Group work can be challenging, especially when working with people who have different backgrounds, experiences, and personalities. It requires a lot of communication, cooperation, and compromise to achieve a common goal. It is essential to treat your group members with respect, listen to their opinions, and work together to solve problems. This story is a perfect example of how disrespecting your colleagues can lead to conflict and the importance of maintaining a positive and professional attitude towards your team members.
An Important Group Project
Andy was a graduate student at a university and was working on a group project with three other classmates, May, Samantha, and Susan.
Susan was in her 50s and had always been a bit rude to everyone in the class, including the professor. However, no one thought much of it until they started working on the project.
The group had two weeks left to complete the project, but Susan was too busy with her family stuff and did not want to respond to the group messages.
The rest of the group members unanimously decided that May would be the team leader and communicate with the professor for any questions.
Susan Had High and Mighty Ideas
This decision didn’t sit well with Susan because she believed that, as the oldest member of the group, she should have been the leader.
The professor had emphasized the importance of submitting meeting minutes to ensure that the group members were communicating with each other.
She also made it clear that if there were any issues, the group members should sort them out on their own because they were all adults.
During the group’s first online meeting, they discussed how to compile their work and who should start with the presentation.
She Started Throwing a Fit
They agreed that May would start, followed by Susan, Andy, and finally Samantha, because their papers made sense in that order.
However, Susan started throwing a fit, claiming that they were disrespecting her and never asked for her opinion.
The group members tried to reason with Susan and asked her to talk to them about what she wanted.
She stated that since she was older, she should have been the leader, and since they didn’t make her the leader, she should at least be allowed to go first because the group should respect their elders.
Her Submission Should Be First
Andy tried to explain that Susan’s paper did not cover the basics of their topic, while May’s paper explained all the basics.
Additionally, the professor had emphasized that there should be a flow to their paper. However, Susan immediately started screaming and calling Andy and May names, accusing them of ganging up on her.
She praised Samantha for being the only one who respected her age.
Samantha intervened and tried to tell Susan to calm down and stop calling names, but Susan let out an ungodly scream and started yelling at all three of them.
She Treated Them Like Kids
She claimed that she always saw them as her kids and that their parents didn’t teach them any manners on how to talk to grown-ups. She mainly targeted May, accusing her of tattling to the professor about her.
Andy had created the Teams meeting link and had the option to mute Susan. He muted Susan and advised her to take a breather and let May talk if she wanted an explanation.
For the rest of the meeting, Susan remained calm and didn’t say anything rude.
After the meeting, Samantha typed the meeting minutes and put them up on a Google shared document. Andy went in and added, “Susan yelled at May, Samantha, and Andy for 20 mins of the meeting.”
Professor Urges Them to Be Professional
Everyone in the group, including the professor, could see the document, but Susan didn’t check it. May was against the idea, but Samantha couldn’t stop laughing.
The professor saw the document and emailed everyone in the class, emphasizing the importance of being respectful to everyone.
After seeing the meeting minutes, Susan blew up the group chat and demanded to know who wrote that. However, no one responded, and she tried calling all of them multiple times.
She sent multiple messages saying that they humiliated her in front of the professor.
God Is Watching Your Actions!
The group had another meeting 30 minutes later, and Susan was livid. She screamed at all of them, saying how she hated them, how God was watching all their actions, and how she didn’t want to work with them anymore!
Andy calmly replied, “Well, Susan, we don’t wanna work with you either; there’s no other option now, and let’s finish this project.” Boom!
That day the group learned the importance of setting clear expectations and boundaries from the beginning and how to deal with difficult team members.
Andy also realized the importance of documenting problematic behavior to ensure accountability and prevent similar situations in the future.
It’s Important to Value Your Team
It is important to remember that every team member brings a unique perspective and set of skills to the table, and by respecting and valuing these differences, a group can achieve success.
By being aware of the potential pitfalls and working to overcome them, group work can be a valuable learning experience and a source of personal growth for all involved.
What do you think? Have you ever had a bad experience with group work?
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Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock / Ollyy. The people shown in the images are for illustrative purposes only, not the actual people featured in the story.
Source: Reddit