Group assignments prepare you for life, just not in the way you think

I can’t tell you how many hours of my life I’ve spent complaining about group assignments.

For three years, I listened to tutors and lecturers dish out the same vague explanation of their value, arguing that they teach us essential workplace skills such as “collaboration”, “negotiation” and “conflict resolution”, which, to be frank, I thought was BS.

More than 75 per cent of Gen Z workers want to spend two or three days in the office as part of a hybrid-work policy.Credit: istock

“In what workplace,” I would emphatically exclaim after a few glasses of prosecco on a Wednesday night, “would you have to work with a stoner who simply refuses to show up to meetings? Or someone who cannot, for love nor money, shut the f--- up?” I pretended the tutor could hear me. Is that why it’s called Dutch courage?

But over time, I’ve learnt that group assignments do, in fact, help prepare you for the workplace, and for life, but just not in the way you might think. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learnt from the dreaded endeavours.

Lesson 1. Life isn’t fair

Group assignments are not fair and neither is life. That person who doesn’t pull their weight in class is absolutely going to get a job one day and will probably continue to shirk responsibility and somehow get away with it.

Is it wildly unfair? Yes. Do you need to learn how to suck it up and get over it? Also yes. Dobbing on them is just not an option, so you need to call on your well-practised university skills and rise above.

Similarly, just like at uni, praise is rarely doled out fairly at work. The bitter frustration of pulling an overnighter to fix everyone’s work with zero appreciation is replicated in the workplace, as managers are mostly too busy to pat you on the back for doing your job. Instead, you get rewarded and acknowledged for the most random things, like helping the CEO convert a PDF to a Word document.

Lesson 2. You’re not the smartest person in the room

When you start your career, literally everyone is better than you at everything. So if you find yourself in a group project where your ideas are overshadowed by someone who is smarter or more creative, try to put your ego aside and learn from the experience. Build on their ideas. Ask them to help you. Keep trying. And enjoy being part of creating something that’s better than what you could do alone.

Lesson 3. You’re not the dumbest person in the room

While it can be humbling to learn that there are people more capable and clever than you are, it can also be confidence-boosting to work with people who have no clue what’s going on. You may find the readings confusing, but Jason can’t even work out how to log in to MyStudentAdmin. You might not know how to pronounce Nietzsche’s name, but at least you know he’s not a brand of German skincare, which is more than can be said for Sarah. Take comfort, you’re doing OK.

Lesson 4. You must respect other people’s contribution, even when it sucks

If you’re the type of person who wants to rewrite everyone else’s work at the last minute because it’s not up to scratch, I feel you.

But if you try to do this at work, you will end up at the office ’til midnight every night while your colleagues are at the pub (or, in this WFH era, watching Bridgerton on the couch). You need to learn how to get the desired outcome while respecting, and valuing, others’ efforts.

And it’s not just at work that this skill will come in handy. Whether you’re dealing with a new housemate who wants to deck out your sleek Japandi living room with prayer flags and salt lamps, or your new partner who has proudly cooked you risotto before learning the value of salt, your diplomacy will be put to the test when you least expect it. Practise up!

Lesson 5. Hard work always pays off in the end

It might not be today or tomorrow, this semester or even the next. But at the end of the day, at the end of your degree, everything comes out in the wash. It’s the same in the workplace. If you’re the hard worker who expects nothing less than excellence, your overall marks and career will reflect this. If you have other priorities like family, sport or travel, your efforts will be rewarded in a different way.

And if you’re happily coasting along on the coattails of your group mates thinking nobody has noticed? Everyone knows mate, everyone knows.

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