OUCH.
For those that know me well enough, I...don't particularly like group activities. Not that I have anything against working with groups but from my past experiences, I equate group work to people wanting me (us...the group) to act like god-damn circus chimps for stupid shit. Granted, I found that my best group work came from those that had ideas that were not based on evaluating people as if they were lab rats but stuff that really accomplished things.
So to say, I have a lot of bad group experience, from working with people who, if I were to time travel to the past would probably falcon punch in the face for being rude little gits to organizers who were, to put it frank, snobbish butt-holes who seemed to enjoy watching us lesser children from dA PubLiK SkooLZ do their shit and act like it was for charity...
But having said that, there have been some good group work that I have done...but the bad still out-weighs the good. :|
Okay, okay, I'll stop being such a downer but in order to do that, I WILL have to start with the bad first, only to end this post with something upbeat and truthfully, it IS upbeat if not surprisingly simple for what it is.
Okay, the bad and since I really don't like to dive too deep in the past, I will start with something recent and does not involve people from this school who will hunt me down if they find this post;
In June, I was desperate for work which is something that I always am. Because I can't drive (I suffer from seizures. Yeah FUCKING heredity, you screwed me over again) I wanted something that was close enough to commute using Indygo. Since I often frequent our local malls, I decided to apply for nearly all the stores that were there. Now, there are FOUR malls I walked the halls of (no naming) and they all have plenty of outlets and opening to go for....now tell me, why the FUCK did only ONE place in ONE mall reply?
I don't know but I took the offer at the drop of a hat and by that Sunday, I was ready for the interview. Now, as a person who has gone to countless 'Teen management career sessions' (another fucking waste of time and another source of bad group experiences) I have had the notion that in order to get the job, you have to look IMMACULATE. That is what they taught us...but there I was, the only person dressed in business attire while everyone else was dressed in beat-up sandles, tees, ripped jeans and the works...
I could foresee that this wasn't going to end well.
Well, the 'interviews' were all group based, with us standing in the store and talking with the manager of the store....but then....the group work began.
Now, this is a RETAIL STORE. They sell clothing, equipment, and other things. In that line of work, when the FUCK will you need to get into a group and come up with shitty songs based on what the group name is? WHEN? NEVER. Here I am, plopped in this group and forced to come up with lyrics on the fly just because I want a fucking job so I can get some fucking money to pay for utilities and other shit and FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!
Okay, I'm sorry. I just remembered how crap this group experience was and it wasn't because of the people I was paired up with; they were great...even that guy who's number I should have asked for...but nonetheless, the entire ordeal itself was DEGRADING. I have had group interviews for jobs in the past but even those were MUCH more professional and even when I didn't get the job, I didn't feel bad since I was like 'Oh, damn. That sucks but at least they were nice and told me about the company.'
THIS....shit was the absolute WORST and embarrassing situation I had EVER been in. It doesn't help that I don't like to be around people unless its NECESSARY (you know, for like SCHOOL and JOBS which are important.) but to have to act like a total ASS in front of people I don't even know, IN HEELS, was the worst. Making up lyrics, coming up with other shit....and I still didn't get the fucking job?
FUCK YOU STORE THAT WILL REMAIN NAMELESS EVEN THOUGH I STILL GO TO THE ONE IN THE OTHER LOCATION BECAUSE THEY'RE ACTUALLY WELL MANAGED.
There are a lot of other bad experiences in my life concerning GROUPS but this by far was the worst, simply because unlike those OTHER experiences, I didn't get anything good out of this. In those other experiences, they might have been BAD but I either learned something, conversed with people and came out feeling god despite what happened. THIS was nothing but shit. I know I am swearing a LOT for an assignment blog but sorry, I have to to fully express how humiliating that experience was. Fuck, I'm getting PISSED RIGHT THE FUCK NOW reliving it since it wasn't even that long ago!
Hiring methods like that should be a CRIME; it really should be. Anyone who thinks that sort of method for hiring works should be smacked upside the head with a book. They should...HAVE THEIR BACK TEETH CHIPPED LIKE MINE SO THEY CAN-!
I need to stop.
Okay...the bad time is over. I have to move into my happy place now. Happy place! Calmness...calm...
Okay.
NOW FOR THE GOOD.
Like I said, my bad...outweighs the good but there have been some GOOD group experiences I've had. Out of random and sheer hilarity, we're going to take a trip many many years ago back when I was a wee high-schooler and not as much of a shrill, violent, nut that I am now.
This actually took place over a span of several hours and was the result of bad planning on the school part but it all came down....like THIS;
The sophomores were scheduled to take a class trip to the IRT for one of our weekly plays but unfortunetly, bad planning meant that we had come on the wrong day. Now, rather than have the ENTIRE class return to school, our teachers were like 'Fuck this. We're not going back to school!' and decided to have us remain down town for the rest of the day. Of course, we were like 'Oh hell no! Its hot, we don't want to walk on this concrete, we want to go back to class!' but in the end, the teachers (of course) won out and we were given another assigment and another trip.
So we were put into groups and assigned to look up things down at the museum at the Soilders and Sailors Monument. A'course, I had never been in the place before. Hell, I've been here all my life and I didn't know there was a fucking museum there until that moment. What made this group experience fun was the fact that we made the best of the situation that we were given. It was apparent that we didn't want to do the assignment but we also didn't want to get yelled at by our teachers for NOT doing it correctly.
So what do a bunch of your highschool students do with an assignment they must do but don't want to?
Why, do it our way of course!
We were instructed to look at certain parts of the museum which we did....all the while a friend of mine kept reminding us that thanks to the layout of the building, we were basically stepping on the 'graves' of war dead.
Friend: Hey, Meredith! You're stepping on that guy's grave! Stop being so inconsiderate!
Me: I am NOT! Now shut up so we can get this stuff done!
Friend: *singing* I'm stepping on someone's grave, someone's grave, someone's grave! *repeat*
Me: :(
And this went on and on and on....but guess what?
We got the assignment done.....AND WE GOT AN A.
HELL YEAHZ!
There were a lot of other things that happened, such as us watching a movie and doing our own MST3K riffing on it, me buying postcards and the rest of the group writing our own fake letters on the back but all in all, we were able to work together with something we did not like yet we still passed. If that is not a good example of a group project, I don't know.
Well, wait...I do know....doing the same thing and getting MONEY for our effort....but this was school, not work so that didn't count back then. And did I not say it was simple? It was a SCHOOL assignment yet it turned into one of the funniest things that had happened all year as well as being a group project.
So what have we learned from all of this?
1- Group projects can either suck or be funny.
2- Sometimes we shouldn't expect the worst from group projects....even though it might turn out bad anyway.
I think the moral of these tales have been told. Here's hoping that any other group project will be more like the latter and not of the former.
*Drinks wine*
Oh wait, that's not good for my teeth. Ow.
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