STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

dangergirl · Kate Spade

working in groups with people who don't contribute *long vent*

Kelly · Hermes

You are definitely not overreacting. In my whole college career, I have only had one group ever that I was happy with. And I have at least one or two group projects every semester. I don't think professors realize what kind of hell it can be to work in groups. Even with the group I was happy with, it was so hard to do anything because we all had school, and to pay for school we all had crappy jobs that held odd hours!

I don't understand why or how some people start to think that they can slack off, but they do and it's the most unfuriating thing in the world - especially when you have something like a scholarship on the line, and so your future is being held in the hands of these nincompoops.

Is it too late to talk to your instructor? I've tried that a couple times, like once when one guy never came to class and never answered any emails or phone calls. But the professor just kind of said, "that's life, and learning to work together is part of what this project is all about." But another horrible group I was in once, I went to the professor beforehand and he basically said the same thing. But after all the presentations, he had us all fill out something rating our group members on a scale, and he also said like "if you had 100 dollars to pay the people in your group, how would you divy it up?" and I honestly said that I'd give one girl 45, me 40, and I split the rest between the other 3 or 4 people in our group who didn't do anything. I don't know how much that affected their grade, but I hope it made a difference because they were awful. Maybe if you tell your professor your concerns, he'll do something similar? It's worth meeting with him just to see what can be done. You might get a snarky answer about how it's too late, but maybe he can help, too?

I'd be tempted to do something really bitchy - like, if you haven't divied out the parts everyone gets during the presentation, do that while the one girl isn't at the meeting. Then she'll have to answer to the professor about why she didn't have a part in the presentation.

BargainQueen · Marc Jacobs

This is why I hate working in groups. In HS the same thing happened to me. This girl had a computer (this was when not everyone had the luxury of having one in every room) and she commited to puttin our "magazine" together. We gave her our work, and on the due date, she didnt even show up. I had to call her up and said she was "sick" and that if I wanted to turn it in on time I could go to her house and pick it up. I was only 15, so my dad had to drive me over to her house. When I looked at it, she had done NOTHING to it, there were incomplete pages and page #s out of order. I explained everthing to my professor and I showed him the work and told him in no way I wanted to be associated with that type of work nor did I want my grade to reflect that. He told me he would let me fix it over the weekend but I had to turn it in 1st thing Monday morning. THis was the 1st and only time I have worked for 36 hours straight in my life! I actually worked through the night and continued to until Monday morning! It was pure hell. Anyway, after I turned it in he said it was one of the best magazines he had ever seen in his teaching career! Nonetheless from someone who worked on it on her own instead of w/a group. The other 2 girls got seperate grades. I think I got an A- on it but he said I would have gotten an A+ if I would have turned it in on the due date.

Anyway, you should mention it to your professor or email him a heads up just in case.

Starstuff · Kenneth Cole

Ah, I just went through the exact same thing last semester. And I'm in graduate school, so you'd think the group members would know better...
One woman handed in 1 1/2 pages for her section of the group paper and was missing the most crucial information of the report -- said she couldn't find it. I took ten minutes on Google and found everything that we needed, and more. Also, her grammar and spelling were so bad as to be laughable. Seriously, it was a marketing class and she misspelled the name of the company we were researching! The other woman handed in about 2 pages of text that was just one non sequitor after another. It was very strange. But, we had left so much work to the last minute that I couldn't complain to the prof. b/c at that point there wasn't really anything he could do. So, I wrote 1/2 the paper myself. It took all weekend, but I did it (b/c I wasn't about to let my grade be effected by their laziness). We ended up getting an A- on the paper, which was satisfying.

We, too, had a peer evaluation, and I was thorough in my evaluation of the slackfull group members. The prof. emailed me and thanked me for my honest assessment.

So, I've felt your pain. Take consolation that they are setting up a really bad reputation for themselves. I refuse to work with either women in the future (if they happen to be in one of my classes), and if anyone asks why, I'm not gonna be shy about telling them....

-- Edited by Starstuff at 14:36, 2007-01-26

Sandy · Kate Spade

ttara123 wrote:
I'd be tempted to do something really bitchy - like, if you haven't divied out the parts everyone gets during the presentation, do that while the one girl isn't at the meeting. Then she'll have to answer to the professor about why she didn't have a part in the presentation.

I did that in high school once. Our group met up at least six times after school, and one girl never bothered to show up... since we happened to be in the same home room she'd ask me the next morning what she had missed. Oops, I forgot to tell her which part of the presentation she was responsible for. The day of the presentation, when she had no idea what was going on, she had to explain why. I'd rather do something like this than telling the professor about the slacker, if only because I tend to be non-confrontational.

I've found -from experience- that a good professor can usually tell which group members actually worked on and researched the assignment. When one or two people know the topic well and take up most of the presentation and the other member(s) are kicking their feet off to the side, it speaks for itself. Just try to show how much hard work you and your friend put into the presentation and it will surely shine through; the other group members will get what they deserve. I hope it works out for you!

Edited so my point would come across clearer.

-- Edited by Sandy at 22:36, 2007-01-27

kittenheels · Coach

I'm sorry! That is such a miserable experience. Good luck!

dangergirl · Kate Spade

thanks everyone for reassuring me that i'm not just being mean. i think what happened today also reassured me that the problem is with her.

the presentation was today, and we found out at 10pm last night that C had texted B to say she wasn't going to be taking part in the presentation! she didn't attempt to let me or S know directly, and didn't give us any notes of what she was planning to say so we had to write it all over again.

i don't understand why she was able to come in to uni but wasn't able to speak?! she didn't apologise or even mention it at all, and came up to the front with the rest of the group when we were about to present... and just stood there saying nothing the whole time! we tried to speak to her afterwards but she just walked off.

we spoke to the lecturer about it and basically said that we didn't feel she had made any contribution to the presentation other than to make it more stressful, and the lecturer is going to speak to C's personal tutor, the head of the division, and the exams officer, so hopefully she will have some answering to do at least.

i am so happy it's finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!