Final Project Griping
May. 8th, 2006 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wordinistaHave I mentioned how much I hate group work? 'Cos I do. I hate it a lot. In fact, I hate it so much that it's almost enough to make me lapse into a hissing, gravelly Gollum voice, about how much we "hateses it, the groupsie work, we do, Precious."
Yesterday my finance group met to go over the paper and fill in any gaping holes, because, hey, the presentation is TOMORROW. (And we all agree that if the professor does not give us a take-home final, it will be a sad day indeed, because all of us have slacked on the regular assignments in light of this project.) So, we meet, and everyone's more or less on time (one girl had further to drive than the rest of us, and the interstate was having issues due to problems with visability as a result of brush fires, so she was a little late, but we kind of anticipated that).
Some people know that there is one person in my group with whom I am less than pleased. Let's call him "R."
R is an idiot. He hides it under arrogance, but he's an idiot.
Last week? Last week he asked the professor what the difference was between proferred stock and initial offering stock. (Here's a hint: they're one in the same, and we covered that the first week of class.) He asks questions that are clearly covered in the readings (which he doesn't do), and yesterday, at the group meeting, he hadn't read the latest draft of the paper. So he's asking all of these questions, and making all of these suggestions, and "J," who is basically our group leader, gestures at me and is like, "Didn't you read her section? She covered that already."
At least three times he asked questions or said "we should include a part that covers XYZ," and three times J said, "[Bunneh] covered that already. It's in her section."
In addition to this... okay, so his part had to do with the numbers and equations and stuff (my sections were the introduction, and a section on market outlook, because numbers are not my strong suit). And, all right, for the most part he had all of his numbers where they needed to be. There were a few ratios he hadn't been able to figure out, which... fine. Whatever.
But he wasted at least a half hour of the group meeting wanting to re-figure the ratios he'd already done. We had two sections of the paper that hadn't been written yet, and he's there, wanting to agonize and comb over things that HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE. Because, all right, the professor warned us he'd be asking us questions as part of our presentation. This yahoo thinks that means the prof is going to ask us what the equation is for one ratio or another. Because, y'know, why would he ask us contextual, pertinent questions, making us use our research and apply what we've learned in class to what we've learned in the project? That would just be stupid. (Maybe this is because I've taught, and while I may not know the exact questions, I can guess the nature of them in situations such as these.)
Anyway. This? In my book? Is called wasting time.
And I swear to god, he doesn't listen. You can say something three times, three different ways, and it doesn't sink in. Either he doesn't hear the answer, or he doesn't understand the question he's asking, so he doesn't realize he's getting the right answer. I don't know.
Yesterday my finance group met to go over the paper and fill in any gaping holes, because, hey, the presentation is TOMORROW. (And we all agree that if the professor does not give us a take-home final, it will be a sad day indeed, because all of us have slacked on the regular assignments in light of this project.) So, we meet, and everyone's more or less on time (one girl had further to drive than the rest of us, and the interstate was having issues due to problems with visability as a result of brush fires, so she was a little late, but we kind of anticipated that).
Some people know that there is one person in my group with whom I am less than pleased. Let's call him "R."
R is an idiot. He hides it under arrogance, but he's an idiot.
Last week? Last week he asked the professor what the difference was between proferred stock and initial offering stock. (Here's a hint: they're one in the same, and we covered that the first week of class.) He asks questions that are clearly covered in the readings (which he doesn't do), and yesterday, at the group meeting, he hadn't read the latest draft of the paper. So he's asking all of these questions, and making all of these suggestions, and "J," who is basically our group leader, gestures at me and is like, "Didn't you read her section? She covered that already."
At least three times he asked questions or said "we should include a part that covers XYZ," and three times J said, "[Bunneh] covered that already. It's in her section."
In addition to this... okay, so his part had to do with the numbers and equations and stuff (my sections were the introduction, and a section on market outlook, because numbers are not my strong suit). And, all right, for the most part he had all of his numbers where they needed to be. There were a few ratios he hadn't been able to figure out, which... fine. Whatever.
But he wasted at least a half hour of the group meeting wanting to re-figure the ratios he'd already done. We had two sections of the paper that hadn't been written yet, and he's there, wanting to agonize and comb over things that HAD ALREADY BEEN DONE. Because, all right, the professor warned us he'd be asking us questions as part of our presentation. This yahoo thinks that means the prof is going to ask us what the equation is for one ratio or another. Because, y'know, why would he ask us contextual, pertinent questions, making us use our research and apply what we've learned in class to what we've learned in the project? That would just be stupid. (Maybe this is because I've taught, and while I may not know the exact questions, I can guess the nature of them in situations such as these.)
Anyway. This? In my book? Is called wasting time.
And I swear to god, he doesn't listen. You can say something three times, three different ways, and it doesn't sink in. Either he doesn't hear the answer, or he doesn't understand the question he's asking, so he doesn't realize he's getting the right answer. I don't know.
Here's the scary part: he's an adult professional. He's a manager at a large, popular, and expensive beachfront hotel. He drives a (new) Mercedes. He has a house. He has gotten this far in life being that dumb? *headdesk*
I really can't wait until this class is over. My god, how I despise group work.
