Group Projects

Inevitably, you will be required to participate in a group project. That is part of college. You can't avoid it. Many people love group projects. Usually these people consist of the ones that don't do SQUAT. And then there are other people (the ones who do EVERYTHING) who hate group projects (i.e. ME). I wish I could hope that this scenario would alter once I got into the real, working world, with mature adults; however, I do not have high expectations. There will always be those that ride along on others' hard work. How do we avoid this? Or at least minimize it? I have found, within college, if I delegate specific tasks to people and then follow through with them OFTEN, they are a little more likely to complete it. This is just a small action, which doesn't have a huge turn around, but it is something. I wish I had a better answer. Sometimes people need to be "babied" or "micromanaged." At that point, maybe it's better to just do it yourself. Or sometimes people just need to be called out, embarrassed if you will. Most of the freeriders continue to freeride because no one says anything. If you call them out, especially in front of people, maybe they will care enough to do something about it, ya know. But maybe they won't!

I guess you just have to ask yourself: Am I going to just do the work RIGHT and let others get credit for it? Am I going to call him/her out? Do I micromanage (which isn't my job)?

UGH, group projects....