Group Projects..

"Argent" (argent) 11/16/2014 at 00:04 • Filed to: frustration, college

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...Drive me absolutely insane. Are people in the workforce as incompetent as the people I'm stuck with this semester? For one term paper for our group of 4 people, 1 guy always says he will contribute, but never does. 1 guy contributes a shitton of unusable writing. And only me and the last dude are actually writing the paper.

For another class, someone in our group had to do a basic economic analysis BUT CAN'T DO FOURTH GRADE MATH. I am currently redoing all the offending party's work. I would expect this quality of work in high school, but not halfway through college!

Man, I cannot wait until the end of year teammate assessments...

norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback > Argent 11/16/2014 at 00:12

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I'm currently in high school and luckily I haven't had many group projects but when we do my group is usually pretty competent and does some of the better work in the class. Usually.

Nibby > Argent 11/16/2014 at 00:13

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Yeah, I fucking hate working in groups cause there are always people who don't do their shit and then I gotta be annoying and tell them to get their shit together or else I'm doing all the work and making all the decisions and you'll have to... deal with it.

SonorousSpeedJoe > Argent 11/16/2014 at 00:51

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I'm retaking differential equations this semester, and now I'm stuck doing group work for MATLAB instead of doing it solo like the first time around. One group member responds relatively promptly and does good work, another one will respond after some prodding but produces code that I usually have to edit, and the third one... he's a real piece of work. He's nice and apologetic in person, but he can't get it together enough to check his messages on the portal we use (I'm pretty sure it's set to send out notifications by default) and I usually have to hound him with multiple e-mails. The number of problems is occasionally fewer than the number of people in the group, and I figure that he didn't respond at all to my e-mails for the most recent project we had since he thought we had it under control already. He may not have even seen the e-mails at all, because he showed up to class (we're required to sign our finished project prior to submitting it) and left after a few minutes without noticing me.

I'm glad we only have one more project to do, because working with that third guy has been really aggravating. I've reached a point where I no longer care if he contributes or takes credit for work he didn't do.

Ducky > Argent 11/16/2014 at 01:07

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"When i die, i want the people i did group projects with to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time"

Argent > norskracer98-ExploringTheOutback 11/16/2014 at 01:11

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Enjoy it while you can! People out there can be total fuckwits.

Argent > Nibby 11/16/2014 at 01:15

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Yep, and looking on the bright side, at least my "teammates" aren't bitchy about the decisions I make for the group.

Still gonna give out a few 1/10 in teammate assessments though. Haha

promoted by the color red > Argent 11/16/2014 at 01:16

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My senior design project was kinda weird. My group leader's step dad was an engineer and he had a halved course load, so he would voluntarily do all the work from start to finish. We'd show up Monday and draw up a game plan. Come Tuesday, we'd meet and he'd be like "Oh yeah, so I did all the stuff last night for fun."

At the same time, one of the guys was, to put it nicely, unable to comprehend some of the math. So we put him on costing duties, which is pretty much the least fuck-up able job in the project.

It was a lot better than the shit show that was my internal combustion engine project. Our project was extremely disorganized to the point where we didn't know who our group members were leading into our final two weeks. I partnered with my friend, but he was wrapped up in CS projects so I ended up doing most of the programming with the TA's help over a series of all-nighters. My friend ended up translating my sleep-deprived ramblings into useful report-friendly format because I may have, at some point, replaced my comments with Taylor Swift lyrics.

The other guy in our group asked if we were still a group on the last day and what he could do. I sent him my code to verify. Holy shit, I do not ever want to relive that week again.

Argent > SonorousSpeedJoe 11/16/2014 at 01:25

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Ugh, that does sound pretty aggravating! I can't wait to be out in the workforce, where people are at least held a little more accountable, you know, with jobs and shit on the line.

Argent > Ducky 11/16/2014 at 01:25

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Haha, I am definitely stealing that one!

DipodomysDeserti > Argent 11/16/2014 at 02:46

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I took a senior capstone history class my junior year in college. We had to write a group term paper at the end of the year. It was supposed to be around forty pages, and each group member would cover a section. I volunteered to compile and edit the final paper. One of my group members copied and pasted a Wikipedia page which dealt with his section of the paper. I couldn't bieve it. I'm not a rat, but I hinted to the professor that someone obviously plagiarized their section so I left it out. He knew who it was as this guy was the first baseman for the baseball team and was a total moron.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Argent 11/16/2014 at 03:05

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Are people in the workforce as incompetent as the people I'm stuck with this semester?

Yes.

But don't worry, the least competent seem to end up on the board of directors.

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Ducky 11/16/2014 at 03:07

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Brilliant!

AMGtech - now with more recalls! > Argent 11/16/2014 at 05:05

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Unfortunately it doesn't always get better out in "the real world". People aren't always held accountable, especially if the work gets done. Management doesn't always care who did [or didn't do] what as long as no one is sueing the company and the work is finished on time. Gets even worse if the fucktards have good rapport with management. Politics and who you're friends with often plays a stronger role than performance. Probably why the economy is so fucked up.

McMike > Argent 11/16/2014 at 08:21

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A buddy of mine is just finishing up his BA at 32 years old, and his stories are hilarious on this subject.

He gets put in these group projects all the time, and makes sure he hosts the project share on his drop box. He takes charge of the group and sets reasonable deadlines for their contributions.

If they don't meet the deadline, he removes their access from the share, and the team moves on without them.

48 Spoons > Argent 11/16/2014 at 08:31

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I'm pretty sure group projects are designed to give you a taste of how working in a company really is. You'll have people that are great to work with. Those who are mildly competent. And then those who are useless that you need to figure out how to deal with. One of the most important things when looking for a job is to try to find good people to work with.

Architect > Argent 11/16/2014 at 09:02

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I feel that I should chime in here... Observations from the workforce!

The short answer to your question is YES. There will always and forever be group projects (that's been my experience - you almost never are completely solo. Either you are directing a group or you are working in a group) and depending on the quality of the firm you are working for, you will get better and worse groups.

I started my career (not engineering, but a related field) in a really small local firm that could only afford to hire young grads with little experience. I came in as one of those inexperienced grads and proceeded to learn everything I could about the field. Problem was, everyone who got hired after me was younger and less experienced than I was, so my groups progressively had less and less competence... And it got to the point where I had no confidence in my co-workers!

When I left that firm this year, I transitioned to a larger firm that tends to only hire grads with either a few years of experience or an advanced degree as their "entry-level" designers. The difference is ASTOUNDING. Every team I've been on has been totally competent, responsive, engaged and punctual. Complete opposite of my previous experience.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: Once you enter the workforce, you'll quickly discover whether your talent level matches those around you. Part of the process, I've found, is finding the firm where you "fit" best, and can place trust in your colleagues. The main difference between college and the real world is that in college, you only have to look out for yourself, but in the workforce, you have to be looking out for each other. Once it dawned on me that the performance of the company reflected (positively or negatively) on me personally, I found that I was much more invested in striving for everyone's success.

/old man diatribe

Argent > Architect 11/16/2014 at 10:37

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Thanks for that. Very insightful!

McMike > Argent 11/16/2014 at 10:49

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And another thing.

Yes. You will also be working with these types of people in a large office environment. I call their work ethic R.A.V. (Random Acts of Visibility.)

They contribute just enough to get by, and will take initiative with the most random parts of the job, often ones that have no deadlines. The sometimes get by on personality alone.

The work force is only as strong as their leader. If there is no leadership (or if management has no authority) these people will always suck the life our a project and your own motivation.

Get used to it.

jvirgs drives a Subaru > Argent 12/14/2014 at 21:20

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Yes. The real world can be just as bad.