May 1, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR BARB KONTOGIANNIS IN CO
Ah, group work. It is a reality in industry. However, unlike in
school, it becomes very clear who is not completing their part of the
effort, and not everyone receives the same "grade." It does take everyone's
piece of the puzzle to complete the project, but the group dynamics will be
a little different than the assigned groups in schoolwork. I can't say you
will never encounter "slackers" in your college days or professional career,
but I would venture that it gets better. By the time you are in college,
the students there want to be there, and like you, want to succeed. You
will run into people that try to take credit for your ideas or work, but not
very often. You'll have to stand up for yourself, and diplomatically handle
the situation. Believe it or not, the experiences you have now will help
you learn how to handle situations later in your studies and career. Hang
it there - it'll never be perfect, but it should get better.
And discuss your dilemma with your teachers - they may have some insights
for you, and would also appreciate your perspective on the team situations.
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A: FROM MENTOR CAROL TOMAN IN IL
We didn't do as much group work when I was in school as I see my
daughter doing now. She would agree totally with your frustration
about unfairly carrying the load. In the work world, most jobs must
be done in teams. Sometimes the teams are tightly tied together and
on a short deadline similar to your school experiences. Other times
the day-to-day tasks are more independent but eventually your bigger
success is dependent on other people getting their work done. Here
are the key differences I see between your experiences and the working
world: 1) You don't get a "grade" for each project you do.
Performance is evaluated over a longer period and multiple aspects of
your work so a truer, fairer picture of your contributions stands out
over time. 2) Because you get to know the abilities of the other
people you work with, assignments do not get divided evenly. The most
able people willingly take a disproportionate share of the work. They
earn their good reputations. But let's also be realistic. Politics
and emotions do drive some behavior in the workplace. Some people
will try to take credit when it is not due. Others will maneuver into
high visibility jobs whether they can do the work or not. People like
this still get under my skin, but I'm much better now at getting over
it pretty quickly and I have faith that most of the people around me
also recognize the fakers. I always try to apply two axioms in my
work: 1) readily admit when I don't know something and immediately
offer to find out or learn about it, and 2) "take the blame and share
the credit". People appreciate these behaviors very much and respect
the people that can live by them. Sometimes these feel bad in the
short term, but one's reputation is built over the long term.

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A: FROM MENTOR NATALIE GIVANS IN VA
I have worked in a consulting firm for 19 years and have always
participated as sometimes leader of, sometimes follower within, and
sometimes peer of many other staff in work groups. There is almost no
project where you work by yourself in our field because most projects
need many staff with many skills to do the job right and to provide the
absolute best value and outcome to the clients. I would agree that
there is always an initial concern staff have about whether they will be
recognized for their own skills and ideas, whether the team will achieve
the goals on time, and whether everyone will pull their weight. In our
business, it is the job of the staff to contribute and make a difference
while it is the job of the team leader to ensure everyone gets air time
for their ideas, everyone gets appropriate credit, the team succeeds,
and that everyone carries their weight. the team leader counsels staff
who are not being team players and will reassign them if they don't do
their job to support the team.

It's harder in school where work groups don't usually have a designated
leader whom everyone will listen to and take direction from. However,
you can try having a "kick-off" meeting within a work group to identify
roles and responsibilities, expectations, schedules and deadlines, and
how to solve problems if some arise (which they always do). Having a
set of expectations and rules ahead of time, that everyone buys into
(maybe even "signs" a contract with each other) can help when the
inevitable 11th hour efforts kick in and emotions can be high.
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A: FROM MENTOR LEE PELLEGRINO-GENSEY IN NJ
One of the things I like about working in science is that the intelligence
and motivation level of the people I work with is much higher than the
average of the general public that you would meet in a retail job or
interact with in school. As in every job, you will probably run into people
who just want to coast and participate minimally, but with good management
their lack of contribution will not pull down your rewards (salary, bonuses,
and publications rather than grades). Overall, the people who are in these
SET jobs are here because they really wanted to be, so they have the
motivation. Hang in there - you will find that college is an improvement on
your current situation, grad school weeds out slackers even more, and by the
time you get into your SET job you will find the high level of motivation
and work ethic in your coworkers that you yourself already possess. Don't
lose that!