The story here is from my friend's real-life experience.
There are two girls working in a CCA group in NUS. Girl A is the leader of a project team whereas Girl B is the officer reporting to A. Both of them had to earn some CCA points in order to secure a campus accomodation in the following year. After some weeks, A noticed that B does not like to attend any CCA meetings. B often gave excuses after the meetings were ended. Usual excuses are "got other things on", "got lessons" or simply "not feeling well". Trying to be considerate, A accepted all B's excuses. A called, emailed and sent messages to inform B of what she ought to do, but B simply did not give any responses. The reason B gave was that "Oh, I don't check emails often and my handphone went out of battery". With no choices, A had to do all the work in the project.
After some time, A happened to be involved in a recruitment drive and came across B's resume. B states in her resume that she is the "chief organiser" of that project mentioned above. A was furious about this. Some weeks later, after A was elected the President of their CCA group, B emailed A and requested to be promoted and demanded more CCA points.
I believe most of us had similar experiences as Girl A. My question here is how should she respond in this situation?
Hi Xi Xi,
ReplyDeleteReally sad to hear the story of Girl A,sadly it had happened to me before and there are always these freeloaders around who do not do their part of the job.
I feel that from the start, A should really confront B and not let her off and doing the work all by herself. By letting her off a couple of times, B will get the idea that A will finish the job even though she do not need to do anything. These are some of the "Silent" messages that will be send through our actions.
But, what has been done can't be undone. For now, I think A should strictly reject B demands to be promoted. A simple answer that she is not qualified for the promotion will do the job :)
Now I am commenting as the role of an English teacher, haha :)
ReplyDeleteWith no choices left, A had to do all the work in the project.
---> With no choice, A had to do all the work.
B states in her resume that she herself is the "chief organiser" of that project mentioned above.
--->B states in her resume that she was the "chief organiser" of that project mentioned above.
A called, emailed and sent messages to inform B what she ought to do,
--->A called, emailed and sent messages to inform B of what she ought to do,
Hi Xixi,
ReplyDeleteAgain, you have shown your capabilities in producing concise and clear posts that are with quality. (: However, I feel that you may probably be lacking in completeness as a result. Your post seems to be slightly monotonous and direct. Probably, more emotions would make the post more interesting! (:
With respect to your conflict, I feel that the best way for Girl A, would be to talk things out with Girl B from the start. Perhaps, she should have already confronted Girl B when she repeatedly bailed on the meetings, to find out her true reasons for being absent. Through a good talk, they would probably be able to understand each other better, which might have led to a better working relationship. Girl B would also learn to choose herself and learn to prioritise her options. On your second part of the post, I feel that she should reject Girl B's request on a promotion. But it is also important to let Girl B understand the rationale of Girl A's decision. Perhaps, when they understand each other and have come to a common consensus, Girl B would be able to work harder in the CCA and in the long run, be able to get the promotion she wants naturally.
Cheers! (:
Hi Xi Xi,
ReplyDeleteI think that you lack completeness, such as which CCA group, and what leverage did she use to request for a promotion?
I've had people like this before, I fired them halfway through the project.
Wyhow
Hi XiXi!
ReplyDeleteI actually agree very much with what Alicia has said. Her point on solving problems early, before they escalate into bigger issues, is an extremely good one.
Honesty (which girl B is severely lacking) is very important in all dealings, and especially interpersonal relationships. It might not be a pleasant thing to do, but girl A ought to let girl B know if her conduct isn't good and/or she isn't shouldering her responsibilities well. From the start, it must be made very clear what is expected of her, so that when she skives, girl B will be held accountable for her actions.
If possible, there should be some tracking mechanism in place, such as an official attendance record for meetings and maybe reviews after each event the CCA organises, to assess each person's individual contribution.
This way, with everything out in black-and-white, there's not much girl B can fabricate without getting found out.
Hi May,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments.
It is true that the importance of tracking mechanism in project groups could not be more emphasized. And things in black-and-white do help to solve any disputes in the future.
Hi Alicia,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments.
I wrote this post with minimum emotions involved so as to avoid any subjective judgment from my part. Talking things out from the beginning is indeed a great suggestion. The problem is that we sometimes intuitively try to avoid confronting with others. We try to nice and considerate. However, by doing that, our kindness is usually abused.
Hi Xing Chuan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
Yes, true. A straight "No" could do the job because Girl B is definitely not qualified for the job. The notion of trying to be "nice" could mislead us sometimes.
It is interesting that you brought up a point about "silent messages". By sending these messages, others might think they could do whatever they want.
Thank you, XiXi, for this succinct post describing a situation that must be very familiar to students. I think you've done a good job presenting the details of the situation. The only thing I feel might add a new dimension to this would be some descriptive adjectives referring to the girls involved.
ReplyDeleteThe other minor problem is inconsistency in verb tense use. You could use "historical present" to describe this situation, or simply put it in the past tense.
In any case, you have generated a good discussion with this. I appreciate your hard work!
Hey Xixi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for you blog post. This often happens in real life when a person is lazing away and demanded the same rewards as the rest. More often than not, when you work in a group, this is bound to happen. What should she do is to tell her politely and honestly. "I believe that you are not going to be suitable for the position because you are so occupied with a lot of things. Your commitment to this cca is rather limited. Hence, in the best interest of the club, I am sorry to inform you that your request of being an exco is not possible." I don't think this is such a huge conflict because B should know herself and her commitment level. She would just try her luck to be an exco member.
On the language side, I think you describe the situation quite vividly and concisely. The story coheres together and complete. Nevertheless, I feels that using A and B as names is quite funny. The characters kind of lost its dimension with that. You use a fake name instead. Besides, the characters you portrayed have not been completely introduced. You could have put some adjectives ti describe both of them. Other than that, the story is well-told. Great job explaining the gravity of situation. Well done!
Cheers,
Billet