Today was eventful. Honestly, things are different this semester. I feel that my timetable is very slack, and this semester seems much easier than the last one. At least the subjects which I am doing now are subjects that I can study for, so I’m glad I’m not doomed with stuff I can’t control such as the horrid ‘language’ subjects like marketing and OB.
I shared this with my brothers and sisters from CF before. With new subjects, come new projects with new team members I have to work with. It’s such an uphill task working with this particular new bunch of course mates this semester. Let me break it down for you. I am the only girl working with four other guys and we have chosen to form teams with each other for two of our projects, namely IT and accounting. There are just some things about working with guys I do not understand and many of their ways have irked me. Its something which I am still working to control, and day by day, I’m struggling to exude Christ-likeness in the way I treat them. My strings of patience have been tugged hard and pulled taut, almost at the verge of breaking a couple of times and my threshold level for high uncertainty avoidance have been put the limits. Apart from the incessant use of hockein expletives in their speech, and snide remarks about professors or people who get in their way, which I have to unfortunately suffer in silence with, there’s this habit that my group mates have of procrastination. And no, trust me; this procrastination is worse precisely because it stems from male chauvinistic pride and unimaginable trust which they have in themselves in knowing how to do everything. As a result, group work to these people essentially meant meeting up only a day before the project deadline, in the sheer hope that things will be fine even if it means working at the very nick of time, as insane as even fifteen minutes before the deadline.
Fortunately, accounting project was over. And I guess we’ll only wait till the end of this month to accept our fate when the grades are released. The first battle was overcome, but now we are saddled with another impending battle, our IT project, in which the next phase of deadline happens in just two days time. And yes, surprisingly, we have not met up yet. The first phase of that project was completed during the 10 minutes break our IT lecturer gave us on the day when we were supposed to submit.
I am usually a very cooperative and organised person, especially (or only) when it comes to projects. I generally have high uncertainty avoidance, meaning to say that I favour clearly defined roles and tasks as opposed to ambiguous ones. Therefore, it is not unusual that I am having issues working with this bunch of males, who seem to have extremely low uncertainty avoidance levels. For our first phase of the project, we were made to draw out the ERD diagram, fill in the scenarios used as well as any assumptions made. Having discussed about our plan for it a few days before during a meal, one of the team mates said that this phase should be a breeze to complete. Surely enough, when I asked them whether they have gotten down to typing it as promised, the team mates reassured that everything was in place and told me not to worry. Hearing his words, I took a gamble and conceded that my fate of phase one now belongs in their hands. Relying on that trust, I went to class, along with the rest of the group mates, thinking that everything was done. Not only did I panic when these expectations were unfulfilled as I later found out the next day, a couple of us were put under the intense pressure of typing out the report as fast and as accurately as possible during that short interim of 10 minutes during the break. Following which was a mad rush to the printer at the free access lab two blocks away to get our documents printed in colour.
Right now, I’ve learnt my lesson. I CAN control my own grades, and I’m going to make sure these four boys better not procrastinate anymore. In fact, tomorrow we are having a meeting to complete phase 2 of the IT project. Though it is still a little too late, it is already a huge improvement from our previous nightmare. Wish us all the best!
No comments:
Post a Comment