Motivation and conduct

We all work a lot. However, it is unusual to emphasize that often.
In our experience, those students who complain about the workload are often those who have difficulties in writing, and who are not fast in conceptual or interpretative work.
Complaining about your workload might be fashionable among colleagues, and we all do it once in a while, but it rarely has a constructive effect. And most of the time it does not reflect well on yourself (someone complaining to have too high a workload often faces the danger that others perceive her/him as trying to evade work).
It is difficult to estimate how much work one should do or needs to do. Evidently, one can always do more, and often the extra effort might pay in the form of better or more results, quicker and more publications.
When trying to figure out what you might consider “normal”, check some other doctoral theses, especially the Methods section, and try to figure out what kind of workload this translates into. Most doctoral students make the experience that they work harder, and more, during parts of their doctoral work than they did during the regular studies.
If you feel your workload is a real problem, address this in a calm way in a specially scheduled meeting with your supervisor. Especially, try to bring ideas for a solution. One of the possible solutions one should carefully evaluate is to withdraw from the project.
Only if the work is finished on time, the workstation is always clean, texts are delivered frequently, then someone who complains might make a good impression.
Consider the situation: Your supervisors are the people who took the responsibility of choosing you. They will ask themselves, during the first months especially, whether they made the right choice. If you complain about the workload at the beginning (which your supervisors might have chosen because they consider it adequate – of course they might be wrong), if you excuse yourself in advance for all the stuff you won’t be able to do – will this give your supervisors the reassuring feeling that they made the right choice?
Outside impression
If you are in a position where other outside people might be important for your career, think twice about complaining about your current job/boss/project. While most people will like to hear such complaints, and might even encourage you to go on, do you think they will consider to employ, in the future, someone who has proven to be disloyal to her/his boss, someone who worked at an unattractive workplace, someone who did a stupid project?
And, if you talk badly about your work – does this increase your job satisfaction? If you realize you are talking bad about your work consistently, then you should consider another line of work.
Spare time
The academic environment often instils the impression that it is normal, and expected, that you use your spare time for more work. This is a critical issue.
The legal aspect is that nobody can ask you to work in your spare time.
You need to protect your non-work life, and referring to this website might represent one way of addressing this topic with your supervisor.
There will always be moments when spare time will be used for work. This could happen in the course of a retention time study where you have to collect faeces for 7 consecutive days and cannot have a weekend break. This often happens because the self-protection instinct that drives you to work harder when a deadline approaches does usually just react to absolute time spans, not to working-hour time spans. Seriously, try to hone and cultivate that instinct so that its effect kicks in early enough so that spare time can stay untouched. Even more seriously, a very good way to avoid the spare time conflict is to plan to finish a task, like a conference abstract, a manuscript, a report, a grant, 14 days prior to the deadline.
Your supervisor might use her or his spare time to deal with your work, e.g. correct a manuscript, during a weekend and send the comments during that weekend. This does not oblige you to respond in your spare time. This does represent a statement how your supervisor lives her or his life, but it does not extend to your life.
Only answer to emails asking for your reaction in your spare time if you really want to do this.