kengr

The problem is - and I say this as an educator - that often times, results are positively correlated with effort. The issue for me is when a student has no results or poor results but claims significant effort. We don't grade effort. We grade results. I can only grade what I see in front of me - the exam, the paper, or the presentation - not the twelve or sixteen hours of effort someone claims to have put in (and frankly, I usually don't believe they've put in that much effort when their paper is a D paper or they fail the exam).

The standard cubicle-farm workplace has a similar confusion with effort and results, in that it feels that if you are not constantly demonstrating effort, you cannot be getting results - and if you ARE getting results without visible effort, then you aren't being assigned enough work to keep you "busy" for the full shift, so they load it on because they want to make maximum use of the time they're paying you to put in and get MORE results.

It's a mess, I'll agree there - but what frosts me is when I get the whine "But I TRIED!" as if that should be enough to get the B (or the A) instead of the C for the results. If you're putting in that much effort and your results are mediocre, it's time to get assistance and/or rethink what you're doing. Effort is, quite simply, not enough - and if your work is mediocre, I have to assume you are not putting in the effort or that something (a learning disability, perhaps) is preventing you from achieving success with the effort you're applying.