We usually just don't hire them again. Since they're contractors, no one really wants to communicate to them how they screwed up. But trust me, this time, I communicated with her.
I am asking her to fix some of her slides, but the main problem is that she didn't bother to read the conversations or the analysis plan until basically the last possible moment, and spent all of her working time -- after having agreed to the schedule! -- going to her cousin's house, going to parties, and running 8 miles a day. Thus, if I ask her to fix them she'll not be able to provide any more insight than she already has. She also says that she misunderstood some things that I thought I'd communicated reasonably well:
Me: Can you please have the slides to me on Saturday night? Her: Actually, I didn't get as far as I wanted. Could I give them to you Sunday morning? Me: Sure. Sunday is fine.
She took this to mean "anytime you please on Sunday," and delivered the slides to me 6 hours late, and only upon my directly asking at noon, "Where are the slides?" She had spent Sunday morning training for a half-marathon and driving to her sister's house, you see. Because I said Sunday was fine.
And then she misunderstood one of the client's questions: "We know there are significant problems with the conversation. What are the key ways that communication breaks down?"
Despite my having explained what that meant previously when we reviewed the client's questions, and despite the anaphoric reference of the latter sentence to the former, she decided it meant, "what are the constituent elements of the conversation?" and gave me a list of conversation topics. Which is valid, I guess, if you're a linguist, but the client had already asked, "what topics are covered in the conversation?" so that should have tipped her off that maybe she needed to clarify.
I know I'm not the world's clearest communicator, but those are just weird interpretations, right?
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2013-12-30 10:49 pm (UTC)I am asking her to fix some of her slides, but the main problem is that she didn't bother to read the conversations or the analysis plan until basically the last possible moment, and spent all of her working time -- after having agreed to the schedule! -- going to her cousin's house, going to parties, and running 8 miles a day. Thus, if I ask her to fix them she'll not be able to provide any more insight than she already has. She also says that she misunderstood some things that I thought I'd communicated reasonably well:
Me: Can you please have the slides to me on Saturday night?
Her: Actually, I didn't get as far as I wanted. Could I give them to you Sunday morning?
Me: Sure. Sunday is fine.
She took this to mean "anytime you please on Sunday," and delivered the slides to me 6 hours late, and only upon my directly asking at noon, "Where are the slides?" She had spent Sunday morning training for a half-marathon and driving to her sister's house, you see. Because I said Sunday was fine.
And then she misunderstood one of the client's questions: "We know there are significant problems with the conversation. What are the key ways that communication breaks down?"
Despite my having explained what that meant previously when we reviewed the client's questions, and despite the anaphoric reference of the latter sentence to the former, she decided it meant, "what are the constituent elements of the conversation?" and gave me a list of conversation topics. Which is valid, I guess, if you're a linguist, but the client had already asked, "what topics are covered in the conversation?" so that should have tipped her off that maybe she needed to clarify.
I know I'm not the world's clearest communicator, but those are just weird interpretations, right?
*bangs head on wall*