Also she was conducting "interviews" with us to assess better what was and what wasn't R&D in our tasks, so once in a while we would spend an hour not doing any

Also she was conducting "interviews" with us to assess better what was and what wasn't R&D in our tasks, so once in a while we would spend an hour not doing any productive work. Yes post-thesis are more valuable, including to other countries. I think it is an incentive to the employer so they can increase the compensation in order to limit brain drain.