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Originally Posted by guthmund
Have you ever been directly supervised yourself?
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Sure. As a teacher. That's a pretty hands-off by supervisors, though. I'd generally see the principal or VP less than once a month except in passing. Most of the time I was left alone to do my job and it was assumed that if there were no negative reports that I was doing it. Which I was.
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What did they do for you to get you to do the work?
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They told me what do do and I did it, though, as I said, it was pretty general--teach English and social studies.
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Don't you supervise, in a manner of speaking, your students? How do you get them to do the work?
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I give assignments, and they do them or don't do them. At the middle school level, if they didn't do the work, I'd have a conference with them, call home to report to the parents their failure to get the work, have a parent conference, and if that didn't work, fail them.
It's a lot different at the college level. If they're signed up for class, I think it's safe to assume they're there because they want to learn how to read literature better or write better or teach kids to read. They're adults and had a choice or classes, and chose these particular ones, so they come in highly motivated to do well. If they don't do the work, they do poorly on quizzes and tests and get a poor grade. The parental element is removed, and IMHO, no longer needed. If they don't do assignements, they really only harm themselves, not me, though I really can't understand why someone would sign up for a course and then not do the work. If they don't do the work, they fail, and end up wasting their time and money.
The difference is that the course itself is the benefit the students get, they're there for what happens in class. I'm here for their benefit. For the TA, the benefit is primarily the opportunity to get a free education, and she's exchanging her labor as a TA for that. If she'd pay attention, she'd also learn how to plan and teach a college course, which I'd think would be a pretty nice side benefit, but she doesn't seem interested in that, which is fairly dismaying, as I'm here to teach her one-on-one how to do this, and she doesn't seem interested in learning.
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Same thing in the grand scheme of things, in my opinion. Incompetence, insubordination...whatever, the fact is the work isn't getting done and she's to blame.
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I see a big difference. Insubordination is deliberate disrespect, while this is just poor planning or timing or laziness. She's never refused to do work or been rude or disrespectful. Her behavior has little to do with me, and everything to do with her inability to budget her time well, something I can't do for her.
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But you have given her reason. Sure you're clear on what you expect, but, so what? As long as you refuse to penalize her for her actions, she's just going to keep jerking you around. It's human nature. It appeals to the spendthrift in all of us. Get as much as you can for as little as you can. She gets to make her half-assed attempt at being your TA and still get all the benefits of being a TA.
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I really can't see how my giving her clear instructions to do A is giving her reason to do B. She chooses her actions not me. Once I make it clear what she's supposed to do, it's entirely up to her at this point. I've been polite and respectful and supportive the whole time, sympathetic to her needs, while at the same time being clear what needs to be done, however she needs to arrange her schedule to get that done.
Short of firing her, there's not really anything else I could do.
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She's the subordinate and you're the boss. You have a job that needs done, it's her job to see it done. Period. She has an obligation to you through the university and if she can't meet that obligation then maybe she shouldn't be working for the university. Her workload may be tremendous, but I'll bet there are tons of other students who would love to be in her position, yes?
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Oh hell yes. This is a very competetive program to get into. Being anyone's TA at this university is a major perk, even if it is a lowly associate professor in her first semester.
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You're in charge. Until you start acting the part...well, I can't imagine it's going to get any better for you anytime soon.
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I have been acting the part. I can't physically force her to do the work assigned. I given the assignments and am clear about my expectations. I've been polite and respectful, as nice as I can be to someone who isn't getting their work done. From that point out, unless I want to stand there and watch her do the work, it's out of my hands.
I think she may have put me in a corner where I have to get rid of her, making us both look bad, which sucks big time.
Gilda