I'm running a team of three right now on a consulting gig. They had to set up a bunch of meetings and interview some folks and document what they talked about.
*I* ended up having to set up all the meetings and introduce these guys. Then *I* had to intervene and ride most of them like horses to get them to do the interviews.
1 guy told me that he "wanted to exceed expectations". He basically called me every hour with some issue: the template didn't work, he couldn't reach some guy via email (pick up the phone dammit!). They upon completing all of the interviews he could barely write 4 sentances about what he did. The ones he did, were packed full of big "scrabble words" and used incorrectly no less. Furthermore he sent in work with obvious logical questions I had to send back for clarification and numerous mispelled words (still had the red underlines). He's barely meeting expectations.
The female told my boss she was having health issues due to the stress. This job is all stress. I can't stand people that go over my head (what little authroity I have) Her work is better, but it was like getting blood froma stone. Left it all till the last minute.
The most junior guy was a replacement for a guy that left the project and I had no time to train him. He went to work, did what he needed to do with asking me 50,000 questions and finished the work before everyone else. Takes initiative, and turns stuff in without being asked. Since he's the most junior guy, he's far exceeed any expectations I had. I gave him minimal instruction on a slide show I needed pronto and he knocked it out.
In my business, I can't/don't wait for perfection. It's never perfect out of the box. I think people want to craft the perfect thing and are afaid to sned me something they don't consider "perfection." I want "done". Makes logical sense, spelled and formatted correctly, takes review notes from me and follows up. I will do the final polishing. Hand me crap and don't take any initiative to fix it and I have no use for you.
Do I sound like and ass? Sometimes I worry I do...