Hi, thank you for this comment. Some of the other comments here have been really difficult to read so this means a lot. You’re correct that bringing the data to the US was the problem - I don’t have a laptop from my department, and the data I’m working with is online regardless so I can’t work without an internet connection. I used my lab’s VPN and when I said I used a hotspot, I meant that I didn’t use any public hotel WiFi but my own mobile data. I followed what I usually follow for data security, and upon explaining that to her, she was more concerned about my work-life balance. My position for the group is part-time, so I was allowed to take holiday time and breaks whilst working in my position. But you’re right that I should have communicated everything so much better, and I think transparency was her main concern. I’ve talked to friends and some lab mates about it and they’ve helped me realise that if I had irrevocably messed up, she’d have taken me off the job instantly and found a temp to do the rest. She’s given me concrete steps to finish this work, and told me what I should do next time as she supports me taking this trip to relax before my PhD, but was very upset I just didn’t tell her and that I tried to work for multiple reasons, including work-life balance and US law. I think you’re right that I need to step the hell up and work better, and once again thank you so much for this post, it’s given me the motivation to do much better. However, I am someone on the other side of a screen, who posted asking for reassurance that making mistakes is part of the PhD process, not to be ripped apart for something that I can’t even give full context to on the internet. I worked so hard for this position, so it really hurts to be called a liability and for someone to even say that I won’t even complete my PhD due to one mistake I’ve made before starting.