Graduate funding often comes in the form of 20-hour graduate assistantship contracts. The contract could be in form of teaching assistantship (GTA), where the student helps by grading homework, holding office hours, and sometimes giving a few lectures. It could also be for research assistantship (GRA). I have noticed that both of these formats have their own problems when it comes to how the actual workload compared to that specified in the contract, which is 20 hours a week.
When it comes to GTA contracts, graduate students frequently report being overwhelmed by the workload of office hours and grading. It is true that they need to improve on their time management skills and learn to actively track how much time they dedicate to their part time job. However, being overworked is also a function of how much load the professor is dumping on their head, and whether it is reasonable or not. For example, if a class realistically needs two GTAs and the professor only request one, then the assistant will be burnt out no matter how efficient they are.
As for GRA contracts, the situation is even murkier. Usually, GRA work overlaps with, and is sometimes identical to, the work put towards finishing the degree. This makes the separation between the amount of paid work and the amount of work put willingly into research ambiguous. What is disturbing though is that a 20-hour contract is often interpreted as a cart blanche by professors to own their students’ time: They may expect their students to reply at night or even on weekend. A 20-hour contract essentially means 4 hours a day. Clearly, no PhD student would graduate on time if they only spend that much time a day on their research. It is reasonable to expect students to work more towards their degree because a PhD is not a job per se, but rather a pursuit of education. However, it is not reasonable to overwork students while a 20-hour contract as an instrument of serfdom. It shocks me that this is so normalized, no one even questions it.
To me, it is hypocritical of universities to try to promote work-life balance as part of their public image without showing the least of decency by compensating graduate students in proportion to the amount of work expected of them. The status quo is far from fair or even humane.