(Photo courtesy of RSC Education) “Working in groups can be stressful for many students.”
Riley Fontana
Connector Staff
River Hawks, we have hit midterm season and we all know what that means: lots and lots of group work. Professors tend to not assign this unless it is totally necessary. So please, from everyone in your classes, do your part. If you are slacking and you know it, apologize to your team members and ask where you can help out. If you are not carrying your weight at all you do not deserve any of the credit for the work your group did.
Now I know most of us really dislike group work, and I agree. I would rather do all this work on my own, but when forced to work with classmates there is no reason I should be doing the work of multiple people. Everyone is busy and everyone has other classes to focus on as well but that is not an excuse to not participate in the group’s work.
For those that feel like they are carrying all the weight and are afraid to talk to your group directly, I totally get it. Talk to your professor about it, most of them are willing to help organize the work and even talk to the group if needed. Most professors also hate group work and understand that a lot of students are drowning with the amount they have to get done.
Talking to the group might be the hardest part as they might be trying to get out of work. I have worked with plenty of groups that want that “easy A” and expect someone in the group to pull through and do everything. I have worked in several groups where they give me tons of work to do knowing I am a control freak with a fear of failing. Due to this fear I will never push the work back at people in my group. I carry the weight on my back along with my other classes, my clubs and my personal life.
Group work is meant to be shared and I encourage everyone to do that. Share the work load and make everyone else’s life easier. When the group work is broken down into equal parts there is overall less stress on everyone in the group. There is no excuse for not carrying the weight. With countless ways to communicate from students’ emails, phone numbers and the ever popular Discord, groups can stay in constant contact. I have also worked in groups where the only way we communicated is through notes on our shared Google Doc.
When group work gets to be too much, that is absolutely understandable. Communicate this to those in the group and ask where else you can be of use. Everyone in the group carries different skill sets and wants to use them in the ways they see fit. I tend to break the work into sections that benefit their skills. All I want is for my group members to carry their work evenly and not have everything on one person’s shoulders.
