<p>In the big grand scheme of things this is not a huge issue just a annoying that could mess up my class grade which will mess up my GPA.</p>
<p>I am taking three classes this quarter and 2 of them are online classes. There is one that is just a pain in the ass. Its not so much the work, its easy just time consuming, the annoying part is she put us all in teams.</p>
<p>Ok its the first day of class and in less than 7 days we have to pick teams and turn a few assignments in. It was a scramble and a let a girl I barely know from school talk me into being on her team. So right off the bat I had no real idea about her work ethic or her attitude in general when it comes to work.</p>
<p>Here is the crux of the problem...she acts like a two year old throwing a tantrum because they can't have candy when things don't go her way. This started coming up in our current assignment. We have to equip an office with a 3500 dollar budget, and she wanted to lead the project and no one had an issue with this. Well that was until she sent us all a cost breakdown of what she "bought" online. Everything from Staples expensive and obviously she did not look anywhere use online.</p>
<p>So when we (the team) looked over it we saw we could replace some of the expensive things with cheaper alternatives. One person tried talking to her and ended up backing down because of her attitude. A few days went by and I said I would try and get her to understand this situation. There was still stuff when needed to get but had no budget we are gonna have to sub some of the stuff. Well she went into a tizzy over it and said fine whatever and hung up. </p>
<p>I let it go and figured in a few hours she will calm down. I sent her a text to ask her about this software that she "bought" and she called me. So round number 2 happened and I tried to explain to her this is a team project what she does effects the whole team grade and we all want a good grade. She got all mad and well things were said that ticked me off. I did not retaliate or say anything bad to her but I said that is how she felt we would leave the project as it stands and get whatever grade we got on it. I knew full well I would not do that because I am not gonna let myself get a bad grade because of her. End of the story she said whatever do what you want and hung up.</p>
<p>Long story short what would you do in this situation? I have been on Vice President's or President's List since the second quarter of college. I want to keep a high GPA but this team member is gonna make that hard to do because she does not seem to care about the class. The other team members just wanna carry her through the term so we have a good grade and she will as well. I feel that this is wrong because why should we do all the work when she doesn't care to put her best foot forward with the work. Why should we do all the work and her barely have to do anything because we want a good grade in the class.</p>
<p>P.S. Talk about awkward she will be in my first period class tomorrow after all this happened.</p>
<p>What the heck kind of class is this? Seriously, RebelCats.</p>
<p>Uh…</p>
<p>I think that you might need to speak with the other team members and just politely assign the gal something to do within her limited skills set for your class. After doing that, you guys can all confront the gal and just flat out tell her that she will do “X Aspect of the Project” and nothing more or less than “X Aspect of the Project” so help her God. </p>
<p>Since you feel as though you are in a trifle bit of a moral dilemma, then it would not be bad to just use your Professor’s office hours and just speak your mind politely. Some professor’s do that group work (insert the explicative of your choice here) just because it makes things easy. And, yet, some professor’s assign group work because they have to (like in Physics and whatnot). The only way you are going to get a handle on where your Professor is coming from is to use the office hours, eh?</p>
<p>Sometimes things happen with group work where there might be some person in the group who just thinks they can slide on in and not do all to very much. Kinda of like that t.v. show: “The Apprentice.” The gal you are speaking of seems like they think they can just intimidate the group or something and that is not cool and will not stand the gal in good steed in the workplace.</p>
<p>More or less its about working in an office and ethics in the workplace. IDK it’s a required class for my major so I have no choice but to take it no matter how annoying the class is.</p>
<p>The only reason she was allowed to be leader on this project was because she volunteered and started do stuff on it before anyone had any input. So we just let her run with it because none of use really know her, we had no idea how messed up this would become. Everything is just “whatever do want you want from her”. </p>
<p>It just bugs the hell out of me because I am not that type of person. I might be mildly irritated at first but after it is explained to me I would be ok with things.</p>
<p>Stop letting her run things. Someone is only a leader if others acknowledge their leadership. You’ve tried speaking with her, it hasn’t helped. If your grade is in jeopardy then you need to take over.</p>
<p>“I said that is how she felt we would leave the project as it stands and get whatever grade we got on it. I knew full well I would not do that…”
^^^^
If you didn’t mean it, you shouldn’t have said it.
Do the project correctly with your other team members (excluding her) and when it is time to submit it, inform her that she has been voted down and the team has agreed on a different approach.</p>
<p>And if her incompetence ruins everyone’s grade somehow, talk to the prof. BEFORE he/she grades your project. It’s better to be a nark and get the grades you deserve than have everyone’s grade go down because of one person.</p>
<p>Oh I know. So many reasons. I’m an extrovert, but only in the sense that I like to go out with my friends rather than staying in–I despise doing things with a group in a way that requires discussing everything you do with people, getting permission/approval before you do something, etc. I"d rather just be responsible for myself and my own grade, and myself alone.</p>
<p>This is all well and good for school projects, but realize that work in the “real world” demands collaborating with others. There is no taking the project over yourself because there are just some things that you won’t know how to do or don’t have the clearance to do. Granted, people will be more cooperative since there are very real consequences to not doing your job (ie- losing your job) and there are effective feedback mechanisms in place (ie- that person’s supervisor or HR). </p>
<p>The most valuable lesson that you can probably take away from this experience is to not let one person simply take charge from the beginning- set the expectation that large decisions should be communicated to everybody before they’re made.</p>
<p>I just don’t think that group projects should be framed in such a negative light because graduating won’t mean the end of them- it will be just the beginning.</p>