I’ve been complaining about this to Jeff many times and he did the same to me. Are the tasks given by us too tough? Is it because our requirements to them are too high?
We’ve been group members for at least two semesters’ assignments with the two girls (S and J). We always tried to be nice to them. How nice are we? Jeff and I will think and discuss of the task allocation before the actual discussions with them. The tasks allocated to them are just simpler works. How simple? It’s just simple that Jeff can did it in around 30 minutes where one of them failed to complete the task in around 2 weeks.
We carried out a special discussion few weeks ago to review all the assignments done by us. We tried to let them talk. Well, as Jeff said, it was fruitless. So basically, some of the assignments are done by Jeff and me or sometime, Jeff himself. Eventually, during discussions, Jeff and I were the two who speak a lot. You see, we’ve tried our best to let them talk, let them have a chance to contribute. So what? End up like two man show…
However, I cannot deny that they indeed contribute something to the assignments. But do you consider contributions with lots of mistakes that are not tolerable as contributions to the assignment? As Jeff said, we don’t expect them to submit something flawless. But hey, at least something workable / readable.
An email I received just now motivated me to write this post which I’m not dare to write quite long time ago. I distributed some simple tasks (preparing presentation slides) and to be submitted to me by today. But what I saw in the slides is simply disappointment. If S had tried the system that Jeff sent to her fortnight ago, she should be able to understand the flow of the system. At least she’ll get some basic idea on how the user interact with the system. What she did was just copy and paste the slides from previous presentations into this.
We modified some part of our system due to time constraint and technical constraint. If S has the ‘heart’ to contribute, she should be able to ’see’ this. On the other hand, J took the initiative to contribute in this assignment after the “special” discussion. She tested and commented the system and did research to help us. I appreciate her contributions during that period. But I hope she could correct her errors in doing assignments - spelling and grammar mistakes. I wouldn’t expect her to give me grammatically free text, but at least understandable.
Jeff was angry (can I say furious?) regarding this issue quite some time ago. For me, this is the last semester that we’ll be together as course mates. So I think I’ll appreciate the remaining time and try to be nice to them. After all, we might not seeing them often, or even work with them in the rest of our lives.
One more thing, I found out one of them (or sometimes, both) has problem understanding the instructions given. In the email, Jeff and I will try to explain and give more details on the task allocated to them and our expectations to their tasks. However, what we received are…. I’m wondering if there’s any misunderstanding in the emails that made them failed to fulfill the requirements? What’s so hard to cite the references using Harvard Referencing System where by the guidelines were attached and sent to them?
One last thing, I’ve been frustrated for long time with one thing that did by S. She likes to make confirmations on things that she was not assured but known or even things that she known and assured. It’s annoying! However, as I mentioned, I’ve few more weeks with her. So, I’ll tolerate as long as possible. I wish I could do so. I tried to be nice to everyone because I don’t want to hurt anybody. But at last, I’m the one who suffered the most. Well, I prefer myself to be hurt than me to hurt anybody. So, here’s the place where I nag.
To Jeff, I’m sorry if my nagging suffered you. But you should be glad because after these few weeks, no body will nag like me in front of you! :p