Group Projects

Imagine your are to do a science project with Sally and Timmy and it's due in two months. You have a group meeting, decide what the project will be, what exactly needs to be done, what it will look like, feel like, etc. when you are done and Timmy and Sally tell you what parts they want to do and you get stuck with the rest. So although you're stressed you go home and begin to work on the project.

A few weeks later Timmy calls a group meeting to discuss the science project. Sally and Timmy haven't started to work on it yet. Sally starts to throw around new ideas and come up with new parts of the project even though you've based what you have done so far on what the original plan was. And then, out of nowhere, Timmy says that he totally forgot about some history homework and if you just help him do it/finish it he will have more time to do his piece of the science project. So you go home, do Timmy's homework and give it back to him that very evening. Then you begin to work some more on the science project and even make all of the changes that Sally came up with during the meeting. You're a little upset, very stressed out and still trying to get your own math homework and social studies homework done.

Now it's the week before the science project is due. You have made the poster, designed the PowerPoint presentation, made some great visual aids, wrote the report and gave it to Timmy to edit and even got your very busy parents to volunteer to take everything to and from the school on presentation day. So you have another group meeting to actually do the experiment because Timmy and Sally have been way too busy with other homework to get together before now but you're really glad that after today you'll still have a whole week to put the experiment data on the poster, in the report and throughout the presentation. When you meet you find out that Timmy forgot to buy the supplies to do the experiment and Sally was given the draft of the report and decided that she wants to word it differently and has made a billion red marks on the pages for you to make changes. On top of that, Sally was supposed to design the report cover, didn't do it and is now saying that you were supposed to do it all along. So you schedule another meeting to do the experiment, head to the store to get the supplies yourself and go home to design the report cover.

Both Timmy and Sally call you to reschedule the meeting and everything keeps getting pushed back and so you offer to just do the experiment yourself so that you can finish all of the other pieces of the project. Timmy and Sally refuse because they say that they really want to do it too and the only time they can meet is the day before the project is due. So you meet that day and Sally doesn't show up because she forgot about the meeting but you and Timmy just get it done. You go home and stay up until 3:00 in the morning getting everything done and looking great because even though this group project has been a struggle, you still want to get an A.

On presentation day Timmy takes charge of (and credit for) the presentation that you made and Sally is elbowing you and pointing out things in the PowerPoint that she would have done differently. By now you've had it and vow to never work on another science project with them ever again - but now you have to go to English class with both Timmy and Sally and it's time for the annual book report project...

What would you do? How would you handle this type of situation?

Now let's complicate things. What if Timmy were the teacher and Sally were the student teacher?

This is what work is like for me on a daily basis. This routine is getting really old and I wish I had the courage and the clout to stand up and do something about it, but I don't. So for now, I'll trudge on and hope and pray that God has a great lesson in this for me... and that another job that will make me happier comes along soon!