Why does my PhD supervisor not talk to me directly?

Question

There is an incident between me and my PhD adviser, which is repeated for the second time (The first time was a couple of months ago), and its details are:

My PhD supervisor talked about me and my problems to one of the post doc scholars in our department, who is not my PhD adviser's post-doc. The first time my PhD adviser talked to this post-doc about me, he said that I was not present at a conference and presentations. In fact I was, and even in some of those presentations my PhD adviser was present and I'm pretty sure he saw me there explicitly. But I heard from this post-doc a week later that my PhD adviser was not happy cause he didn't see me there... I never received a notice from my PhD adviser and he never talk to me about that. As a result, I said that maybe was just a mistake and moved on.

Today, I heard from this post-doc again that my PhD adviser is angry cause I removed a document that he requested me to update that yesterday. In fact, I updated that document just a couple of hours ago and fortunately it is uploaded in the box and could show the details of changes to that file and how many version is uploaded. Also, box could show who viewed or downloaded the files and the last time my PhD adviser saw that file or downloaded was yesterday, when he requested me to update that and I did it today morning. I'm just mad and angry because if there is a problem with me or my work or my personality or whatever why my PhD adviser does not talk to me directly? He could just send an email to me say hey what the hell are you doing?! instead of talking to other people and I incidentally hear the problems from other people behind me?! I'm just angry and please excuse me for typos or rude language.

My question is: what can I do to solve this problem and why my PhD adviser does not talk to me directly about my problems? I appreciate any suggestion.

Update:

I talked to my PhD adviser right now and he was quite okay and cool with me and did not talk about the incident that post-doc talked to me yesterday. So, I think something is wrong with this post-doc... I really appreciate if someone help me to find a proper way to tell this post-doc that my issues or problems are not his/her business...

Answer 1

You seem to be getting all the information about your communication issues with your advisor from a third party - the postdoc. That information may not be accurate, though I can't say from this distance. But you should consider the fact that it is the third person with the problem and not yourself.

But the solution is to go and talk to your advisor. I wouldn't take a confrontational attitude, but mention that you did the work requested and were at the meeting you mention, etc. Ask for an assessment of your progress and position. If there is a problem you will know, from the actual source. If there isn't a problem it should be obvious from the way the advisor responds.

Like many such meetings, this needs to be face to face and informal. If you suspect from the answers you get that the post doc is trying to subvert you, I'd spend some time deciding on a plan before complaining about it.

If your advisor, in fact, has no problem with your actions then there probably was no reason for him to communicate. But if he does have an issue it is better that you hear it directly and you may need to take the initiative to make that happen.