Does Not Follow Directions Well
In 4th grade, I brought home my progress report to find a disturbing comment from my teacher. "Does not follow directions well." I was, of course, indignant, and commanded my mother (in a respectful, THIS IS INSANE YOU MUST TALK TO MY TEACHER BECAUSE I AM THE PERFECT STUDENT sort of manner) to schedule a conference about this blight on my ego. She humored me because she's great like that.
My teacher explained to her that when she gave me directions, I asked too many questions before carrying them out. For example, if she told me to sharpen my pencil, I would go get my pencil, pause, and say, "Does it need to be really sharp or just sharp enough to write? Which pencil sharpener do you want me to use, the electric or manual? Do you want me to sharpen the #2 pencil, or would you rather have me get a mechanical pencil?" I'm not sure why, but apparently this was driving my teacher crazy. So from then on, I tried to just do what she said, make some assumptions, and get it done. However, my first boss loved that I asked a bajillion questions before beginning a task, because she liked things to be done just so. See, 4th grade teacher? It only drives you crazy!
So for the past two weeks in my Bio lab, I've been in groups in which I was somehow elected the leader. This came to pass because when the time came to start our experiments, the other group members stared at me blankly and said "Now what are we doing?" My gosh, do they not know who I am? I don't follow directions well! I'm not a leader. I work hard, but do you know how long it took me to learn to cook simple recipes? But we made it through. We never finished our experiments first, but we never got chemical burns or killed anyone either. So it worked out.
In 4th grade, I brought home my progress report to find a disturbing comment from my teacher. "Does not follow directions well." I was, of course, indignant, and commanded my mother (in a respectful, THIS IS INSANE YOU MUST TALK TO MY TEACHER BECAUSE I AM THE PERFECT STUDENT sort of manner) to schedule a conference about this blight on my ego. She humored me because she's great like that.
My teacher explained to her that when she gave me directions, I asked too many questions before carrying them out. For example, if she told me to sharpen my pencil, I would go get my pencil, pause, and say, "Does it need to be really sharp or just sharp enough to write? Which pencil sharpener do you want me to use, the electric or manual? Do you want me to sharpen the #2 pencil, or would you rather have me get a mechanical pencil?" I'm not sure why, but apparently this was driving my teacher crazy. So from then on, I tried to just do what she said, make some assumptions, and get it done. However, my first boss loved that I asked a bajillion questions before beginning a task, because she liked things to be done just so. See, 4th grade teacher? It only drives you crazy!
So for the past two weeks in my Bio lab, I've been in groups in which I was somehow elected the leader. This came to pass because when the time came to start our experiments, the other group members stared at me blankly and said "Now what are we doing?" My gosh, do they not know who I am? I don't follow directions well! I'm not a leader. I work hard, but do you know how long it took me to learn to cook simple recipes? But we made it through. We never finished our experiments first, but we never got chemical burns or killed anyone either. So it worked out.
