Venting out frustrations

[peterh]

What a damned week. I have to vent so bear with me!

I cannot remember when I last needed a weekend as much as this one. I've been extremely busy at school this last week and have been up to aproximatly 3 am. and up by 7.45 most of the week just to get the writing for the group project done. I've been behind schedule due to my mothers illness but, of course, I've sacrifised everything else to catch up. It's my responsibility to do so!

Now, this is a group project and there's five people in my group. One member has been away quite a lot and hasn't contributed to anything but the web design, which we've only begun yesterday. This means he's done absolutely NOTHING for four weeks. That's a burden, and I wanted to throw him out two weeks ago. For some reason my group members didn't feel the same way even though he had already let us down three times before that. So now, in the final stages the complaining starts, especially from one person who feels it's all unfair that he gets to do our website, since it's the only thing he wanted to contribute to from the beginning. Well - what can I do? I was right two weeks ago. Democrasy sucks sometimes!

We're doing a pretty extensive report for this project and we're a bit behind our schedule (though we WILL make it) so I've been working overtime and writing stuff certain other members should be doing. Elisabeth was supposed to get some stuff done by Wednesday but she didn't due to personal reasons. Same thing happened Thursday - she was homesick and didn't finish her stuff but promised to have it finished by Friday. Her and I were going to analyse the last few things we needed for our report today and write it. Guess what - she didn't finish a thing. Wednesday she'd wrote all of three lines of her text and today it wasn't much better! I got pissed - we've entered an agreement to do our respective writing - a group contract we signed at the beginning actually. She didn't see it as a big thing, and neither did Britta - I was just being a dick apparently!

The thing is - we're in [Censored]ing time trouble here. There's plenty loose ends and I keep reminding people we need to get things done. I have the overview of things that the others apparently lack! But I'm talking to deaf ears. elisabeth and Britta has the attitude that things will go okay and we have plenty of time so why not wait till Monday to finish the rest. It's a lost cause. I've tried motivating them, I've tried persuasing and finally I got pissed. It changed nothing.

The only member I really trust is Michael. we worked together in the last project, along with Elisabeth, and decided to work together again,. Michael did NOT want to work with Elisabeth again but through freak circumstances we ended up working with her again. He thought me to be very harsh on Elisabeth today too, until I told him that elisabeth promised me to finish her work twice. Then he agreed with my stance. Michael is too afraid of conflict though, that's his personality. I'm all alone in this, unfortunaly!
Funny thing - the only members who've never been late are me and Michael. Britta and Elisabeth has been late by halt an hour (at least) four times or more in a month! That's not tolerable!

Now it's weekend and I'll have to do the analysis Elisabeth and me we're going to do. Then I have to get the writing done - all by myself. Britta isn't going to do it and she can't be persuaded. Elisabeth still has some writing to finish, and I honestly doubt she'll get it done this weekend. Michael could do it but he probably needs some leisure time this weekend. The work still has to be done though, so I'll take have the responsibility once again. If we don't get things done we won't make it. It's just damn frustrating that I have to be doing other peoples work again. It has ruined my mood and will probably ruin my weekend as much as my week was ruined.

I just need to get this project done before I go absolutely insane....Damnit all! I just want my christmas vacation!

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

I'd say that Micheal isn't the only one that needs some leisure time this weekend...

What your saying harks back to one of my group projects at uni where we had to plan and write a database application in java, and we'd never even touched the language before. I spent a lot of evenings working on the computers until they kicked me out, and I actually got the program working in the end, and did most of the other work. On the other side of the coin, I currently have a job as a computer programmer, and last time I saw them, they had been unemployed for a couple of years.

If your going to do any work on this today (saturday) I would suggest doing your damnednest to forget about it for sunday and just enjoy the day. If you can, don't even think about the project. You'll probably find that taking that day out will make it easier to get it done on monday as you'll be more "refreshed".

[Elliot Kane]

DL is right

Sorry to hear it's been so frustrating for you, Peter. May I suggest you also refuse to work with these people again point blank if asked to do so, and tell everyone why. It's not fair you should have to do everything.

And yeah - democracy sucks. but we know this ;D

[peterh]

admin said:

DL is right

Sorry to hear it's been so frustrating for you, Peter. May I suggest you also refuse to work with these people again point blank if asked to do so, and tell everyone why. It's not fair you should have to do everything.

And yeah - democracy sucks. but we know this ;D

I have talked with classmates about this on Friday. I've ben frustrated and people support me. Both in wanting to kick Rune out (It's been a subject of discussion for two weeks) and my frustrations on the current situation. Now, I'm part of the gang in my class an the others are not (with the possible exception of Michael) but people see my views as balanced....so everyone knows what it's [Censored]ing like!

I haven't done everything in the project, of course. We've done good as a group but this last week the christmas bug has risen and I've had to take on the responsibility for others. That frustrates me....it's not fair that I have to work till 3 am when Elisbeth comfortably decides not to do her share

Chistmas isn't equal to an apology to slack off no matter how everyone would like to have a vacation now! It's not happening. we are going to work very late Monday and Tuesday I think. And somehow can see both Britta and Elisabeth leaving early

[Elliot Kane]

Look at it this way - if they try to go into film professionally with that attitude, they're done before they start.

[Sir Ped of Ro]

Peter
Hang on there fella, do your best and fnish this project asap.
Hope things turn good for you...

regards

[janggut]

next time, go solo. that's what i would do as most of the time u can't rely on other people to do some work.

[peterh]

Haleluja - a minor miracle has transpired.

I'm damn exhausted but believe it or not, we actually finished our project today and pretty much did a better than okay report. The website is quite good too, though an aquired taste due to the unusual layout. Fortunatly we can argue why we chose that

It seems my temper tantrum did result in elisabeth getting her act a bit together and even Rune did good. It does not, however, hide the fact that there were several things we could have done better or had to leave out due to time limit. And that some people got off way easier than others.

I didn't end up writing that much during the weekend but had to do a lot of stuff yesterday which proved to be a ten hour writing marathon, really. Besides taking on stuff ohters should've done I also rewrote something that was factually wrong.
It does pay in the end for me - when Britta put together the report she seemed quite shocked that I'd done as much writing as I did. We're clocking in at 35 pages (the maximum) and I've written about 15 of those! The only thing Rune wrote, he did do a lot of the website, was approximatly one page - which I then had to rewrite! That leave about 20 pages for the others combined!

So, naturally, I'm a bit pissed at the others, with the exception of Michael who've done good work while also doing the webpage. But, alas, it's christmas and I'll let it go. We'll see what happens next time there's a project...I'll have to think about who I group up with

jang: I can't go solo until the fourth semester. I have to do every project in a group untill then. I have been cornered by one person about next project (depending on me being with Elisabeth and Michael) and another person did ask me too. We'll see, though. That's a matter for next year.

Right now - it's a happy holiday in Daneland after all ;D

[Gray Lensman]

Sounds like a rough ride, Peter. Seems like the one constant in college group projects is that a couple of people end up doing most of the work.

Anyway, glad it finally worked out for you. Hope you enjoy your well-deserved break.

[janggut]

Pete, i think the next time u need better planning .....

[peterh]

janggut said:

Pete, i think the next time u need better planning .....

Well, Jang. Our planning were pretty good. We signed a group contract and made some possible landmarks in our project. We did look to be in the good.

Thing is, when one or two group members decide not to honor those agreements you're in the [Censored].

We did make it on time so our planning wasn't crap. I blame myself more for accepting certain members in the group when I shouldn't have. But it is hard to know that when you've only known people for half a year.

This project has been about some people failing to to what they promised and in turn having others finish it for them. That's what went wrong here. You can plan all you want but it comes down to the people involved there's really no knowing. But hey - I look forward to one member not even passing the exam!

[janggut]

the decision not to honour the contract tells a lot - they're not committed enough & they know somebody in the team will have to do something or he/she will be dragged down as well. which is why i hate teamwork, especially with friends as it gets trickier & ugly things can just pop up.

[peterh]

janggut said:

the decision not to honour the contract tells a lot - they're not committed enough & they know somebody in the team will have to do something or he/she will be dragged down as well. which is why i hate teamwork, especially with friends as it gets trickier & ugly things can just pop up.

Yep but a lesson learned the hard way for our next project

and now I'm off for the big christmas cleaning,-washing- present hunting- getting comics- and hopefully socializing - day

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

Which is why in our group projects we always had to assign a weighting to the marks for each persons contribution to the work (and clearly mark how much work everyone did). That way (assuming most of the group did the work) the people that slack don't get the credit.

[Glance A'Lot]

Ever thought of why you have to do only group projects in the first semesters?

- you get to know each other;
- you get to know how you react under stress;
- you learn the strengths and fallacies of team work;

and

you learn about yourself - whether in future you want to be the lone specialist, the contributing member, the driving/pushing factor, the planner, the organizer or the leader. - and you learn what of these you're best at.

[janggut]

.... or suck at. one must also learn what one suck at best ... i mean worst. ;D

not to avoid it in the future, but learn & adapt.