• Question: do you prefer working alone or with assistants?

    Asked by Mai Mai to Julia, Krishnaa, Laura, Rebecca, Si on 13 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Simon Willocks

      Simon Willocks answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Mai Mai… I think its always good to work in a team, you can share ideas, develop the best way of doing or designing things and you are including others thoughts, ideas and challenges….

      However- there are times when you need to work on your own – ie when writing a report or compiled budgets …. when you need time to think and concentrate.

    • Photo: Rebecca Pullon

      Rebecca Pullon answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Mai Mai,

      Hmm well there are advantages to both, but if I had to decide I would say working alone. I enjoy having space to think and just get on with working on a problem. But it is also good to have others around to bounce ideas off and share in celebrations and frustrating times. Also its encouraging to see projects progress at a faster rate than they would if you were by yourself! The thing I find most frustrating about working in a group is when a person doesn’t pull their weight or communication is poor.

      If I haven’t talked to anyone the whole day I get pretty down by the end of the day… (thankfully that’s rare)

      Rebecca

    • Photo: Laura O'Shea

      Laura O'Shea answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi Mai Mai,
      Like Simon and Rebecca have said, different projects and activities often suit one or the other, or sometimes a combination of both. A lot of the time I might be doing research on my own, but I need to work as part of a much larger team too which is important so that we all meet our goals.

    • Photo: Krishnaa Mahbubani

      Krishnaa Mahbubani answered on 22 Jun 2016:

      Hey Mai Mai,

      Thanks for the question – I really do prefer working in a group of my peers, it’s fun, you get to discuss the findings and figure out some of the challenges. Most of my work at the moment, demands that I work alone — which is sometimes quite important so that I can focus on the little difficult questions without the distractions.

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