10/26/12

I’m too type-a to be in a group

This is going to be a weird post, but stay with me.

The other day, someone at school, who doesn’t know me outside of a group project was sitting in front of me in class. I could hear her whispering to the girl next to her, and all of a sudden I hear my name.

"She thinks that she’s so pretty and that means she should get whatever she wants. Too bad her only accomplishment will be becoming a trophy wife.

Uh, hi. First off, I can hear you. You might as well turn around and say it to my face if you’re that intent on saying things to me. Secondly, we don’t know each other well. The only contact we’ve had is me asking the group for their parts of the project, and who wants to do what roles. I’m sorry if that makes me seem spoiled, I just want a good grade.

The back story is we met, started our project, turned in the preliminary work then went our separate ways. Fine, no biggie. Then we all sent in our stuff, everyone except this one girl. So I sent out an email to everyone just asking who wanted to what part of the project, and never got a response. At all. Then yesterday, we got in a fight because she didn’t like the assignment we had just given her. I mentioned the email I never got a response to, and the reaction was just a “oh yeah well I didn’t think it was that important” followed by a “We should just all meet up and write the paper together, instead of dividing up the work”. It’s an entire paper, due in two weeks. It needs to get done.

Maybe I’m just too type-A for group projects, or I just don’t work well with others? I like to know things are working, in progress and being efficient. I can’t deal with this oh we’ll get it done by the deadline don’t worry, because I will worry. It’s my grade, and I’m working my butt off to have good grades this semester. It’s also my biggest pet peeve to feel like my time is being wasted, and right now I feel like that. We’ve already had to meet up twice, for something that should’ve only taken an hour. And now she wants us to all meet again next week a few times to write this dang paper. It stresses me out just thinking about it. I do not have time. Like I said, I’m type-a (a term I feel like I can officially use because we studied it so much this last week in Personality Psych) so I plan my days out ahead of time, and there’s just no time in my schedule without rearranging anything.

So the question is this. What do I do? Do I apologize for the fight? Ignore it and just get my stuff done? Stop being a brat and just rearrange some things so this can get done?

 

I hate group projects, I really do.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I totally am with you on this one. I DESPISE group projects. especially if you're assigned a group with people you've never met. I'd rather do my own work, on my time and earn my own grade. Unfortunately, the whole point is that you're supposed to be able to work with other people in the real world so group projects are a must. I'm working on a project for my grad class and it's not just our schedules we have to merge, but also the fact that we all work full time, and some of the members have families to factor in. Seriously, I wish group projects were just an option and not mandatory. Good Luck with yours! And DO NOT apologize to that girl, you are completely in the right.

Janna Renee said...

I hate group projects just for this reason, but that's exactly why they assign them to you. It's to teach you that in a real job, you will most likely be asked to work on projects with your co-workers. You have to learn to be flexible and adapt to situations. I know you can do it, so good luck!

Modern Camelot said...

I'm back in college after working in the "real world" for 8 years, and as much as I hated group projects my first stint in college, I hate them even more now. BUT - they really do work just like professional companies. Jerks that don't do their parts, people who hate you for doing yours. It is actually real life :(

Doesn't make it suck any less though..