Rant: Group assignments are a special kind of hell

[Null84]

So i finally decided to go back to university and it has all gone to shit within the first week. So we got assigned into groups to do some work for an upcoming seminar and my groupmembers( who i have never met because of the corona situation) are ignoring my posts asking for at least their fucking contact info so we can actually organize something. Why why why is always me who has to end up in a group with people who refuse to cooperate? There's less than a week left 'til the deadline and the anxiety is making me want to hang myself. What's even the point of group work? To learn how to work with people who actively want to fail? For people to learn how to best psychologically torture their classmates? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK MY LIFE.

 

[VIBRITANNIA]

i hope whoever invented group work is happy with themselves. they say it's to "learn how to work with people, even if you don't like them", but what's the point in working with people if i can just do it myself?

 

[Sprite_Geist]

I had a similar experience at university. We were given the ability to group up with anyone in our year, and it was encouraged by our teachers to partner up with students who we didn't know; they didn't just do this to teach us how to work with strangers, but also to try and make us break the ice with our classmates - socialize and maybe even make friends . It didn't work... You know the result? Everyone hooked up with their friend cliques, and the quiete people or those that didn't know anyone got left out; the teachers had to assign us "leftovers" to the groups themselves. We ended up with a lot of groups were nobody talked to each other except with the "cool kids"... It wasn't very nice.

I won't say that I was in the same position as you, because that would be ignorant and insensitive toward you. But I definately feel your pain.

 

[Life_and_Death]

i hated working in groups in school. i was always the smart one that had to do all the work. everyone else sat on their a** and got my grade for doing no work. actually i always asked to work alone and for the most part i got a yes

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

That situation really sucks OP. Even though I was that kind of person who didn't interact with group members til the last minute I also know how frustrating it can be to be the only one who even seems to care since I've also been on that side of the problem. I know you are feeling anxious and worried now but maybe it could help to remember that less than a week til the deadline is still better than it being the night before? I don't know if that helps but it might help to keep in mind that most college students are lazy procrastinators, myself included.

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I've been all of these guys in different group projects before lol.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

maybe it could help to remember that less than a week til the deadline is still better than it being the night before?

OMG the night before...

I don't know if that helps but it might help to keep in mind that most college students are lazy procrastinators, myself included.

Doesn't really change at work, either! I've had every one of those guys as bosses. Just looking at those pictures brings back memories. The best bosses I've had were none of those guys, obviously.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Doesn't really change at work, either! I've had every one of those guys as bosses. Just looking at those pictures brings back memories. The best bosses I've had were none of those guys, obviously.

Oof, that's gotta be even worse than procrastinating on a group project since a job is potentially on the line rather than just a grade.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

WELP.

I just happened to get put into a group where every single one of us was "the procrastinator". It meant I had to step up and become the one doing most of the work except I'm terrible at that. We ended up submitting two minutes before the project was due and two people still never provided their share of the work so we just had to submit the project without that.

I suppose it's my fault for procrastinating in the first place but I never wanted to have to be the guy doing everything again. :/

 

[GrumpyFrog]

Officially, group assignments exist to teach you teamwork. Which is bs 98% of the time.

In actuality, being a teacher, I learned that some other teachers keep assigning group projects all the time just because that leaves them with less projects to grade compared to every student submitting their own work. It's simply less work for the teacher.
I absolutely loathe group projects to the point where I was willing to be fined for not assigning them to my students. IMO there is only one way to create an effective team and that is to carefully select people that will work with each other well. If you don't have that big of a choice on who should team up with who, just let people work alone, it's going to be significantly more efficient.

 

[moonchild]

The most anxiety inducing part of school, for me, has always been group projects. I don't know what's worse, people who don't do anything, or people who do a lot but seem to be barely literate so you have to go over their parts and fix everything. I truly understand procrastination, but even I have the common sense to pull myself together when my procrastination would affect other people. Or maybe it's not common sense, because it sure seems pretty rare.

I had a teacher who tried to combat this (one person doing everything) by structuring the group assignments so that everyone in the group would first discuss the topic, then ONE person wrote the assignment, everyone commented on it, the writer fixed some things and then submitted it. We had four assignments like this so everyone would end up writing one and commenting on three. Absolute hell.