Group or individual?

[Inseriousity.]

Hey

So I'm planning to do a dissertation on groupwork and it got me wondering about people's thoughts on this. It's sorta taken as standard across the education sector that groupwork is a good thing. So are you someone who likes group work or do you go "urgh no, not again." I've always been the latter but I do like a good group debate if it bounces well.

Do you prefer being in a group or working solo? What makes a good group for you?
I know I mention education but I'm wondering more generally!

[Chris]

Always preferred to work on my own because I can do things my way and don't have to rely on other people to do things.

[Martin]

I think I've grown up generally working on my own and I've just got used to that and so when I was encouraged to become part of a group during work at school for example it was always quite awkward. I think it quite often depends on how you are with people and I'm extremely nervous generally and so I find it harder to match up to the confident type of people and so in a group situation I wouldnt be much use really, even if I do have my own thoughts/opinions on things etc. I think I worked best when I was just left alone to get on with things because it took out the worrying part for me and I just felt more relaxed I think. It was nice now and again to talk to other people and in some situations it was good but it depended on the task really and what it involved. I don't really interact well with loud people, like the people who take control and don't give you chance to get a word in edgeways and stuff. I think confidence was a huge issue and to a certain extent still is for me.

In my job I'm required to apply quite a lot of teamwork, and indeed encourage it amongst my department. I think again though it depends what situation its in. If I'm working with someone in the office on something it can be quite nice and its more of a relaxed atmousphere, but on the other hand when there is quite a few of us in the bakery it can get loud, people can lose their tempers if things aren't done properly and there is generally a lot of people talking badly about other people and the teamwork goes down the pan. When I'm supervising shop floor staff I always encourage them to work as a team, if there are spillages they work together to deal with the situation rather than just everyone ignoring each other etc. Not sure how much that really links to what you mean in this thread, but I really think it depends on experiences you have had and the situation in which group work is required. Personally I just work best on my own because I'm used to that and its just what I'm most comfortable with.

[Red]

I do love group work but only if I get people who are willing to work. In my first year of uni, one module was a big group project and I got lumped with people who didn't show up for class every week. I ended up having to create and write the entire 10k proposal, write the presentation/create powerpoint and basically give them their part to say on queue cards... We ended up getting a good first for the proposal and presentation. They all got a good mark in that module, when the rest were barley passes. That just pissed me off because it was a case of them pulling me down or me pulling them up.

All the other times I did group work, I was able to choose my group and it went well. I picked, with my two friends to do a group presentation over a 3k essay, which was so much easier and enjoyable!

[sex]

my lecture was talking about this the other day, she did hers on the exact same thing or something. But yeah i hate group work so much unless you have the right group of people who each have something to bring to the group, you dont want a bunch of pushovers who will just agree to everything. You need someone lead the group etc.

But yeah, one of our best friend in uni is away atm on holidays and last two years we have always been in a group with her but tbh. she is ****, she does **** all and we have had to get into groups quite a lot lately and we havnt choosen her to be with us, we have gone for other people. we expect her to be mad but we dont care she dragged us down the last two years and we have copped on now that we dont want that anymore, we want people who will work.

SO YEAH I HATE GORUPS I PREFER TO HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OVER MY OWN WORK

[Chippiewill]

It's nice if a group synergises where everyone respects everyone and are knowledgable about each others strengths. But otherwise I find other people distracting and negatively impact upon my ability to concentrate and focus.

[David]

Always preferred to work on my own because I can do things my way and don't have to rely on other people to do things.

this plus i rarely find someone who's on the same page i am, so i just take opinions and work alone.

[Samantha]

I remember when I was in year 12 and there were 4 people in our group and we had to work together to create presentations etc. anyway, one boy we knew wouldn't do the work so he changed group. Then a girl in the group left our tutor so couldn't be in our group then the other went on maternity leave. Left me alone and I had to do everything - even though the minimum amount in a group was supposed to be 3.

I prefer working alone but if someone asks to work together or I'm put with someone I will help and do my fair share.

[buttons]

i prefer individual work, not cause i think my work is better than everyone elses (it's actually the opposite) but when i'm in a group, i find everyone has a bigger personality than me so it's hard to get my ideas or thoughts in. i generally don't have any ideas anyway as i feel pressured in a group and go blank and just feel stupid cause everyone can express their ideas well. i, on the other hand, need time to gather everythng together whereas some people can just get the task and go which i find makes the result sloppy lol. i don't like picking groups or going with friends because then you get cliques and separations, can't believe how immature some of the people on my course can be considering we do sociology which needs lots of group work >.< .. i prefer to be put randomly to get a variety of people and ideas and just get the task done. mostly i go along with what people say and pick out faults and try interject my own ideas to bounce off theirs instead of coming up with the ideas.

what i find helpful though is we have a class especially for peer review where we go in different groups every week and look over each others work and review it. i like that.

[wixard]

hate group work. especially because i like leaving everything to last minute, and i always get paired up with people who want it done like 3 weeks before it's due. i usually argue with my group, i don't like it when things don't go the way i want them to or my ideas aren't used. so yeah i'm not the best for group work, but i will make a conscious effort not to be rude and to try put as much work in as everyone else is

although sometimes i'm thankful for group work, we've to get in pairs and WRITE A MOTIVATION SPEECH AND RECORD US READING IT.... what even, so glad i'll have someone else to share the embarrassment with me

[Inseriousity.]

my lecture was talking about this the other day, she did hers on the exact same thing or something. But yeah i hate group work so much unless you have the right group of people who each have something to bring to the group, you dont want a bunch of pushovers who will just agree to everything. You need someone lead the group etc.

But yeah, one of our best friend in uni is away atm on holidays and last two years we have always been in a group with her but tbh. she is ****, she does **** all and we have had to get into groups quite a lot lately and we havnt choosen her to be with us, we have gone for other people. we expect her to be mad but we dont care she dragged us down the last two years and we have copped on now that we dont want that anymore, we want people who will work.

SO YEAH I HATE GORUPS I PREFER TO HAVE TOTAL CONTROL OVER MY OWN WORK

haha I'm going to do mine on leadership in groupwork! The thing is that if you get a leader who takes over and is like group-dictator, it doesn't really function as a group either and then there's groups where there's no leader at all and its just a group of individuals doing their own thing and then merging the slides together at the end, which I wouldn't call group work either.

I like control over work as well and hate having to compromise cos you end up doing something boring just to please everyone (like powerpoints urgh).

[shiver]

group work is fine if i'm working with a group of good people. unfortunately at school/uni they seem to always put me with people who never want to do anything. we once had to do a french presentation and a boy (he's actually alright just a bit lazy) did nothing at all, the rest of us eventually went to our lecturer because it was irritating and unfortunately at uni everyone gets the same grade for group work, it's not fair if he does nothing and still gets a grade. and he got a 0%, which was bad for him and i felt bad but tbh you have to take some things more seriously and play an active role.

[scottish]

Prefer doing work on my own, with groups need to work around everyones schedule where as solo I can just do it whenever I feel like it.

Idk though as with group work it depends on the group past few groups i've had theres always been one slacker who does very little work but same time group motivates me as with solo work I kinda of put it off and start later and just work for hours on it where as with group work i'm usually always first one to start it and usually end up doing the most work lol so being part of group motivates me to actually get it started + finished asap rather than leaving it for later...

Also hate relying on people.

So prefer working on own

[Eric]

I really dont like group work especially when i am the leader of the group. i've tried so many group works with me as a leader and mostly i have to complete everything on my own, i've never had any good discussions with them, they are all like hey you're the leader you should be the one to get these things done and they'll just sit there and wait for the presentation so they can just read it out or something which is less work to do. maybe its because people at my school are just dumbass, maybe group work in uni would be better.

group work could be effective and have good outcomes if you have the good people and the team is well-managed and everyone is cooperative, things could just work out easily cause you have more ideas with people. but i prefer to work individually atm

[Succubus]

Never been a fan of the whole group work personally, but where as I've grown up to be use to group work I'm OK with it - as long as the other people are also willing to do it, as am I, then I'll be fine with them. But if I get a bunch of people who slack for group work I usually end up doing it all by myself.

With solo work I prefer it to group work because I can actually get things done and usually I prefer work done by me then anyone else to take credit for. Solo is just easier for me as well because you do have to include loads of people and wont have loads of disagreements in what to put on the presentation and what not.

[Circadia]

I don't really like group work because I tend too just get talked over and can never get my point across, or if I'm with people who don't want to do the work/people who think I should know everything cause I'm smart and expect me to do the work. Like in maths my table think I'm the smartest and whenever we go to do group work they go 'So how do you do it Abi?' annoys the hell out of me. Sometimes I like it if its something I enjoy like Drama, I don't mind working in groups for that. Mainly I like working on my own cause I get to use my own ideas without having to talk to anyone.

[RandomManJay]

I prefer working alone as I find social situations uncomfortable; especially where there's no escape. I'm quite an awkward person and I tend to have to moderate or align my behavour with the group or it becomes really difficult to work with them. I've had people refuse to work with me a second time because they couldn't stand me in such a large dose the first time.

[LiquidLuck.]

First of all I must say what when I said ''Group or individual'', the first thing on my mind was ''That's what she said''! xD
And to answer you, I prefer group work. Not only my ideas come out better when I have more people shaping them and vice versa, but also it's less work each one has to do and we can all do a bit of it.

[dirrty]

i only like group work if i get my own way and people pay attention more to what i say. otherwise, i prefer to work individually as everything is done how i want it, and therefore 100% of the consequences are on my back.

[Explorator]

I've always preferred individual work because i can do things my own way, really. I've always hated group work because in the group they always get a dominant leader who wants it done there way (mostly me). With class work at school i always work on my own. I seem like a loner but i always get A's at the end of the day. :p

[FlyingJesus]

Groups are fine so long as everyone's on the same page (ie: mine) otherwise everyone has to make compromises and ultimately no-one's happy with the outcome. This is, for me, especially prevalent with projects that are physical or have some sort of real presentation rather than just finding an answer or whatever, because I have my own styles and HATE it when you get some idiot with really crap drawing/writing making it look like a 5 year old has taken dictation and done the sketchwork. Group work where you're put into random groups is potentially damaging to the experience of everyone involved, and think group activity should be optional even when it is recommended

[Grimmauld]

for me it depends on a lot of things. if it's school work it can work either way for me. solo: do all the work get it over with, but gets boring. group: spread the work, may be a bit funner depending on the people. most of the time i prefer to just get things over with because half of the time youre most likely stuck with the idiots..

[Kardan]

I prefer group work if I getto pick the group, I need people that work the same way that I do and are good at it.

[-:Undertaker:-]

It entirely depends on the topic, if I have nothing to contribute in team work/debate then I feel like a spare part.

[Jurv]

depends on the situation. if i had control over the people i want to work with then i'd rather work in a group.

[Jin]

If it is an assessment then I prefer solo I don't feel I should be assessed on another's ability or incompetence. In a working environment I prefer group work.