group |groō|
noun [treated as sing. or pl. ]
a number of people or things that are located close together or are considered or classed together
• a number of people who work together or share certain beliefs

Notice how this definition that I conveniently copied out of the dictionary says "a number of people who WORK TOGETHER."

I'm sick of half the group doing work and pulling their weight, while the other half can't be bothered to even show up. I understand that life is busy and people can't always make it to the library. Guess what? My life is busy too, and yet somehow I manage to come in early everyday and stay late when I need to.

I also understand that this Situation Analysis is the worst part of the project, but it's even worse if no one is communicating with each other. I DO NOT understand how we all have each other's emails, phone numbers, and facebook, and we still can't manage to communicate!

I know this may sound harsh, and possibly unnecessarily so, but I need for everyone to understand my message, so I'm being as blunt as I possibly can be:

We are a group. We need to work as a group. TOGETHER. We need to all show up to meetings. We need to all show up ON TIME. We need to come prepared to get work done, not just socialize with our work gathering dust in front of us.

I plan on being in the Advertising office at 9:00am Tuesday morning to hand in this assignment. I would strongly suggest, if you have an interest in remaining a part of the group, that you all be there too.

Win as a group. Lose as a group. This is a 5 person job. Take it seriously.

Libby

*****

This is the angry message that I sent to the members of my group in my Integrated Marketing Communications class. I'm sure you've all been there; after all, no one can escape group projects. I have to say though, I'm indescribably proud of this message. I'm a pretty (and by pretty I mean extremely) passive person when it comes to group dynamics (the only exception to this is when I'm with my closest of close friends). I generally follow other people's leads and do everything humanly possible to avoid conflict. Basically, I let everyone else in the group walk all over me.

I finally feel, FINALLY, after writing this message, that I can now start standing up and speaking out in a group. I'm SO SICK of being passive, and now I'm ready to dive headlong into aggressive. I hate conflict because I always feel guilty. When I get mad at someone, I'm mad ABOUT them to other people, but can never bring myself to be mad TO them in person. I think I've finally rounded the corner and can start being mad. I'm not going to let people make ME feel guilty for being angry with them when THEY'RE the ones who've screwed up.

This is a very, extremely, and unbelievably liberating feeling.