Comment by tilmonedwards

For sure. If I'm dealing with a junior engineer, I take a much more hands-off approach. It ends up taking longer, but that's ok, because usually, the net long-term benefit of that engineer getting practice at self-directed research is much higher than the output of the task itself.

On the other hand, if I'm dealing with a "senior" engineer who's doing that, I'm actually less worried about whether there's been sincere effort. It's just the other side of the same coin: They've offered their learning opportunity to me, and I'm happy to take advantage of it.