It’s always the same. In school they force you to work together with your classmates to create a presentation or something. But the word “together” is totally non-sense. Guess who always turned out to do all the work and receive no credit at all for it. The explanation is so simple that I am astonished even teachers don’t understand it: Just take a group with 3 people, grades A B and C+ or whatever. If A wants to retain his good grade he will have to do the work all alone, since neither B nor C- can do the work necessary to receive an A; otherwise they had gotten better grades before. And to top this off, A has to pretend that B and C- did the same amount of work as he did, otherwise he is labelled an arrogant prick and not fond of teamwork.
I remember one time exactly where I put a funny comic into one of the presentations which I basically made on my own, and my “friend” who presented this part of the project received all the laughs, acting like it was his own idea and work and not even thanking me later. Similar things happened on several occasions and the amount of aggression I get by even thinking about this is enormous. In Germany 3 years ago or so we had a minister in our government who turned out to have faked his doctoral dissertation. He had copied over text from other works numerous times, some say he didn’t even write it himself. You know what happened? He will never be able to live a normal life again in Germany because of the hate people have for him. Sure thing, as long as it’s someone special society can bash him as much as it wants, but when normal people themselves do exactly the same thing they don’t even realize it, or they just don’t care. Fucking hypocrites.
Stupid as I am I assumed this would be different at university. But it totally isn’t. I am forced to work together with 4 guys to create a software product. Turns out 3 guys aren’t participating at all in the development, only doing what is necessary to keep up their masquerade towards the professor. The last guy has good intentions, but he lacks any skill and the only thing he therefore does is the part of work which isn’t challenging. I don’t even want to think about our first colloquium and how they will probably take credit for everything. This is fucking stupid. The professor wants 1. a good product and 2. teamwork. Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Professor, but this just isn’t possible. Actually at the end you will think you got both, since you will have a good product on which I did 90% of the work and you will have the illusion of teamwork, i.e. them taking credit for my work. Good job, you idiot.
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At some point, school will end and the working world will begin. You’ll get a high-paying job and maintain it. Your peers who didn’t try might not be so fortunate. Things often balance out in the end. Keep doing what you’re doing and reap the rewards later.
Well, I fear the same will happen in my job. Especially if I’ll do science and research where you start out as an assistant to some smart guy and only get better jobs by earning reputation and doing publications with some other people (exactly the same problem as above). In the end it’s all about presenting yourself and making other people think you’re the best choice for their job offer – no matter how suitable you actually are. It’s the same in democracies: Politicians get elected not for their work but for what people think about their work; there’s a big difference between the two.
Fair point. Ultimately, the best you can do is try. Even if the assessment is solely based upon perception, you have nothing to lose by giving it your best effort. There is a certain communication and perception strategy in everything we do. The one who presents better often gets the opportunity. In life, you’ll often have to sell yourself… whether it’s before the job (the interview) or on the job. If you can combine knowledge with the right presentation, you got it. I think you can do it. There are plenty of your notes to sample here on SP and you come across as quite articulate. I’m certain that, given a situation, you would successfully present yourself and get what you were seeking. Be confident and you got it.
Thanks. I’m in a seminar on how to do presentations in front of an audience right now, actually just to get the ECTS, but maybe it’ll help me with this problem. And I guess it’s best to try to be more outspoken when our group has meetings with the professor. Like you said, it’s easier for me to write stuff down and reread it and then post it instead of talking face-to-face.
Gosh Clairdelune, I totally agree with you. I actually ended up dropping out of my MA course because I was so horribly discouraged after one of these disastrous attempts at ‘teamwork’. I fully understand the anger and frustration you feel over it. The modern tyranny of so called ‘tteamwork’ in both studies and the workplace is the bane of an able person’s life.