I have a set of shelves that hold my various projects and I needed to do some purging to create more space. One of the shelves held a pile of articles that I had researched for a project. I was working with another person to write an article and spent about 60 hours finding, reading, and synthesizing (boring) academic articles for this piece — and then got ghosted.
I hear a similar sad tale from students involved in group projects. Too often, one person doesn’t pull their weight, and others are left hanging to either do more than their fair share or pay the penalty. It happens in teams at work, on volunteer projects, and whenever more than one person is involved in an endeavor.
If you’re involved in a group effort, no one guarantees parity in how the work will be accomplished. You can divide up the responsibilities, but the ultimate objective is to complete the project. Go in with that mindset and at the end of the day, you can take solace in the fact that you fulfilled your commitment, even if others did not.
yes! Work for an audience of One.
Amen. Sit back and bask in your own sunshine!