Teamwork Nightmare: When Collaboration Turns into "I Do It All by Myself"

(Dan Tri) - From being excited about being put into groups to work on class projects, many students quickly realize that working in groups is sometimes nothing less than a "nightmare".

The fear of teamwork

Conflicts, arguments, and even divisions are what many students have commented about teamwork in the classroom. How to maintain harmony is always a concern for students.

Nha Thanh, a third-year student in Ho Chi Minh City, said that she once had to "carry the team" (do most of the work) due to the lack of initiative and irresponsibility of the members.

“At first, everyone was enthusiastic and agreed with the assigned work. But as time went on, they increasingly ignored the reminder messages and remained silent,” Thanh shared.

Many students have to "carry the team" due to the lack of initiative and irresponsibility of the members (Photo: AI).

As a team leader, Thanh always tried to urge the team to complete the assignment on time. However, contrary to her expectations, the team members were quite indifferent to their work.

The climax was when presenting the product in front of the class, the person assigned to present did not come to class, so Thanh had to support his friend.

Although she felt uncomfortable, the student still reluctantly helped out for fear of affecting her study results. But after that time, Thanh began to feel shy about group work.

Phu An, a student at Van Hien University, also agreed that the conflict mostly comes from the lack of awareness among colleagues when working together. Many people send sketchy content, with a "perfunctory" attitude to complete the task, while others "wait until the water reaches their feet" and do not jump.

Not only is there a lack of responsibility, but differences in working style, thinking and personal ego also make the working atmosphere in the group easily become tense. Phu An said that his group had disagreements just because they could not agree on a common direction.

“When we collected the papers to submit, everyone had their own opinion but no one was willing to give in. This was the reason why we easily argued,” the male student said.

Due to conflicts, students gradually become afraid of working in groups. Many students say they would rather work alone than with many people. Among them is Nhu Nguyet, a fourth-year student in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I feel quite pressured when working in groups, especially when there is a difference in enthusiasm or ability between members. This pressure comes more when I have to collaborate with many groups in different subjects at the same time while the deadlines are often quite urgent,” Nguyet said.

The issue of conflicts arising from group work has always been a hot topic of discussion. A recent Facebook post titled “Topic: Group work with strange students!!!” has attracted thousands of interactions. Most of the students expressed their frustration with their unsatisfactory experiences.

Many accounts said they had experienced bad teamwork because the other party was irresponsible.

“The whole group was either me working or ChatGPT working. When I went to school, I skipped half of the subjects, when I asked, I didn’t know anything, I just threw away ChatGPT and kept all of its icons,” said an account named Ta Duc Duong.

Learn to "survive" when working in groups

After arguing, disagreeing and taking on the work for the whole group, you gradually learned your lessons to be able to cooperate smoothly on the project.

Anh Tuan, a first-year student at the University of Industry and Trade, has gradually drawn up his own experiences. The student said that in order to meet deadlines, his group usually starts working on assignments about a week before the deadline and requires a clear division of work for each member.

Additionally, for the rules to be effectively enforced, he believes there must be a way to deal with violators.

"If it's just the first 1-2 times, the group will warn him, but if he continues to repeat the offense, we will have to write a final report or force him to leave the group," Tuan said frankly.

Many groups choose to divide tasks according to each person's strengths. This not only helps increase the progress and efficiency of group work but also limits disputes between members.

Clearly dividing tasks and performing them directly helps students work in groups more effectively. (Illustration: VLU).

Like Tuan, Nhu Nguyet believes that to be effective, members must participate and be really serious about their work.

“The whole group must share their views, experiences and make suggestions to improve the paper in the best possible way. This requires you to develop your organizational and communication skills, not just rely on your individual abilities,” she said.

Another trick that many students use is to use team management tools like Google Docs, Trello, or Notion to track progress. These apps make it easier to see each person’s contributions and reduce the chance of passing the buck.

What to do to overcome "team carry"?

MSc. LS Trinh Huu Chung, Vice Principal of Gia Dinh University, commented that the above situation appears in many student working groups.

According to Mr. Chung, on the positive side, when working effectively in groups, students will develop core skills for future work such as coordination, communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, leadership, project management, etc. This is an important goal of university education .

However, on the negative side, the lack of responsibility and initiative of some individuals has turned teamwork into a burden and psychological obsession, causing inhibition and directly affecting the learning outcomes of those responsible.

This situation reflects a problem of poor personal responsibility and team organization skills.

MSc. Lawyer Trinh Huu Chung gives advice to students when working together such as setting up transparent group rules from the beginning, dividing specific tasks based on strengths and setting deadlines for each small item.

Once the rules are in place, the group leader needs to be straightforward and deal with the issue professionally. After giving gentle to serious warnings and noting the violations, if the member still re-offends, the group needs to agree to give frank comments, or even exclude them from the group (if the course rules allow) to protect the efforts of the majority.

In addition, when submitting the assignment, the group must send a positive assessment table and create a common assignment so that the lecturer has a basis for accurately evaluating the results.

“Students should not let favoritism affect the overall results. The group leader is not only the one who assigns tasks but also the one who connects them. The group needs to encourage everyone to share their opinions, but must know how to neutralize personal egos to reach the final decision,” said Mr. Trinh Huu Chung.

Another important thing is not to be silent. According to the Vice Principal, if you encounter difficulties, you must proactively share with the group or seek support from the instructor to solve the problem.

Snow Flow

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/ac-mong-lam-viec-nhom-khi-hop-tac-thanh-mot-minh-toi-lam-het-20251102070944953.htm