Project Team mate who's a jerk
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I've a project team which is currently working a school project. There are 6 of us in the team.
So we've a guy who's tries to show that he is very "siao on" by self electing himself as a leader and started allocating work to the other 5 (including me), leaving none to himself.
He will make the excuse that he'll overseeing the project and handling the liasing work with outsiders and monitoring the progress etc. And he pretended to be busy when everyone else is busy with their work. Very soon, even the liasing work was pushed to me. He was saying, "can you call/email him and make an appoinment etc., I've got to read the report format first etc."
During the project, it involves doing cold calling on companies to see whether they're interested in a course. So this self-appointed team leader was reluctant to do cold calling himself. So he assigned the other 5 to do the dirty work, while saying, "I've got other issues to settle, you know, administrative issue." So while others are calling and getting their ego bruised, he was happily and selfishly settling his own school work and reading his emails at his leisure.
And then occassionally, he'll ask those who are calling, "So have you managed to get any new positive response?" When told no, he'll say, "No. This is very bad. Keep calling more. I want positive answers..." and even if it's a yes, he'll say," that's not enough. You see, you should never assume that they'll confirm agree to the course even if you managed to get an appointment with the person in charge. We need to call extra companies to have backups. So you need to keep calling more companies..."
Damn him. Do do you think he's a jerk?
I think I can even start a poll whether he's a jerk or not. -
REVOLT!
he's just one, you are five
re-assign jobs fairly again ba! -
i was a fyp project team leader b4..
my logic is...if i want things done right..do it myself...
the other team members were just an extension of my own physical and mental being...
ure leader prolly on power trip arh...dunno wat it means to be a group leader...
no such thing as a bad/failed group...
there are onli bad leaders... -
in the next meeting try doing a summary of the work done so far. if there's nothing he can show then take this chance to "shoot" him. tell him calmly but firmly that u guys are in a team and everyone have to help. he being the leader shud not only be distributing the work but to help those who are having trouble to meet date lines. remember, do not lose ur cool and let it break into an arguement coz ultimately it'll affect the whole gp's performance. make him paiseh enuf liao
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I had this kind of experience before. This kind of ppl, will never see the light. What you can do is try your bestto convince him that even though he is leader he should do some work. Maybe say that "Maybe you could do some of the work too for the sake or fairness etc." if it fails go see your prof/lecturer and explain to him the predicament. Worse case scenario, you all kick him out and elect one of the remaining 4 grp leader....everyones happy (except him hehe)Originally posted by m.c.king:I've a project team which is currently working a school project. There are 6 of us in the team.
So we've a guy who's tries to show that he is very "siao on" by self electing himself as a leader and started allocating work to the other 5 (including me), leaving none to himself.
He will make the excuse that he'll overseeing the project and handling the liasing work with outsiders and monitoring the progress etc. And he pretended to be busy when everyone else is busy with their work. Very soon, even the liasing work was pushed to me. He was saying, "can you call/email him and make an appoinment etc., I've got to read the report format first etc."
During the project, it involves doing cold calling on companies to see whether they're interested in a course. So this self-appointed team leader was reluctant to do cold calling himself. So he assigned the other 5 to do the dirty work, while saying, "I've got other issues to settle, you know, administrative issue." So while others are calling and getting their ego bruised, he was happily and selfishly settling his own school work and reading his emails at his leisure.
And then occassionally, he'll ask those who are calling, "So have you managed to get any new positive response?" When told no, he'll say, "No. This is very bad. Keep calling more. I want positive answers..." and even if it's a yes, he'll say," that's not enough. You see, you should never assume that they'll confirm agree to the course even if you managed to get an appointment with the person in charge. We need to call extra companies to have backups. So you need to keep calling more companies..."
Damn him. Do do you think he's a jerk?
I think I can even start a poll whether he's a jerk or not. -
If there's peer appraisal, you know what to do.Originally posted by m.c.king:I've a project team which is currently working a school project. There are 6 of us in the team.
So we've a guy who's tries to show that he is very "siao on" by self electing himself as a leader and started allocating work to the other 5 (including me), leaving none to himself.
He will make the excuse that he'll overseeing the project and handling the liasing work with outsiders and monitoring the progress etc. And he pretended to be busy when everyone else is busy with their work. Very soon, even the liasing work was pushed to me. He was saying, "can you call/email him and make an appoinment etc., I've got to read the report format first etc."
During the project, it involves doing cold calling on companies to see whether they're interested in a course. So this self-appointed team leader was reluctant to do cold calling himself. So he assigned the other 5 to do the dirty work, while saying, "I've got other issues to settle, you know, administrative issue." So while others are calling and getting their ego bruised, he was happily and selfishly settling his own school work and reading his emails at his leisure.
And then occassionally, he'll ask those who are calling, "So have you managed to get any new positive response?" When told no, he'll say, "No. This is very bad. Keep calling more. I want positive answers..." and even if it's a yes, he'll say," that's not enough. You see, you should never assume that they'll confirm agree to the course even if you managed to get an appointment with the person in charge. We need to call extra companies to have backups. So you need to keep calling more companies..."
Damn him. Do do you think he's a jerk?
I think I can even start a poll whether he's a jerk or not. -
Solution- have it recorded in your mins. of meeting the actions each member need to do. Make sure he is assigned some work also.
Each of u just do your part & don't help him.
U don't want a 'freeloader' to get credits for all your hard work. -
what if its the other way? u're the leader n u're dumped with everything? cos nobody's doin them?
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Allocate works... Give accreditations to the various parts of the projects so that it's CLEAR as to who did what when it comes to the assessments....Originally posted by shinta:what if its the other way? u're the leader n u're dumped with everything? cos nobody's doin them? -
allocate liao but all became ur job os NOBODY did them or they claim that they DUNNO how to do them..Originally posted by Devil1976:Allocate works... Give accreditations to the various parts of the projects so that it's CLEAR as to who did what when it comes to the assessments.... -
Some projects have this peer apraisal system... if all 4 of you say he never do his job then he sure will kana one..
One way is to directly confront him (all 4 of you) and comment on how he never do his job etc.. if he still refuse then you all can kick him out... If he agrees to finally do his work, get him to commit what he says in writing (dateline, job scope etc)...
Another way is to get the 4 of you to go down and discuss the matter with your superior or your teacher... This is the last resort of course since this would be like whistleblowing also may damage your friendship with him..
The point is: There is no ONE step solution to this la.. you got to think carefully what to do.. one step at a time -
I think the whole point of doing project work is to get you used to working with jerks. You're gonna be working with strangers once you graduate, and there's bound to be guai lan kia among them.
If apprsaisal system doesn't do justice, then take matters into yur own hands. U guys are 5 against one leader, you guys have the majority to take control of the project, why let the incompetent leader drag you guys down? Change aspects of the project to throw the leader off course, then he'll be lost and will be forced to work with you guys to keep up.
And if he still continue to be parasite, then report him to teacher lor! -
Take Plan B then?Originally posted by shinta:allocate liao but all became ur job os NOBODY did them or they claim that they DUNNO how to do them..
Have a weekly or routine update session with your lecturer (or whoever's assessing and managing your project).
List down the problems that your project team is facing during the update sessions so that EVERYBODY including your lecturer would know what's going on. Ask for appropriate advice and suggestion from the lecturer (try to be professional, this is not a sabotage session - at least it don't necessarily has to be one...
).. The thing is just to let everyone have an idea as to how the project is advancing and what's the problem. Sub - let them feel a bit of 'pressure' not coming directly from you but your 'boss' or overall in-charge. If they wanna take chances with their grading, then go ahead and IDLE.
'Don't know' is never a solution nor a reason for things to be set aside. Worse if you start to run your own show (I've did that before so I know)... Understand that the project is not about 'work' alone, but 'team work'... And 'team work' is not only about 'pointing fingers', as eventually nothing good would come out of it and relationship & results would only have to suffer for it in the end...
Have your own 'meet up' sessions. It's IMPORTANT. Don't accept things like 'no time'. As per mentioned, keep a minis or something about such 'meet ups'. Make it FORMAL. No time for meetings either mean that you're doing GREAT for your allocations and we're expecting a GOOD PIECE from you or you have totally NO TIME for the PROJECT. In the latter case, no time for the project means the person deserves NO SCORE.
During your 'meet ups', discuss the problems each of you are going through and offer either appropriate re-allocation of job scope or allow team to contribute to suggestions and solutions. List down the next 'action plan' to be done and executed by the responsible project mate. Update on next meet up. -
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kick his ars
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welcome to the real world..
6 member is a bit big that will attract people who ride on the team.
My last one had 6 member, the only guy in the team did zero work but commented on the font size. The rest of the work was done by me. The char bo in the team b|tch all the time. when I want to inform the lecturer, the b|tches all don't want to sarport and threaten not to join same team in future. I regret not reporting and in the end, the b|tches also go their own way and left me hanging. So it does not pay to be nice. If you can do anything to readjust the situation, do it. Do not regret later. -
Gather up all the other members and tell your teacher about it.
For my group project, my tutor told us that if there was any one member who's a free-rider and does not contribute anything, we could go up to him to have his marks deducted.
Of course, we have to show proof of his misdemeanours. Same goes for you. Show some proof to your teacher that the jerk hasn't been doing anything much besides loafing around and slave-driving all of you.
How you're going to come up with the proof is up to you....
Bottom line, if he's going to continue kicking your a**es, you're going to have to give a serious one up his own backside. You don't have to take it sitting down and let others walk all over you. -
we hav 5 in a group, 1 was doin up the report writing.. i'm doin everything else..Originally posted by Devil1976:Take Plan B then?
Have a weekly or routine update session with your lecturer (or whoever's assessing and managing your project).
List down the problems that your project team is facing during the update sessions so that EVERYBODY including your lecturer would know what's going on. Ask for appropriate advice and suggestion from the lecturer (try to be professional, this is not a sabotage session - at least it don't necessarily has to be one... ).. The thing is just to let everyone have an idea as to how the project is advancing and what's the problem. Sub - let them feel a bit of 'pressure' not coming directly from you but your 'boss' or overall in-charge. If they wanna take chances with their grading, then go ahead and IDLE.
'Don't know' is never a solution nor a reason for things to be set aside. Worse if you start to run your own show (I've did that before so I know)... Understand that the project is not about 'work' alone, but 'team work'... And 'team work' is not only about 'pointing fingers', as eventually nothing good would come out of it and relationship & results would only have to suffer for it in the end...
Have your own 'meet up' sessions. It's IMPORTANT. Don't accept things like 'no time'. As per mentioned, keep a minis or something about such 'meet ups'. Make it FORMAL. No time for meetings either mean that you're doing GREAT for your allocations and we're expecting a GOOD PIECE from you or you have totally NO TIME for the PROJECT. In the latter case, no time for the project means the person deserves NO SCORE.
During your 'meet ups', discuss the problems each of you are going through and offer either appropriate re-allocation of job scope or allow team to contribute to suggestions and solutions. List down the next 'action plan' to be done and executed by the responsible project mate. Update on next meet up.
ok lar.. for 2 of them they did sth... but not much.. cos i was helpin them n it became me doin it..
the one i bth is i told her there is 2 stuff that has to be done.. 1 is difficult, the other not at all, i let her choose since she didn hav much to do.. she chose the difficult part.. i was reluctant to let her do, but the rest of the grp persuaded me to let her do it since she volunteered herself.. that was a 25m part.. quite heavy lo..
i told her to give me a call ANYTIME she encounter a problem doin it... she said ok... for the first 2 days, i didn call at all... cos i dun wanna sound like i dun trust her tat kinda thing.. cos she's a fren oso...
then on the 3rd day, i called, n asked her how she was doin, she said pretty good.. i was relieved.. she said she's almost done... i was mroe relieved! when i asked her if she have any problems, she said yeah, i have 1 problem, n asked me to help her with it the next day.. i asked wat, then she told me she have not done the 2nd par tof the report yet.. i was like
that's where all the marks are! the first part requires just 5 min lor..
i was so angry, i msged her n scolded her lo... n tried to rush out everything that nite n the followin 2 nites.. the day i found out was a thrusday nite.. or rather friday mornin at 00.01.. i still remember..
imagine a few nites of little slp... not eatin just so that i can rush it out... icy can understand how not eatin n slpin feels like -
oh i got complain to the tutor when she noticed me missin from her tutorial on friday... then in the project, we need to list out wat everyone did... n cos of the last min thing hor.. we missed out on a lot of stuff... sometimes, 2 person in the grp is enuff liao i tink.. 1 to write report the other to do everything else...Originally posted by fudgester:Gather up all the other members and tell your teacher about it.
For my group project, my tutor told us that if there was any one member who's a free-rider and does not contribute anything, we could go up to him to have his marks deducted.
Of course, we have to show proof of his misdemeanours. Same goes for you. Show some proof to your teacher that the jerk hasn't been doing anything much besides loafing around and slave-driving all of you.
How you're going to come up with the proof is up to you....
Bottom line, if he's going to continue kicking your a**es, you're going to have to give a serious one up his own backside. You don't have to take it sitting down and let others walk all over you. -
+1 I agree with thisOriginally posted by dibilo:in the next meeting try doing a summary of the work done so far. if there's nothing he can show then take this chance to "shoot" him. tell him calmly but firmly that u guys are in a team and everyone have to help. he being the leader shud not only be distributing the work but to help those who are having trouble to meet date lines. remember, do not lose ur cool and let it break into an arguement coz ultimately it'll affect the whole gp's performance. make him paiseh enuf liao
summary of the work done
Draw out a table
List down names and assign task and completion date.
Last but not least get someone preferly ur lectuer to sign on it
confrim he will do work liao
but then the hardest part is getting the table done, this step should be done right in the beginning before the project started
btw, I'm assuming the whole group have the same opinion as you (you are not alone)
If you are the only person having/facing such a problem, it best that you do some self reflection first -
\Originally posted by m.c.king:I've a project team which is currently working a school project. There are 6 of us in the team.
So we've a guy who's tries to show that he is very "siao on" by self electing himself as a leader and started allocating work to the other 5 (including me), leaving none to himself.
He will make the excuse that he'll overseeing the project and handling the liasing work with outsiders and monitoring the progress etc. And he pretended to be busy when everyone else is busy with their work. Very soon, even the liasing work was pushed to me. He was saying, "can you call/email him and make an appoinment etc., I've got to read the report format first etc."
During the project, it involves doing cold calling on companies to see whether they're interested in a course. So this self-appointed team leader was reluctant to do cold calling himself. So he assigned the other 5 to do the dirty work, while saying, "I've got other issues to settle, you know, administrative issue." So while others are calling and getting their ego bruised, he was happily and selfishly settling his own school work and reading his emails at his leisure.
And then occassionally, he'll ask those who are calling, "So have you managed to get any new positive response?" When told no, he'll say, "No. This is very bad. Keep calling more. I want positive answers..." and even if it's a yes, he'll say," that's not enough. You see, you should never assume that they'll confirm agree to the course even if you managed to get an appointment with the person in charge. We need to call extra companies to have backups. So you need to keep calling more companies..."
Damn him. Do do you think he's a jerk?
I think I can even start a poll whether he's a jerk or not.
No.1 Ask him what his responsibility is
no.2 Get your teammates together and ask around who are having trouble with your self appointed leader
no.3 gather your teammates to meet the lecturer/tutor/teacher and complain.
no.4 drop the bomb on him
Never ever let him know what you are all up to because some jerks can prepare "work" quickly. Xian xia shou wei qiang ( strike first before your "enemy knows")
This lesson comes courtesy from my previous personal experience. -
Originally posted by shinta:we hav 5 in a group, 1 was doin up the report writing.. i'm doin everything else..
ok lar.. for 2 of them they did sth... but not much.. cos i was helpin them n it became me doin it..
You can't always 'help' people do their things..? Like I've mentioned, get your people together and do it together... And when you help then, make them understand that you're actually HELPING them... Don't 'pocket' something under your own job scope and responsibility... That'll just be a never-ending story...
the one i bth is i told her there is 2 stuff that has to be done.. 1 is difficult, the other not at all, i let her choose since she didn hav much to do.. she chose the difficult part.. i was reluctant to let her do, but the rest of the grp persuaded me to let her do it since she volunteered herself.. that was a 25m part.. quite heavy lo..
i told her to give me a call ANYTIME she encounter a problem doin it... she said ok... for the first 2 days, i didn call at all... cos i dun wanna sound like i dun trust her tat kinda thing.. cos she's a fren oso...
then on the 3rd day, i called, n asked her how she was doin, she said pretty good.. i was relieved.. she said she's almost done... i was mroe relieved! when i asked her if she have any problems, she said yeah, i have 1 problem, n asked me to help her with it the next day.. i asked wat, then she told me she have not done the 2nd par tof the report yet.. i was like that's where all the marks are! the first part requires just 5 min lor..
i was so angry, i msged her n scolded her lo... n tried to rush out everything that nite n the followin 2 nites.. the day i found out was a thrusday nite.. or rather friday mornin at 00.01.. i still remember..
Yeah... Can understand that.. I used to do that during my previous projects in school... Working experience helps alot when it comes to management.... In project management, there's a form of time management which states that you should cut the deadline by some grace... So that when things go wrong, you can actually 'save' it... This experience is to teach you to have a better check on work progress even much before deadline's there...
I've seen cases where people just bochap... Then I point out things which are not done in advance, in the end things still the same... Try to keep a 'log' or something so that your 'supervisor' is updated on the situation... If your supervisor bochap, then it's really their fault and you can even lodge a complaint on them....
In project management, having a good team is always crucial.. Like minds can work together better, and even more so for friends... However, understand that this is just SCHOOL. Having a 'bad team' would test you ALOT on your management ability and hence allow you to learn more in a sense.. Not just marks on your papers but also your personal experience... Might not be assessed but definitely a skill which can come in handy in the future... And through projects and school, you can actually learn how different people work and how to handle them... Which type of people to avoid in your team in the future....
imagine a few nites of little slp... not eatin just so that i can rush it out... icy can understand how not eatin n slpin feels like