I believed I usually knew why people did what they did. Now I am not so sure.
We have resident doctors who join for a three year postgraduate degree course. A part of their training is to do some research and write a dissertation. The health university has laid down deadlines for all stages of the dissertation preparation, such as one for sending the topic to the university after getting approval from institutional ethics committee, one for starting work, one for submitting the finished dissertation to the university after getting approval from the teacher. The students are supposed to work on the topic for 2.5 years. What I have noticed is that a vast majority of them do not submit a topic to the university by the deadline. In fact, there are a few who have not submitted the topic yet, while they are expected to submit the finished dissertation in another 3 months and 10 days. The teachers are after them to do the work, but it just does not happen. I know of residents who take three months to respond to each letter from the ethics committee. The health university had been tolerating all the delay. But it has sent a notice recently that the residents will have to put in extra terms to work on the dissertations, if they do not do the work in time. Even that does not seem to have worked.
"Why do they do this?"one of my colleagues asked.
"They must be very busy working" someone said.
"There are eleven residents in a unit where there used to be three in the past" someone else said, "and still there would not be such delay in the past."
"They procrastinate" someone said.
"Yes. We are wondering why they procrastinate" the first person said patiently.
"They think it is not important" someone said. "They know they will finish it somehow, and the university will not object."
There appeared to be some truth in it.
"Some of them are stinking rich. They don't care" a knowledgeable person said. "They just need a degree to go back to their ready nursing homes."
"But such persons are few" someone else said.
"Why do you think they do this?" someone asked me.
"Perhaps their priorities are different. Perhaps they are distracted by other things." Then I said something I had never said before, "my most honest answer is 'Beats me!'".
We have resident doctors who join for a three year postgraduate degree course. A part of their training is to do some research and write a dissertation. The health university has laid down deadlines for all stages of the dissertation preparation, such as one for sending the topic to the university after getting approval from institutional ethics committee, one for starting work, one for submitting the finished dissertation to the university after getting approval from the teacher. The students are supposed to work on the topic for 2.5 years. What I have noticed is that a vast majority of them do not submit a topic to the university by the deadline. In fact, there are a few who have not submitted the topic yet, while they are expected to submit the finished dissertation in another 3 months and 10 days. The teachers are after them to do the work, but it just does not happen. I know of residents who take three months to respond to each letter from the ethics committee. The health university had been tolerating all the delay. But it has sent a notice recently that the residents will have to put in extra terms to work on the dissertations, if they do not do the work in time. Even that does not seem to have worked.
"Why do they do this?"one of my colleagues asked.
"They must be very busy working" someone said.
"There are eleven residents in a unit where there used to be three in the past" someone else said, "and still there would not be such delay in the past."
"They procrastinate" someone said.
"Yes. We are wondering why they procrastinate" the first person said patiently.
"They think it is not important" someone said. "They know they will finish it somehow, and the university will not object."
There appeared to be some truth in it.
"Some of them are stinking rich. They don't care" a knowledgeable person said. "They just need a degree to go back to their ready nursing homes."
"But such persons are few" someone else said.
"Why do you think they do this?" someone asked me.
"Perhaps their priorities are different. Perhaps they are distracted by other things." Then I said something I had never said before, "my most honest answer is 'Beats me!'".
