It depends entirely on the professor and the department. My adviser once said that he expected forty hours a week, but if we really wanted to be successful we

It depends entirely on the professor and the department. My adviser once said that he expected forty hours a week, but if we really wanted to be successful we should put in sixty. I know plenty of other people with ridiculous horror stories though. Things like professors demanding to know why a postdoc was taking so much time in the bathroom, or confiscating a graduate student's plane ticket back to China until an assignment was completed. Academics desperately need a ratemyprofessor.com for advisers and lab environments.