Monday, March 7, 2011
Team Effort
8:53 PM | 
Posted by
Stevie |
If we're friends on Facebook or you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed that lately I'm completely fed up with a group project at school (I'm pretty sure I just heard all of you groan at the mere mention of a group project). The project itself? Full of win. The group to which I was assigned? FULL OF SUCK.
For the project, we are to choose a local non-profit organization, volunteer 5 hours of our time, get to know how the organization operates, interview the development director, plan and execute a fundraiser, and present to the class what we've learned. Sounds pretty interesting, right? Right.
Unfortunately, this is not the general consensus of the group. The group* which consists of:
Our group has a message board on the class website which we use to communicate. For the first two weeks of the project, we didn't hear a word from John. He wasn't in class, he didn't show up to our group meetings, and he didn't post anything on the message board. When he eventually showed up, his excuse was that he "doesn't know how to use the website".
After the above happened, we all reconvened and decided to move forward instead of dwelling on the negative. Instead, we didn't hear from John OR Bob for a week. I wrote a 7 page paper on my own, with just a little bit of help from Rebecca and Tracy. John and Bob didn't show up the day the paper was due (probably because I posted a slightly nasty message to our board, indicating I would be leaving their names off the paper - which I gladly did). I spoke to our professor about it, and she said she would speak with them and that we should continue with the project asssuming they would not be participating.
They showed up the following class session with nothing but an insincere apology. I had some choice words with them and let them know what our professor had told me. They actually left class early instead of sticking around to deal with the consequences of our actions. So, Rebecca, Tracy and I talked after class about volunteering, which we would be doing the following day.
Rebecca, Tracy and I met at our organization for our volunteer day and met with the volunteer coordinator and development director. I had let them know ahead of time that it would be three of us at the meeting. The meeting took place at a table in their lobby area, so it wasn't extremely formal, but we were all dressed professionally and were having a great conversation about fundraising and the organization in general. All of a sudden, Bob and John SHOWED UP. We were already 20 minutes into our meeting, and they just walked in, grabbed chairs (as Rebecca squealed "Oh my god, you guys!!! I didn't know you were coming!!! Awesome!!! Oh my god!!!!) and sat down. It should also be noted they were wearing grungy clothes, baggy jeans, Bob had a ballcap on, and John had a cigarette behind his ear. I wish I was making this up. I'm not.
All of the handouts, deadlines, assignment sheets, etc. for the project are available on our class website. And yet, they've all come to me wondering when things are due, what are the requirements for the assignments, blah blah blah. I finally made it extremely clear that they can consult the handouts if they need to know dates, details, anything. I'm not a fucking babysitter.
That brings us to today. And I'm done talking about it. I FUCKING HATE GROUP PROJECTS.
END RANT
*All names have been changed to protect the idiots
For the project, we are to choose a local non-profit organization, volunteer 5 hours of our time, get to know how the organization operates, interview the development director, plan and execute a fundraiser, and present to the class what we've learned. Sounds pretty interesting, right? Right.
Unfortunately, this is not the general consensus of the group. The group* which consists of:
- A 20 year old waste of space who doesn't give two shits about school and will never leave his parents' basement. I have two classes with this kid, and on the (very few) days that he's decided to show up, he's looked stoned, drunk, hungover, or a combination of the three. We shall call him John.
- A 19 year old bean pole who rocks a vintage (pre-last week) Justin Bieber haircut but has zero personality. This guy is nice and seems to care just enough about our project that I don't hate him. He will be named Bob.
- A 20 year old bimbo who wouldn't be able to stop saying "like" every other word if her life depended on it. She's a sweet girl, but oh my god is she ever dumb. She just turned in a paper for her sociology class about natural disasters and emergency response and she DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT FEMA IS. Like, she didn't even mention it in her paper. BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS. Her name is Rebecca.
- An 18 year old high school senior who will have a year of college credits under her belt by the time she graduates because she (or maybe her parents) had the foresight to enroll in Running Start. She also has Asberger's. I really like this girl a lot. She's funny and laid back and is a killer artists. But she's 18. She's still in high school, never had a job, and the combination of her age and the Asberger's means she is not very skilled socially. But she does try, and has done more work on this project than the previously mentioned characters. Let's call her Tracy.
- And then there's me. The 30 year old who's already been through school, worked in the professional world, and is now starting over taking freshman level courses. Who thinks this project is fantastic and has introduced me to an organization for which I want to continue volunteering. Who so far has a 4.0 and doesn't want these morons to fuck that up.
Our group has a message board on the class website which we use to communicate. For the first two weeks of the project, we didn't hear a word from John. He wasn't in class, he didn't show up to our group meetings, and he didn't post anything on the message board. When he eventually showed up, his excuse was that he "doesn't know how to use the website".
After the above happened, we all reconvened and decided to move forward instead of dwelling on the negative. Instead, we didn't hear from John OR Bob for a week. I wrote a 7 page paper on my own, with just a little bit of help from Rebecca and Tracy. John and Bob didn't show up the day the paper was due (probably because I posted a slightly nasty message to our board, indicating I would be leaving their names off the paper - which I gladly did). I spoke to our professor about it, and she said she would speak with them and that we should continue with the project asssuming they would not be participating.
They showed up the following class session with nothing but an insincere apology. I had some choice words with them and let them know what our professor had told me. They actually left class early instead of sticking around to deal with the consequences of our actions. So, Rebecca, Tracy and I talked after class about volunteering, which we would be doing the following day.
Rebecca, Tracy and I met at our organization for our volunteer day and met with the volunteer coordinator and development director. I had let them know ahead of time that it would be three of us at the meeting. The meeting took place at a table in their lobby area, so it wasn't extremely formal, but we were all dressed professionally and were having a great conversation about fundraising and the organization in general. All of a sudden, Bob and John SHOWED UP. We were already 20 minutes into our meeting, and they just walked in, grabbed chairs (as Rebecca squealed "Oh my god, you guys!!! I didn't know you were coming!!! Awesome!!! Oh my god!!!!) and sat down. It should also be noted they were wearing grungy clothes, baggy jeans, Bob had a ballcap on, and John had a cigarette behind his ear. I wish I was making this up. I'm not.
All of the handouts, deadlines, assignment sheets, etc. for the project are available on our class website. And yet, they've all come to me wondering when things are due, what are the requirements for the assignments, blah blah blah. I finally made it extremely clear that they can consult the handouts if they need to know dates, details, anything. I'm not a fucking babysitter.
That brings us to today. And I'm done talking about it. I FUCKING HATE GROUP PROJECTS.
END RANT
*All names have been changed to protect the idiots
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12 comments:
I literally laughed out loud at so many parts of this. Who doesn't know what FEMA is?! And who shows up for ANYTHING with a cigarette behind their ear?!?!
Being in college, especially taking freshman level classes, when you're not fresh out of high school blows. I'm glad I have a different perspective this time around and I understand what I'm working for, but it kills me that I'm surrounded by idiots who are blowing their parents' money to be as lazy as possible.
Good luck with the rest of the project. Drink lots of wine!
UGH. I've been playing with the idea of going back to school... maybe... someday... and this reminded me of why it very well may be a huge pain in the ass! I have NEVER liked group projects.
Group projects are the worst. I actually went to a professor once and practically begged to be allowed to do the project on my own, since my essentially useless group decided the best time to meet would be AFTER the class (which ended at 9:40pm). Not great for someone who, at the time, was working as a nanny and needed to be awake at 6 the next morning in order to be to work on time. She let me and I ended up with a decent grade.
Oh boy group projects are ALWAYS interesting (and usually not in a good way). Even in law school they sucked.
I hope that you get your A! :-)
I hear ya! Group assignments are always the worst! Never fails, I get set up with a bunch of deadbeats who 'let' me steer the whole thing. I am so over this kind of crap.
Oh no, that sounds so frustrating!!!
I feel for you and all I can say is that it's never too early to start a countdown to your last day :)
This is so frustrating. How annoying that schools are still assigning group projects because it never fails that 3/4 of the group are lazy. I also weep for the future given the descriptions and ages of your group mates. It dawned on me that most of them weren't even out of diapers when I graduated high school.
Good luck! Vent lots and drink more!
Ahhhh, group projects. They've always treated me fairly well. Like the guy in one my groups did a really great job and put in a lot of work even though it was his last class before his degree and he didn't care about his GPA.
But gosh, is there anything worse? You seem to have been stuck with the motherload of bad groups. :(
@Michelle - So far my return to school hasn't been that bad, but this project has totally put me over the edge! But it does make a difference being older and going back to school, doesn't it?
@Krys - I hate them SO much. Luckily this is the only one I've had to do (so far...)
@Amanda - God, I wish I could've done this one on my own. It would've actually been fun!
@KT - Even when all members participate, they're still annoying!
@Hannah - I still have a long way to go in my schooling...I have a feeling there are more group projects in the future. Ugh.
@J - Oh, I've definitely started the countdown! I can't WAIT to be done with this class.
@Kittie - That is my greatest fear...these kids are the future of our country and that is so frightening to me. Don't worry, I've doing a lot of drinking lately ;-)
@Carrie - That's awesome that you've had good experiences. Most of mine have been decent, too, but I have always preferred to work independently. But hopefully this group sets the bar for bad groups so in the future my group projects will seem like a breeze!
As a freshman in high school, I left a group member's name off a lab report because he did nothing. He wrote me letters threatening my life. Then he was suspended. I was scared out of my mind.
Needless to say, I feel your pain.
Group projects are THE WORST! I'm so sorry you have such a terrible group. At least you've found an awesome organization though!
Ugh. Sounds awful. i'm sorry you have to deal with that.
I'm a volunteer coordinator for an organization. I work a lot with service learning students. One of the most annoying things is dealing with students who don't understand how valuable time is to many nonprofit employees! I'd be a bit angry if a couple students waltzed in 20 minutes late to a meeting without an apology. (But I wouldn't be mad at the ones who did show up on time!)
You'll get through this (if the project hasn't yet ended)!
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