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The Digital Spy Apprentice - Series 2 - Task Four Boardroom

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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,667
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    gav016 wrote: »
    I'm not sure I could pinpoint a specific problem within the team - although possibly we should have allocated more time to checking over the prices of everything. The flight ticket is really frustrating me, I spent all weekend trying different combinations of dates and airports, so I'm quite annoyed I missed that cheaper price.
    No not at all, we all did what we were assigned, but had we collectively had that sit-down period where we looked together instead of individuals, we might' have found cheaper items. Everyone worked well!

    So both of you would have preferred to spend more time checking over prices? Is this a management problem?
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    TyjetTyjet Posts: 8,509
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    Personally I think Val's strategy of 2 items per person has let you down. It's a good strategy in theory, but I'm certain you would have done a lot better if you had more than just one person looking for each item. After you had submitted your final list of items, I looked myself for the USB floppy disk drive and managed to find one around the same price as Viveza's in about 5 minutes.
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    gav016gav016 Posts: 5,836
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    Is this question to all of us or Jess? :)
    anactoria wrote: »
    This question is to anyone who wishes to answer it.

    I think everyone did their bit, to be honest, however, when you look at who eventually found what, Val and Louise didn't find anything at all at it's cheapest price.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,667
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    gav016 wrote: »
    I think everyone did their bit, to be honest, however, when you look at who eventually found what, Val and Louise didn't find anything at all at it's cheapest price.
    Could somebody post a list of who found what?
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    Tyjet wrote: »
    Personally I think Val's strategy of 2 items per person has let you down. It's a good strategy in theory, but I'm certain you would have done a lot better if you had more than just one person looking for each item. After you had submitted your final list of items, I looked myself for the USB floppy disk drive and managed to find one around the same price as Viveza's in about 5 minutes.

    I wanted to make sure everyone was equal. I didn't wanna overwork anyone or leave someone out of the equation. I wanted to make sure everyone was comfortable, and afterwards we all looked together to see if anyone could find something better.
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    gav016gav016 Posts: 5,836
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    anactoria wrote: »
    So both of you would have preferred to spend more time checking over prices? Is this a management problem?

    It was more a logistical problem - the fan on my laptop broke, so I couldn't be there. It was noones fault. We didn't get a full list of everything at it's cheapest until today, when we managed to significantly improve on a few things.
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    xKatieLxxKatieLx Posts: 4,400
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    I personally feel we all worked hard. Gav and Katie weren't here last night but Gav had computer problems and Katie was out. Sometimes,, I feel Jess was going down the sarcastic route again like last week, and it made it harder to fully buckle down and concentrate, but she did find some good results

    I'm just back gutted we lost. :(

    I think if your going to try and blame me and Gav for the failure of the task you need to consider the fact me and Gav purchased four of the ten items each. Where as, you didn't find any of the cheapest items. :)
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,667
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    xKatieLx wrote: »
    I'm just back gutted we lost. :(

    I think if your going to try and blame me and Gav for the failure of the task you need to consider the fact me and Gav purchased four of the ten items each. Where as, you didn't find any of the cheapest items. :)
    Katie, I would be interested in hearing your perspective on this - where did the fault lie?
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    xKatieLx wrote: »
    I'm just back gutted we lost. :(

    I think if your going to try and blame me and Gav for the failure of the task you need to consider the fact me and Gav purchased four of the ten items each. Where as, you didn't find any of the cheapest items. :)

    I wasn't blaming you at all. I was just stating you weren't here. And I know I didn't find any but I did find a lot of prices, and to be fair, my items were only surpassed by about 50p each, so it's not to say I had disastrous sides.

    I also thought you were quite controlling of the task. Sometimes you needed to take a back seat and let others do some talking.
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    I've Got ClassI've Got Class Posts: 12,986
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    I personally feel we all worked hard. Gav and Katie weren't here last night but Gav had computer problems and Katie was out. Sometimes,, I feel Jess was going down the sarcastic route again like last week, and it made it harder to fully buckle down and concentrate, but she did find some good results

    I don't think I was sarcastic at all? In a private conversation between me and Val, Val was referencing her anger at Gav not being around, and I basically said 'If he's not here there is nothing we can do about it, there will be a reasonable explanation.' And I copied this whole conversation to Tyjet anyway, so he has seen what was said, so if Tyjet responds, I'm sure he'll confirm the contents of this conversation. I was simply responding to Val.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,667
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    I wasn't blaming you at all. I was just stating you weren't here. And I know I didn't find any but I did find a lot of prices, and to be fair, my items were only surpassed by about 50p each, so it's not to say I had disastrous sides.

    I also thought you were quite controlling of the task. Sometimes you needed to take a back seat and let others do some talking.
    Do you think Katie being 'controlling' affected the outcome of the task?
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    xKatieLxxKatieLx Posts: 4,400
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    anactoria wrote: »
    Katie, I would be interested in hearing your perspective on this - where did the fault lie?

    I think the fault lies with Val sadly. Although she was an OK project manager she didn't find any of the 10 items nor did Louise. I found 4 of the 10 items, 3 of which are cheaper than Viveza's (camera, bike and books). I also felt Val's proposed strategy was wrong. Val suggested we bought a more expensive USB stick than the one I found because she'd found a more expensive USB stick and wanted to buy it and to quote "Katie you've found 4 items I think we should go for my more expensive one so that everyone's bought an item each". I'm glad this didn't go ahead as we would have lost the task by a bigger margin and the only reason it didn't was the rest of the team were against it.
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    I don't think I was sarcastic at all? In a private conversation between me and Val, Val was referencing her anger at Gav not being around, and I basically said 'If he's not here there is nothing we can do about it, there will be a reasonable explanation.' And I copied this whole conversation to Tyjet anyway, so he has seen what was said, so if Tyjet responds, I'm sure he'll confirm the contents of this conversation. I was simply responding to Val.

    That's not the one I was on about, but on the subject of that, I wasn't angry that Gav wasn't around, I was unaware that his computer wasn't working.

    Also, I felt most of your answers back to me could be quite unprofessional. I was happy to be working with you again but with you, you just seemed to pick an argument. I know we don't get along too well but I just wanted to be professional.
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    gav016gav016 Posts: 5,836
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    anactoria wrote: »
    Do you think Katie being 'controlling' affected the outcome of the task?

    I thought Katie was more pro-active than controlling ... yesterday morning she suggested like looking for some cheaper products, and we actually found a few things at a cheaper price. I think without Katie's input, we would have lost by a lot more.
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    anactoria wrote: »
    Do you think Katie being 'controlling' affected the outcome of the task?

    Yes, I do. I don't think Katie's a team player - she's not a leader, she's a follower, and this was obvious in the task. She didn't let people talk all the time and tried to make all the decisions herself.
    xKatieLx wrote: »
    I think the fault lies with Val sadly. Although she was an OK project manager she didn't find any of the 10 items nor did Louise. I found 4 of the 10 items, 3 of which are cheaper than Viveza's (camera, bike and books). I also felt Val's proposed strategy was wrong. Val suggested we bought a more expensive USB stick than the one I found because she'd found a more expensive USB stick and wanted to buy it and to quote "Katie you've found 4 items I think we should go for my more expensive one so that everyone's bought an item each". I'm glad this didn't go ahead as we would have lost the task by a bigger margin and the only reason it didn't was the rest of the team were against it.

    Once again, this is a bit of a fib. I said that I was unsure if we were allowed to use screenshots - but when I found out we could I went ahead with it. I just didn't want it to look bad for someone because it looked like they did no work. It was just a suggestion since it was 20p more expensive but when I worked out that we could use them I went with the idea.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,667
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    xKatieLx wrote: »
    I think the fault lies with Val sadly. Although she was an OK project manager she didn't find any of the 10 items nor did Louise. I found 4 of the 10 items, 3 of which are cheaper than Viveza's (camera, bike and books). I also felt Val's proposed strategy was wrong. Val suggested we bought a more expensive USB stick than the one I found because she'd found a more expensive USB stick and wanted to buy it and to quote "Katie you've found 4 items I think we should go for my more expensive one so that everyone's bought an item each". I'm glad this didn't go ahead as we would have lost the task by a bigger margin and the only reason it didn't was the rest of the team were against it.
    So Val, you wanted the team to spend more than they had to? That seems like you were looking out for yourself rather than for the team.

    And to the whole team, I would again like a rundown of who found what.
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    gav016 wrote: »
    I thought Katie was more pro-active than controlling ... yesterday morning she suggested like looking for some cheaper products, and we actually found a few things at a cheaper price. I think without Katie's input, we would have lost by a lot more.

    Katie had tried to take control, sort of saying 'Here's what we're going to do. I want someone to post a list of the items and we'll see if we can improve on the prices'. I understand her method but she's not really a good team member and more of a leader.
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    I've Got ClassI've Got Class Posts: 12,986
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    That's not the one I was on about, but on the subject of that, I wasn't angry that Gav wasn't around, I was unaware that his computer wasn't working.

    Also, I felt most of your answers back to me could be quite unprofessional. I was happy to be working with you again but with you, you just seemed to pick an argument. I know we don't get along too well but I just wanted to be professional.

    There wasn't anymore? And if there was I would've sent a copy to David, just incase it was brought up.

    And David, and in fact other team members were present in the discussions, and I wouldn't say my replies were negative?
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    anactoria wrote: »
    So Val, you wanted the team to spend more than they had to? That seems like you were looking out for yourself rather than for the team.

    And to the whole team, I would again like a rundown of who found what.

    No, it wasn't really this, it was just an idea because I thought we could only use links and not pics just in case it was believed it was photoshopped or something. I was looking out for the team unless we weren't believed.
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    gav016gav016 Posts: 5,836
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    anactoria wrote: »
    So Val, you wanted the team to spend more than they had to? That seems like you were looking out for yourself rather than for the team.

    And to the whole team, I would again like a rundown of who found what.

    I don't actually have the specifics, as it changed quite a bit in the last few minutes of the task, but as far as I recall:

    Excersize Bike - Katie
    Shakespeare Books - Katie
    USB - Katie
    Camera - Katie
    Laptop - Myself
    Headboard - Myself
    Cafetiere - Myself
    Flights - Myself
    Tamagotchi - Jess
    Faberge Egg - Jess.
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    dondfan998dondfan998 Posts: 17,339
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    There wasn't anymore? And if there was I would've sent a copy to David, just incase it was brought up.

    And David, and in fact other team members were present in the discussions, and I wouldn't say my replies were negative?

    Jess, I know we don't get on too well outside the game but I don't feel it's good to bring it into the game. I remember saying to you that I didn't appreciate the sarcasm you were giving me and you just kept having a go at me.
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    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 6,667
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    gav016 wrote: »
    I don't actually have the specifics, as it changed quite a bit in the past few minutes of the task, but as far as I recall:

    Excersize Bike - Katie
    Shakespeare Books - Katie
    USB - Katie
    Camera - Katie
    Laptop - Myself
    Headboard - Myself
    Cafetiere - Myself
    Flights - Myself
    Tamagotchi - Jess
    Faberge Egg - Jess.
    So it looks like you and Katie did very well for yourselves - you both found items that were significantly cheaper than Viveza's. Could you explain why Louise and Val are entirely absent from the list?
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    xKatieLxxKatieLx Posts: 4,400
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    Yes, I do. I don't think Katie's a team player - she's not a leader, she's a follower, and this was obvious in the task. She didn't let people talk all the time and tried to make all the decisions herself.



    Once again, this is a bit of a fib. I said that I was unsure if we were allowed to use screenshots - but when I found out we could I went ahead with it. I just didn't want it to look bad for someone because it looked like they did no work. It was just a suggestion since it was 20p more expensive but when I worked out that we could use them I went with the idea.

    I'm not a team player? You were the one who wanted to buy more expensive products so that you could say you found a cheap item yet I found one cheaper on the USB stick.
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    I've Got ClassI've Got Class Posts: 12,986
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    (Katie didn't seem controlling in my eyes btw, she wanted to help with others, and even assisted with my search)

    Katie: Bike, Books, USB, Camera
    Gav: Laptop, Headboard, Flights, Cafeterie
    Myself: Tamagotchi, Faberge egg
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    TyjetTyjet Posts: 8,509
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    dondfan998 wrote: »
    Yes, I do. I don't think Katie's a team player - she's not a leader, she's a follower, and this was obvious in the task. She didn't let people talk all the time and tried to make all the decisions herself.

    I have to disagree with this entirely. If Katie at any point seemed like she was taking over it was because you didn't have much of a presence as a manager. I was shocked at how little time was spent searching on the first night. In this kind of task, you have to constantly try and better your lowest prices and Katie is the person who was trying to do this most.

    And in Louise's defence, she said to me that she had to do this entire task on her phone which obviously couldn't have been easy.
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