My master's supervisor delegates most (if not all) of his work to his senior PhD student. Let's name this student X.
- X creates all the assignments, midterms, and exams for the courses this professor is teaching (which is not in the TA job description)
- He often fills in for this professor's office hours
- In fact, this professor once got him to take his place and give a lecture on 10 minutes' notice
- Anytime there is an administrative chore (such as ordering textbooks, arranging tests in the accessibility center, deciding whether to accept a student's excuse for missing a midterm, etc.) this professor always delegates it to X.
- X has written a significant portion of this professor's most recent grant proposal, even though X will not be part of the project.
- I almost never see this professor; effectively, X has become my master's supervisor (this doesn't bother me, since I like working with X, but I'm sure he would rather focus on finishing his thesis).
- Incidentally, a few weeks ago this professor also got me to update his CV to cover the last 6 years of his work.
The list goes on, and also note that this professor also delegates the "usual things" to X, such as reviewing papers under the professor's name or making an appearance at certain events.
Is this type of thing acceptable (or at least borderline acceptable)? If not, how could I prevent it from happening to somebody else without making a scene? For bonus points, how could I improve X's situation?
Why does this matter to me? Because X will be graduating before me, and this professor is telling me that I will be taking over his duties (just as X took over the duties from the student before him). Although I obviously have the right to refuse anything unreasonable, this particular professor becomes very unhappy when anyone refuses something.