase), but instead guides the student as s/he makes her way through the research gauntlet. I love this concept; I relish in the deliciousness of saying I work 'with' someone, whether that be my advisor, another grad student, or my undergraduate intern. I feel like the term 'boss' violates the core principles of academics, universities, and the whole Ph.D. process.